BRIGHTON

A TEENAGER was raped on Saturday by the driver of what she believed to be a taxi.

At around 11.45pm the 18-year-old woman left Wetherspoons on West Street and walked towards the clocktower.

Outside Sprinkles Gelato she got into what she thought was a taxi and asked to be taken to Hove.

During the drive to the destination, he stopped the vehicle and climbed into the back where he raped her.

He then continued to drive and dropped her near Hangleton Way. She walked to her destination where she raised the alarm and the police were called shortly after midnight.

Detective Constable Dows said: "We are supporting the victim as she is obviously very distressed by what happened but is helping us with the investigation.

"She has described the vehicle as a white and green six seater vehicle, which at the time she believed was a taxi.

"She also described the driver as of Asian appearance, around 40 with black hair and a bit chubby. He was wearing a white shirt with sleeves to his elbow.

"We are open to the fact this might not have been a genuine taxi and we are appealing to anyone who might have seen this vehicle parked near the top of West Street or witnessed similar vehicle acting suspiciously in the Hangleton Way area.

"If you have any information which might help us please come forward."

Anyone with information should call 101 or email 101@sussex.pnn.police.uk quoting serial 33 of November 20.

http://bit.ly/2feOeCd
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Cambridge taxi companies angry at Uber arrival

Local private-hire firms have their concerns about the company’s safety and employment standards, but are confident that they can continue to compete

Private-hire taxi companies in Cambridge have spoken out following the launch of Uber, the controversial vehicle hire service, in the city earlier in November.

Uber has been praised by advocates of the so-called ‘sharing economy,’ which is based on the principle that services should be purchased on an informal basis from peers rather than strict professionals.

But critics of the concept argue that, rather than replacing professional work, it simply reduces wages and ‘casualises’ it, scrapping employment protections and rendering job security more precarious.

Varsity spoke to CamCab, a private-hire company local to Cambridge, about the arrival of Uber in the city. CamCab’s principal concern was for the safety of customers, which it described as “all-important” to them.

They queried whether Uber can enforce its own safety standards, pointing out that six of its drivers were recently convicted in Denmark for violating the country’s taxi laws. Similar cases have been brought in France, Belgium and Germany.

CamCab stressed its own record on the safety of their passengers and particularly of local students. Following the murder of an Anglia Ruskin student by a man masquerading as a taxi driver, they told Varsity, they wished to create a taxi firm which would “make safety the number one priority” and so developed a number of precautions for their own firm.

All of their taxis are black and sport an unremovable sticker bearing their brand on the door, and all of their drivers wear an identifiable uniform. Every CamCab car can be located from their central offices and their entire route traced by computer. The company has also reached out to various JCRs to offer students who find themselves without any money a free ride to safety.

Without identifiable cars and uniforms, they argue, there is no certain way for a customer to confirm the identity of an individual claiming to be an Uber driver.

CamCab also criticised Uber for deciding not to link its fares to the value set by the City Council, as CamCab does. It suggested that Uber’s long-term strategy is “to corner the market in Cambridge” in order to raise its fares in future when competition subsides: “the customer will end up paying for it".

Much of the criticism aimed at Uber has focused on the rights of its drivers. On Tuesday, around one hundred Uber drivers staged a go-slow protest through the city of London to call upon Sadiq Khan, the city’s Mayor, to guarantee them the minimum wage.

Most private-hire companies request a weekly fixed charge from their drivers for the use of their operations; Uber instead claims a 20% cut of its drivers’ total fares, which critics have asserted results in the driver taking home a smaller income than they would working for a traditional firm.

Uber drivers cannot accept cash: their fares are directed electronically straight into Uber’s accounts. They are not kept by the driver, who is instead paid their 80% share subsequently. CamCab argues that this compromises the independence of Uber drivers, whose revenues can thus be monitored by the company.

