Uber.com Query?

[cleoval]

Hi I have signed up to Uber.com as a passenger but I do not know how you book your first ride.it will be my first time.Can you pay the driver cash.? And how does the driver contact you and how do you contact the driver.? Can u all recommend Uber and r they cheaper than normal taxis please.? Thanks.

[RATTER15]

Uber drivers Australia... https://www.uber.com/au/en/drive/requirements/

[237SJ]

I remember one night I was coming back from the suburbs of Sydney, back to my hotel in the city. Uber didn't exist then. Drivers in Sydney don't take any prisoners and my taxi driver got into an altercation at the traffic lights with another driver. So I was sitting in the back of the cab and my driver got out of the car, punched the lights out of the other driver, got back in the cab and said "Sorry about that" and we continued on our way. Only in Australia..

[New Judge]

//What I don't like about Uber is that any old Tom Dick and Harry can drive an Uber. Just give them the post code and they are away. No Knowledge, regulation whatsoever.//

I don't know about Sydney, but in London the only taxi drivers that are required to pass "The Knowledge" test are those operating under a Hackney Carriage licence (aka "black cabs"). There is no Knowledge test for private hire (PH) drivers and Uber drivers are no different to ordinary PH drivers. Transport for London (TfL) regulates PH operators, drivers and their vehicles. Uber is an operator and is regulated in the same way as conventional "minicab" operators. No PH drivers can "ply for hire" and journeys must be booked in advance. For information TfL has recently revoked Uber's operator's licence in London (for the second time). It is operating at the moment pending an appeal against that decision.

I believe the difference between PH operations and Hackney Carriages is similar in other cities in England & Wales. Birmingham did have a rudimentary (compared to London) Knowledge test for its PH drivers but that was replaced by a far simpler test involving map reading in 2016.

[JimF]

Uber drivers don't need the knowledge - they have GPS devices in their cars which has calculated the most efficient route before they've even picked the customer up.

[New Judge]

//Uber drivers don't need the knowledge - they have GPS devices in their cars which has calculated the most efficient route before they've even picked the customer up.//

I agree up to a point, Jim. And that point is Central London. SatNavs are all well and good in most situations. In Central London they very often simply don't work. They don't take account of temporary road closures, ceremonial events, regular congestion, demonstrations and so on. Black cab drivers do.

That said, don't get me wrong - I hold no brief for Black Cab drivers. They are extremely expensive and drivers can - despite the conditions of their licence - be very inflexible if the journey does not suit them. I don't often use a cab in central London. I know my way around very well on foot and by all methods of public transport and generally don't need a cab. But on the rare occasions that I do, it will be a Black Cab for me. But when I'm out in "the sticks" (which for me is roughly outside the North/South circulars) Uber works fine as do many of the conventional PH cab companies that I use.