UBER buys off some bad Press

Uber yesterday announced that Huffington Post Editor in Chief Arianna Huffington would be joining its board of directors, a move that put the site’s reporters in an instant bind. To fight the notion that Huffington Post would somehow take it easy on Uber because of these ties, Huffington’s folks noted that her news operation has churned out various hard-hitting stories on Uber while the announcement was “impending,” as spokeswoman Lena Auerbuch put it.

There was an omission, however.

On April 6, reporter Sarah Digiulio sent a note to some colleagues apprising them of this story in the New York Times: “Uber Driver Napped as His Passenger Led Highway Chase, Police Say.”

An editor replied: “Thanks, Sarah. Let’s hold on this one please as we’re partnering with Uber on our drowsy driving campaign.” That editor is Gregory Beyer, according to two Huffington Post sources and confirmed by spokeswoman Lena Auerbuch. Beyer is listed on the Huffington Post masthead as executive features editor. According to his LinkedIn profile, he formerly served as “senior editor to Arianna Huffington,” and a newsroom source says he’s still a top lieutenant of the boss.

The day before Digiulio’s note, Huffington and Uber chief executive Travis Kalanick jointly published a piece on Huffington Post titled “A Wake-Up Call to End Drowsy Driving.” The piece outlined a partnership among the Huffington Post, Uber and Toyota “to raise awareness of the issue and help save lives.” For this particular venture, Huffington pledged to do some miles. “If you’re interested in a sleep tutorial, order a ride with Uber and you could win a chance to have Arianna ride along with you,” noted the piece. The arrangement was pegged to the launch of Huffington’s book, “The Sleep Revolution: Transforming Your Life, One Night at a Time,” as well as to a college sleep tour for the Huffington Post. The site’s top editor tweeted:

The brush-off received by Digiulio should end any fanciful thinking that somehow a news organization can cover the news with a conflicted boss. According to several sources familiar with these events at the Huffington Post, Huffington was not directly involved in the decision to refrain from aggregating the New York Times story. Someone possibly looking to protect the Uber partnership, however, was standing right over the Huffington Post spike. Yesterday Huffington said she’d stay out of editorial deliberations involving Uber. The email exchange above, however, suggests that extracting her influence will require construction equipment.

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BISHOP STORTFORD

 A traumatised young woman has issued a personal safety warning after she was attacked by a taxi driver in Bishop's Stortford.

The pretty 20-she year-old unwittingly climbed into his cab after a night out with two pals and had to run home after he pounced in the early hours of Saturday morning.

She described her ordeal on Facebook: "Last night, a taxi picked me up and my two friends from Bishop's Stortford town at just past 3am.

"From the outside it looked normal and also had a meter inside. He dropped my two friends off and once we arrived in my road he invited me into the front seat, after I refused he forced his way into the back and attempted to assault me. Luckily I managed to free myself and run to my house."

She warned: "Please, please be aware of any taxis you get into tonight and make sure you only enter a taxi that you booked! Please don't get into any taxi that is waiting outside pubs etc as I do not wish for the same or worse to happen to anyone else!"

Although her warning has been shared more than 2,000 times on the social media site, the Observer has decided not to name her.

She reassured concerned friends and family that she was not physically harmed and that police had taken a statement and swabs.

A spokeswoman for Herts Constabulary confirmed the incident between 3am and 3.30am on April 23.

She said: "A 20 year old woman has got into a vehicle believed to be a taxi with friends outside the Rose and Crown pub in Bishop's Stortford. During the journey, after her friends have already left the vehicle, the driver has pulled up in Dove Close and has grabbed the victim by her head and has attempted to kiss her. She has turned her face away and the man has licked her cheek. The victim got out of the car and ran away from the vehicle."

The suspect is described as Asian, aged between 20 and 39, of slim build, clean shaven and with short black spiked hair.

Anyone who saw anything suspicious in the area or who has any information about the incident should contact Herts Constabulary via the non-emergency number 101, quoting crime reference A2/16/670.

http://goo.gl/htp1Qv
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 STOKE

 A Taxi driver lost his job after he punched a passer-by who told him to move his cab.

Waheed Sadiq left the victim needing stitches following the attack in Stoke.

Sadiq has since had his taxi licence revoked and has now received a suspended prison sentence.

Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court heard Sadiq's taxi was double parked in Glebe Street – blocking one of the two lanes – when a bus stopped alongside him to let passengers off.

This blocked the road, and one of the disembarking bus passengers complained to Sadiq, who then struck the victim in the face.

The single blow caused the man to fall to the ground, and he required stitches to a mouth wound.

Sadiq, of Erskine Street, Dresden, was arrested following the incident which happened on the afternoon of February 7, 2015.

Stoke-on-Trent City Council then revoked his taxi licence, despite his denial of the wounding charge.

