"Uber Licence in Jepardy, Again!
Last Wednesday, at Westminster Magistrates Court, Uber London Limited, pleaded guilty to two counts of permitting a Private Hire vehicle to be used with no insurance. They also pleaded guilty to two counts of failing to keep records in accordance with the 1998 Private Hire Act.
As you will already be aware, Uber only gained a probationary licence (which expires in September) after convincing the very same court, Westminster, that they had reformed and would abide by a stringent list of conditions imposed by TfL. They have clearly failed to do this.
Uber were hoping that this story would not make it into the public domain, but this morning it will become public knowledge as we feed it into the mainstream media. Their massively well funded PR machine has already swung into action in a preemptive attempt to bring pressure on the Mayor and TfL by selling the possible licence revocation as 'a blow to the millions of Londoners who use Uber'. Crucially these 'leaks' to favoured journalists fail to mention last weeks convictions, nor the £28,000 fines imposed on Uber. A good example of how Uber are spinning it can be read here.
I have written to the Mayor reminding him of his stance on public safety and asking him to, once again, revoke Ubers licence. More detail and a copy of my letter will be in the next edition of Taxi, out tomorrow morning."
Best Regards
Steve McNamara
General Secretary