TEXAS. Third City to loose Uber over Fingerprints.

Corpus Christi is the third Texas city in six weeks to lose Uber service — and the company pulled out in a dispute over the same issue that Austin residents will vote on in May.

Uber left town effective Sunday, having failed to convince a City Council majority to change its decision to insist that Uber’s drivers submit to and pay for fingerprinting as part of their background checks.

The company made the same decision for the same reason in early February in Galveston and Midland.

In a letter to the Corpus Christi City Council prior to its vote, Sarfraz Maredia, regional general manager for Uber, sounded a familiar refrain.

“The proposed ordinance,” Maredia wrote, “would require drivers to complete unnecessary and duplicative steps that make it difficult for them to earn extra money and hurt our ability to ensure that riders have access to reliable and affordable transportation.”

Elizabeth Hardin, chief of staff for Mayor Nelda Martinez, and council members — including Colleen McIntyre, who voted against the fingerprinting ordinance — did not respond to requests for comment on Tuesday.

In none of the three smaller Texas cities has there been a public outcry over the loss of Uber as loud as the one heard in  Austin. Similar grassroots eruptions in San Antonio, Las Vegas, Nev., and Portland, Ore., caused councils there to rescind their fingerprinting requirements, and ridesharing companies resumed service.

After Austin’s City Council voted in December to insist on fingerprinting, a citizens coalition called Ridesharing Works, with the enthusiastic support of Uber and Lyft, carried out one of the most successful petition drives in city history.

The City Council agreed to put its ridesharing regulation ordinance to a public vote on May 7.

Ridesharing Works volunteers, petition signers and Ellen Troxclair and Robert Zimmerman, the only two council members who voted against the fingerprinting requirement, have charged that the language of the ballot question is opaque and misleading to voters.

As approved by a council majority the questions reads:

“Shall the City Code be amended to repeal City Ordinance No. 20151217-075 related to Transportation Network companies; and replace (it) with an ordinance that would repeal and prohibit required fingerprinting, repeal the requirement to identify the vehicles with a distinctive emblem, repeal the prohibition against loading and unloading passengers in a travel lane, and require other regulations for Transportation Network Companies?”

Late last week, the Texas Supreme Court chose not to consider a request by ridesharing advocate Samantha Phelps of Austin to insert itself into the ballot language question. The court also chose not to comment on any of the details of the writ of mandamus Phelps filed with the court.

After the non-decision, Phelps released a statement through Uber officials. “Austinites who go to the polls on May 7 should know that a vote for Prop One is a vote for different, modern regulations that tens of thousands of Austinites support, which includes mandatory background checks for all drivers,” she said.

Jaime Moore, a spokeswoman for Uber, told Watchdog the ridesharing companies are disappointed, not only in the murky wording, but that there is no explanation that there will continue to be criminal background checks for all drivers, albeit without fingerprinting.

“We’ve heard from many Austinites, including riders and drivers, that the City Council’s ballot language is confusing and does not accurately represent the petition they signed to regulate ridesharing,” Moore said in a statement.  “Austinites are simply asking to restore the tough, fair safety regulations that were built by finding common ground and broad-based consensus in 2014.”

http://watchdog.org/259540/texas-uber/
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 MAIDSTONE

 A bogus taxi driver is facing sentence after he molested a woman in his car while driving her home in the early hours.

Obaydor Rahman constantly touched the victim's leg as he took her from Maidstone to Gravesend.

She left a nightclub after going out with friends in the town. She phoned a local taxi firm to take her home.

When a BMW car pulled up outside Argos in the High Street she gave her name and asked the driver, Obaydor Rahman, if it was a cab for her.

He replied: "Yes, where are you going?" She told him, adding she only had £5 but would pay the rest when they arrived.

Prosecutor Andrew Forsyth said the driver agreed. She got in and sat behind him. He drove towards the A229 but stopped in a layby next the town's library.

"He had been addressing her as 'babe' repeatedly," Mr Forsyth told Maidstone Crown Court. "He turned around and using his left hand grabbed the inside of her right leg behind her knee.

"He rubbed her knee and swept his hand underneath her skirt. She pushed his hand away and told him to get off. He said: 'Don't be like that babe.'

"She told him to get her home. He put his hand on her leg and tried to move it up her skirt. Again, she pushed his hand away.

"The journey continued. He constantly reached back, touching her leg trying to get his hand up her skirt throughout the journey."