Councillor Joy Garner, chairwoman of the licensing and general purposes committee said: "We treat any incidents of this nature extremely seriously. In this instance we moved swiftly to put Sadiq's case before the earliest licensing panel meeting, last June.

"Sadiq's taxi licence was immediately revoked.

"The safety of the public is our number one priority and we will use our powers to take action quickly in the interests of public protection."

Sadiq, who has two previous convictions including an assault by beating, was found guilty last month after a trial.

The 35-year-old is now working at a local restaurant.

Sadiq was sentenced at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court this week where Judge David Fletcher handed him a 12-month prison sentence, suspended for 18 months.

Judge Fletcher said: "You knew you were parked there for longer than you should have been. It's a busy, one way street.

"When the bus stopped it stopped the traffic, that annoyed people. This gentleman spoke to you and you responded by punching him.

"You behaved in a boorish and arrogant manner."

Sadiq – whose wife is about to have a baby – was also ordered to do 220 hours unpaid work, pay £500 compensation to the victim and complete 30 sessions of a rehabilitation activity requirement.

The city has around 1,800 licensed taxi drivers. Any driver who is charged with a crime is required to inform the city council within seven days.

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 TELFORD


A woman pulled the handbrake three times as a taxi driver attempted to drive her to the police station because she had not paid the fare, a court heard.

Rebecca Louisa Spragg was told her actions could have had “disastrous consequences” as Telford Magistrates Court heard the final pull of the handbrake caused the car to completely spin and end up in the middle of the road facing the wrong way.

She also yanked a Bluetooth headset from Rubinder Bal Singh’s ear while he was driving and then pulled his taxi licence card off the windscreen before ripping it into several pieces.

Spragg, 25, of Wildwood in Woodside, Telford, admitted endangering road users by interfering with a motor vehicle and criminal damage when she appeared at court yesterday.

Mr Mike Phillips, prosecuting, said police were on patrol in the early hours of January 7 this year when they came across a silver Toyota Avensis facing the wrong way in the middle of the road in Port Way, Madeley.

“The driver flagged down police officers and told them the defendant had refused to pay the fare,” the prosecutor said.

“He said she had grabbed him by the ear and damaged his bluetooth headset, and had also grabbed hold of his taxi licence from windscreen and snapped it several times.

“The officers were told by Mr Singh that on three occasions the defendant had pulled the handbrake, causing him to lose control of the car.

“The third time was when officers chanced upon the taxi, facing the wrong way.”

Miss Jenni Hancocks, for Spragg, said her client had been in Telford drinking with her sister and a friend.

“On the way home they got a taxi together, but it soon became apparent they didn’t have any cash with them,” she told the court.

“When they got to the house the two of them said they were going in to get some cash, and Miss Spragg stayed in the car to reassure the driver they would not be running off without paying.

“After a couple of minutes the taxi driver told Miss Spragg that he was going to drive her to the police station for non-payment of the fare. She fully accepts causing the damage and pulling the handbrake, and said it was out of frustration. She is fully remorseful for her actions and wants to apologise to the court and the taxi driver.”

Spragg was sentenced to a community order for 12 months to include a two-month curfew banning her from leaving the house between 8pm and 8am. She must also undergo alcohol treatment programmes and was ordered to pay a total of £260 in compensation and court costs.

Mr Arnold England, chairman of the bench, told her: “This could have had disastrous consequences.”

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SYDNEY
 
 Taxis would become more commonplace on Sydney's streets to ensure passengers who book cabs are picked up more quickly, under a controversial proposal by Cabcharge to scrap the cap on plates.

In a call that puts it at odds with the NSW Taxi Council, Cabcharge chief executive Andrew Skelton said the cap on the number of plates meant a "capacity constraint" had been placed on a part of the market to protect licence-plate holders.
"To arbitrarily go, 'right, no more licences for four more years, you can't grow' – I think that's nuts," he told Fairfax Media.

Taxis have to be able to evolve and grow into this massive transport opportunity … not at some contrived pace to protect some licence holders. The taxi industry is not licence holders."

As part of the legalisation of ride-sharing services such as UberX in December, the Baird government placed a four-year freeze on the release of taxi licences in Sydney to "help the industry adjust".

Taxi licence holders have watched the value of their investments in plates plunge since reaching a high of about $430,000 in 2012.
The average transfer value of a taxi licence in Sydney has slumped by 41 per cent to $210,000 over the past year, the latest government figures show.

The state has almost 7300 taxi licence plates, about 5700 of which are in Sydney.
NSW Taxi Council chief executive Roy Wakelin-King said the priority should be to let the market settle before the government considered releasing more taxi licences.

"We are all looking for a strong and viable industry … but we just have to make sure we chart a very careful pathway," he said.

