New York taxi owners and the lenders behind some of them are suing New York City and its Taxi and Limousine Commission, saying the proliferation of Uber is destroying their businesses and threatening their livelihoods.

 Uber’s carefully constructed public policy is designed to skirt regulations – so the person behind the wheel of your car is a ‘partner’ or even a ‘customer’

The lawsuit filed in Manhattan federal court accuses the defendants of violating yellow cab drivers’ exclusive right to pick up passengers on the street by letting Uber drivers pick up millions of passengers who use smartphones to hail rides.

According to the complaint, the number of Uber rides in the “core” of Manhattan increased by 3.82 million from April to June 2015 compared with a year earlier, while medallion cab pickups fell by 3.83 million.

They said this had driven down the value of medallions, which yellow cab drivers need to operate, by 40% from a peak exceeding $1m and caused more defaults. The Uber drivers, meanwhile, face fewer regulatory burdens.

The complaint says Uber’s rise contributed to the 22 July bankruptcy of 22 companies run by taxi magnate Evgeny Freidman, and the state’s 18 September seizure of Montauk Credit Union, which specialized in medallion loans, the complaint said.

“Defendants’ deliberate evisceration of medallion taxicab hail exclusivity, and their ongoing arbitrary, disparate regulatory treatment of the medallion taxicab industry, has and continues to inflict catastrophic harm on this once iconic industry, and the tens of thousands of hardworking men and women that depend on it for their livelihood,” the complaint says.

The Taxi and Limousine Commission referred requests for comment to the city’s law department. Nick Paolucci, a spokesman there, said the city would review the complaint.

Plaintiffs include the Melrose, Progressive and Lomto Federal credit unions, which said they have made more than 4,600 medallion loans worth over $2.4bn.

Other plaintiffs include individual medallion owners, as well as the Taxi Medallion Owner Driver Association Inc and League of Mutual Taxi Owners Inc, which said that together they represent about 4,000 medallion owners.

The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, including for alleged violations of cab drivers’ property and equal protection rights under the US constitution.

It also seeks to ease cab drivers’ regulatory burdens, including a requirement that half of their cabs be accessible to disabled people by 2020.

In September a state judge in Queens county dismissed a lawsuit by the credit union seeking to stop the city from supporting Uber’s expansion.

http://goo.gl/yfFdiI
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 Canada

 Airport cabbies and their union have been ordered to pay $11,000 to the Ottawa International Airport, but a judge refused to bill a taxi rep who was caught lying to the court.

In a written decision released Tuesday, Justice Robert Beaudoin chastised Unifor rep Harry Ghadban for providing misinformation about taking decibel readings during taxi protests at the airport. Ghadban said in an affidavit that he took noise readings, but the airport's video surveillance showed no evidence of it.

The union wanted permission to make more noise during the ongoing protests.

The request kickstarted a back-and-forth in court between the taxi union and airport over the judge's injunction order, which laid out rules about noise and the location of protesters at the airport.

The judge said the union tried, unsuccessfully, to take advantage of an "ambiguity" in his ruling. The airport asked the judge to make Ghadban personally liable for some of the airport's legal expenses.

The judge couldn't let Ghadban go without a slap on the wrist.

"While this may have been an appropriate case to award a portion of the costs against Mr. Ghadban personally, I decline to do so in this instance," the judge wrote. "Unifor will have to bear the consequences of the actions of one of its representatives."

The judge also added to the award $1,790 in legal disbursements claimed by the airport.

The labour dispute between airport taxi drivers and their dispatcher, Conventry Connections, started in August. The cabbies are upset their fees to pick up passengers at the airport more than doubled after Coventry and the airport struck a new deal.

http://www.ottawasun.com/2015/11/17/judge-rips-taxi-rep-in-airport-dispute
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LEICESTER, Two tales of one City

Firstly Monday Night  

 The RMT has called off tonight's 'go slow' taxi drivers' protest drive around in Leicester.

The union had threatened to cause rush hour congestion as it did on Friday when around 200 drivers filed along in a slow moving convoy down London Road and into the city centre.

http://goo.gl/w37GUo

Secondly last night.

 Taxi-ordering app Uber is expected to launch in Leicester in the near future, the Mercury has learned.

The city council has confirmed it has granted Uber permission to operate here but says the company has yet to attach any drivers to its licence.

Uber itself has told the Mercury it plans to set up in Leicester but not said exactly when.

The California-based company is already operating in other UK cities, including London, Nottingham and Newcastle, but its cheap prices have made it unpopular with the traditional taxi trade.

    Uber customers hail cabs using their smartphones and pay automatically on arriving at their destination with a credit or debit card.

No cash changes hands.

The app uses GPS technology to locate available Uber drivers near the customers and send them to pick them up.

Drivers sign up as independent contractors and Uber takes a share of their fares.

It is understood Uber is currently recruiting cabbies in the city and looking to open an office near the railway station.

It is understood a number of city-based private hire car firms unsuccessfully opposed Uber's application to set up here.

The Leicester RMT branch represents hackney cab drivers in the city.

Branch secretary Umar Khan said: "This will affect all drivers in the city but we think the public will always want to use the hackney carriages so it will have a bigger impact on the private hire trade.

"Uber will be cheaper but you might end up getting drivers from Birmingham being sent here driving people around without any local knowledge.

"It is a concern."

Private hire firm ADT Taxis operates in Leicester, Loughborough and Coalville and spokesman David Hunter said: "We have, over the last two years, been preparing for the day when Uber reaches Leicester, and have spent hundreds of thousands of pounds developing our own GPS App.

"We believe it is better than Uber's.

"We also offer fixed prices, and customers are able to hail taxis, pre book, track the taxis, and also pay by card or cash.

"We also have some one at the end of the telephone with knowledge of the local area, whom is there to help."

An Uber spokesperson said: "We look forward to offering a safe, reliable and affordable choice for people in Leicester.

"Uber has been licensed as an operator by more than 30 city councils across the UK and we are excited about being able to connect riders with licensed, private-hire drivers at the touch of a button.

Earlier this year The High Court in London was asked to decide whether the Uber drivers' smartphones were considered to be taximeters, which are outlawed for private hire vehicles.

It followed concerns raised by the traditional taxi trade and Transport for London.

A judge however ruled the phones did not work like meters in a decision hailed as victory by Uber.

http://goo.gl/FkSrFs