The woman directed him to her home address and told him to wait while she went to get the money. She awoke her parents and told them what had happened.

Her father went outside and saw the car parked across the drive. As he approached it drove off. He noted the make and model and took a partial registration number.

It enabled police to trace Rahman, 27, and he was arrested.

Rahman, of Hazlitt Drive, Maidstone, denied impersonating a taxi driver and sexual assault, but was convicted today.

Sentence was adjourned until after April 18. Unconditional bail was continued.

http://goo.gl/EeuWvL
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 MILTON KEYNES

 Mobile taxi app Uber is now operating in Milton Keynes, meaning users of the app can order cars to take them all around the city.

The app BidTaxi has already launched in Milton Keynes as has the taxi app Gett.

Taxi driving in Milton Keynes was a hot topic at last night's Milton Keynes Council cabinet meeting, where the public gallery was packed with taxi drivers, who all seemed unhappy about the proposed increase in their licencing fees.

One public speaker warned that in five years there might not be a taxi industry in Milton Keynes, as an increase in licence fees will cause drivers to quit.

http://goo.gl/xrSxRi
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GATWICK

 A taxi firm boss has been jailed for offering a council contracts officer a "four-figure sum" to stop his company getting penalised.

Muzaffar Hussain, of Station Road, Redhill, asked his friend Saeed Shakir to offer a £500 cash sum with the promise of further payments to the Surrey County Council official.

Hussain, 46, was a director of the Road Runners Gatwick Ltd taxi company, which provided home-to-school transport services for the local authority.

At Croydon Crown Court on Friday (March 11), Hussain was sentenced to three years in prison after pleading guilty to offering a bribe contrary to the Bribery Act 2010.

Shakir, aka Sid Owen, 46, of The Quarry, Betchworth, was jailed for 20 months after pleading guilty to the same offence.

Contract terminated

The court heard problems had arisen with the contract, due to the company not managing a number of the routes satisfactorily, and it was about to be penalised by having these routes taken away.

In December 2013, Shakir arranged a meeting with the council officer, at which he offered him a £500 cash bribe along with a promise of ongoing payments of a four-figure sum, to be negotiated with Hussain.

The council employee reported the matter to his line manager and group manager, who subsequently contacted Surrey Police.

The taxi company's £1m contract with the county council was subsequently terminated.

http://goo.gl/n91qCN

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 GOOLE MAPS add Taxi Services.
 
 When users search for direction in the Maps app, the cost of a taxi journey is shown alongside other options like walking and public transport – as long as the user has the relevant app installed on their phone.

The new providers are 99Taxis in Brazil, Ola Cabs in India, Hailo in the UK and Spain, Mytaxi in Germany and Spain, and Gett in the UK.

In these countries, directions will now show an estimated price and pickup time for each available service, including subdivisions like UberX and UberBlack individually – again, as long as the user already has the apps installed. Once the user has reviewed their options and picked a service, a click will take them directly to the app they’ve chosen to book.

The functionality is rolling out to Android over the next few days, with an iOS version promised ‘very soon’.

http://goo.gl/IClpkF
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 ROTHERHAM

Dozens of taxi drivers in Rotherham have had their licences revoked after tougher regulations were introduced in the wake of the town’s abuse scandal.

A total of 67 drivers were found to be potentially in breach of new ‘fit and proper person’ tests – with around 70 per cent of this group having their licences revoked after case hearings.

A further 171 taxi drivers in the town have had their licences suspended until they complete training sessions on safeguarding children and vulnerable adults.

Details have been revealed in a report by the Government-appointed commissioners who have taken charge of Rotherham Council in the wake of child sexual exploitation scandal.

Professor Alexis Jay’s inquiry in August 2014 – which found that at least 1,400 children had been victims of sexual exploitation over 16 years – had noted the ‘prominent role’ of taxi drivers in such offending.

Louise Casey’s follow-up report for the Government in February 2015 said the ‘well-publicised link between taxis and CSE in Rotherham continues to cast a long shadow over the vast majority of law-abiding drivers who make their living from the taxi trade.’

New licensing rules were approved by Commissioner Mary Ney, despite protests from some drivers, which centred on concerns about ‘ongoing’ plans to put CCTV cameras in every taxi.

Angry drivers said they were being made ‘scapegoats’ for the town’s grooming scandal in a protest outside the Town Hall.

http://goo.gl/Q6OyLm