Mr Wakelin-King said the government's recent decision to put a freeze on taxi licences was sensible because a large number had been released in recent years, resulting in an oversupply of cabs.
However, he said the council was open to changes to the number of taxi licences at some point in the future to ensure the industry did not put itself at a disadvantage to competitors.

In December, the government announced payments of $20,000 to owners of taxi licence plates in perpetuity. The one-off payment has been capped at $40,000 for owners of multiple plates.
The compensation package includes a fund of up to $142 million for taxi licensees who face hardship as a result of the changes, and a buyback scheme for perpetual hire-car licences. It is to be funded by a $1 levy on taxi and ride-sharing operators for five years.

A spokesman for Transport Minister Andrew Constance said there was no evidence that the decision to put a stop to new taxi licences for four years was holding back the industry from reform.
"[It] will help stabilise the market for taxi licences, particularly for mum and dad investors," he said.
Facing intense competition from ride-sharing operators and a cut to revenue from fees on card payments for taxis, Cabcharge is eager to highlight its focus on customers and the need for more taxis to ensure passengers are picked up promptly once they book cabs.

It is a similar strategy to ride-sharing companies such as Uber and GoCar, which aim for a critical mass of vehicles at any one time.
Mr Skelton said he wanted the removal of the "artificial limit on the taxi industry's ability to service customers" because it risked losing customers if it did not adapt.
"The less relevant you make taxis, the less value there is in a licence," he said.

Cabcharge, one of the Taxi Council's most influential members, still makes the lion's share of its revenue from the service fees on passengers who pay for taxis with credit or debit cards.
However, the sharemarket-listed company has been hit over the past 18 months by state governments, including NSW, halving the fee it can charge for processing taxi payments to 5 per cent.

The freeze on plates in NSW does not apply to wheelchair-accessible taxi licences.

http://goo.gl/3oY3zc
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WEST NORFOLK

 Council officials may have acted illegally by delisting a West Norfolk taxi testing station, an industry body has claimed.

The warning from the National Private Hire Association (NPHA) is the latest phase of the row over Silena Automotive in Setch.

But West Norfolk Council chiefs have rejected the suggestion, claiming the association has not been given a full picture of the dispute.

Silena Automotive was removed from the council’s accredited list of taxi testing centres last month in the latest phase of a long-running dispute between the authority and the proprietor, Simon Nash.

But, in letters seen by the Lynn News, the NPHA has urged the council to reinstate the site’s accreditation, arguing its decision to withdraw it may be unlawful.

It also claimed the authority was in breach of competition law, by abusing a dominant position, in delisting Silena and criticised the decision to issue penalty points to a taxi driver for allowing a mechanic to drive his licensed vehicle.

Secretary Donna Short said the move to strike off the garage would be illegal if it was connected to the movement of the vehicle in question.

She said: “Mr Nash is doing nothing wrong in law in this regard.

“It would constitute a commercial nonsense if every mechanic and vehicle tester connected with garages – or indeed personnel collecting vehicles from these facilities – had to hold a taxi licence.”

But the council’s chief executive, Ray Harding, replied: “I do not believe that we are at odds in our interpretation of the legislation.”

He also claimed the NPHA had not been made aware of the full facts of the matter, alleging that the person who drove the taxi at the centre of the points row was neither approved to undertake taxi tests nor employed by an approved business.

Mr Harding also claimed the decision to remove Silena Automotive from its list of test centres was not related to the licensing issue but to Mr Nash’s conduct towards council officers.

He said that had made it “impossible for the council to continue Silena Autos’ relationship with us as an approved testing station.”

Mr Nash claims the council has failed to comply with its own codes of practice.

http://goo.gl/Q0ULmV
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HOUSTON - Uber's threat to stop service in Houston because of strict rules imposed by the city has Uber drivers concerned.
On Thursday, top city leaders are speaking out on this issue, while staff say fewer potential drivers are showing up at the processing center. Many are uncertain if that job will even be here after Uber threatens to leave.
"Murder, sexual assault, assault and battery," just a few of the items Lara Cottingham says the city's fingerprint background checks caught on the criminal records of potential drivers that Uber's background checks had already cleared.
The head of Houston's police officers union is one of several city leaders siding with Mayor Sylvester Turner the day after he drew a firm line in the sand on keeping the city's current background check system in place. "If they don't have the fingerprints, then I cannot possibly support them staying here," said Michael Kubosh, City Council member.
Uber called Houston's rules some of the toughest in the country, claiming it takes an average of four months for new drivers to sign up, which the city disputes.
Uber claims that the current rules have discouraged around 20,000 drivers from signing up, in a city where they say demand for drivers is far outpacing supply.
Many drivers hope after a seemingly never-ending battle, the two sides can work something out.

http://goo.gl/QFX6rn