Nonetheless, CamCab seemed confident that Uber would not seriously damage its custom: they claimed that their superior safety measures would continue to attract passengers. They also believe that the option of pre-booking - which, unlike a traditional private-hire company, Uber does not offer - will keep them competitive.

http://bit.ly/2gGdvWB
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BIRKENHEAD

A paraplegic mum and her husband missed their son’s wedding leaving her ‘crying inside’ after a taxi firm failed to turn up.

Emma Ahmed appealed to people on Facebook at the start of November for a reliable taxi firm with a specialist vehicle that would be able to take her severely disabled mother Carol Cross to Birkenhead Registry Office for the wedding on Friday November 18.

A member of staff from Britannia Taxis messaged Emma privately on November 2 saying the company would be able to cater to her mum’s needs and asking her to give them a call.

Carol, 60, phoned later that day to make the booking and phoned the company again on Thursday November 17 to confirm, but the next day when the time came for her to be picked up for the wedding the taxi didn’t show.

http://bit.ly/2gsvvjZ
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Press Release: Historic minicab driver demonstration to demand Mayor take action to end ‘brutal exploitation’.

In 2014 Uber testified before Val Shawcross – then Chair of the Greater London Assembly and now Deputy Mayor for Transport with responsibility for the licensed taxi and private hire trade - to give their assessment that London’s minicab trade was ‘brutally exploitative’.

Since then matters have gone from bad to worse with private hire drivers working for Uber and other operators having to work up to 90 hours a week just to get by earning £5 per hour or less.

On October 28 Uber lost in a challenge brought by UPHD founders James Farrar and Yaseen Aslam with 19 other drivers to assert their worker rights. These rights provide only the bear minimum protections to drivers so they can be assured of earning the national minimum wage, the right to a holiday and to take rest breaks. Unbelievably, Uber has announced that it would prefer to appeal this judgement than afford its workers even these most basic of rights.

But the Mayor can bring an end to the ‘brutal exploitation’ at the stroke of a pen. In May 2017 Uber’s license to serve London comes up for renewal and national legislation requires the Mayor to certify Uber as 'fit and proper' to continue to be licensed. Unfortunately neither TfL nor the Mayor have yet shown any appetite for doing the right thing by 115,000 licensed drivers in London.

On Tuesday November 22 minicab drivers will stage an historic demonstration to demand the Mayor take action. This is the first time London’s minicab drivers have publicly protested in their cars on the streets of London. Specifically, we are demanding the Mayor:

    Attach worker rights & fair taxation contribution as a ‘fit and proper’ condition of Uber’s license to continue operating in London.
    To set a cap on the number of private hire vehicles in London so as to protect viability of public transport, reduce congestion, improve air quality and to stop the collapse of driver incomes.
    To respect the right of private hire drivers to represent themselves to TfL. Currently 25,000 have recognised representation from 5 separate organisations but 115,000 private hire drivers have been refused their own dedicated representation by TfL.

James Farrar UPHD founder and successful Uber Tribunal claimant said:

    ‘It is clear now that Uber will not voluntarily clean up its act and pay drivers fairly. The Mayor cannot take a laissez faire approach and let this play out in the court for years. It’s time for the Mayor to act now. If he can’t do it for the sake of his licensed drivers then he must do so to protect the safety of the travelling public and to limit the environmental costs of runaway licensing of private hire vehicles in the capital’.

Yaseen Aslam UPHD founder and successful Uber Tribunal claimant said:

    ‘I was deeply disappointed to hear Uber’s testimony in court that TfL had ‘vetted and verified Uber’s business model’.  TfL endorsed an abusive business model that the Judge in our case dammed as ‘faintly ridiculous’ with contracts containing ‘twisted language’. Since we can’t rely on TfL to the right thing we have no choice to take to the streets to demand action from the Mayor.

http://www.uphd.org/press-release-historic-minicab-driver-demonstration-to-demand-mayor-take-action-to-end-brutal-exploitation/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GxKG8tlnKe4&feature=youtu.be