UBER POP banned in Amsterdam

In this review we discuss anything illegal. Drive through UberPOP, the new taxi service in Amsterdam, is officially banned.

The chauffeur at who we have stepped into the car for this article had a fine of 4,200 euro can get. That's the penalty amount the human environment and transport has determined for drivers who engage in unlicensed and UberPOP passengers.

Hardly more expensive than the tram

Nearly 20-minute drive, four kilometres from Amsterdam-West to Central Station, with UberPOP costs 7 euros. A regular taxi charges certainly double. Suddenly as a couple in the car steps hardly more expensive than the tram.

UberPOP is a new service of Uber, the app that drivers and passengers to bringing together outdoor taxi stations. The smartphone app is currently available in 140 cities in the world, including the Hague, Rotterdam and Amsterdam.

Taxi industry and Government opposing

At UberPOP, only in Netherlands in Amsterdam to use, don't you get at a taxi driver but in a private house in the car. UberPOP's another experiment, currently 25 drivers drive around in Amsterdam. The reason: the taxi industry and government organizations oppose violently against the service, concerned about market share and the safety of passengers. Passenger transport In Netherlands is the law soon evaluated and Uber has decided not to wait for this.

Our driver, last week: an independent contractor in home care, which in the evening what earns by with his small, white Hyundai in Amsterdam to pick up customers. The wait time is, for Uber, quite long: 10 minutes. That may also lie to the limited number of drivers.

Our driver comes all the way from Driebergen and Uber also gets another 20 percent of us fare, paid with credit card. It was his first time being delivers the evening and still little on, he says. "I look to."

http://www.nrcq.nl/2014/08/15/uberpop-het-mag-niet-maar-wat-is-het-goedkoop?utm_campaign=rss&utm_source=syndication

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SUNDERLAND

A BENEFIT cheat who swindled more than £23,000 over a 10-year period has been spared jail.

Suzanne Waite started claiming Carer’s Allowance for looking after her parents in 2002, on the basis she had no other income. 
But Sunderland Magistrates’ Court heard that Waite started working as a self-employed taxi driver in 2004. 
The court heard the 51-year-old looked after her elderly parents, who lived in separate houses, while holding down a job taking disabled children to school in her taxi.

She didn’t tell the Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) about her extra income and pleaded guilty to failing to notify the DWP of a change in circumstances and making false statement to 
obtain benefits. 

Stan Sudsworth, prosecuting, said the fraud went on until July 2014, but the money she earned as a driver fluctuated and she would have been entitled to some of the Caring Allowance she was claming had she made the authorities aware. 

Lisa Callum, defending, said Waite, of Townsend Road in Thorney Close, previously had a low-income job while claiming and believed she was still earning under the threshold which would affect her benefits.

She ssaid: “She entered a guilty plea at the first opportunity and is paying the money back as best she can.
“During the investigation and in taking instructions, she has shown considerable remorse for this.”

http://www.sunderlandecho.com/news/crime/benefit-cheat-taxi-driver-spared-jail-over-23-000-swindle-1-6788126
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Bristol taxi drivers speak out as illegal practice continues.

"THE most upsetting thing is that the drivers from outside of Bristol are damaging our reputations by over charging and having such limited knowledge of the city."

Sat in front of me are three taxi drivers who have asked to meet to discuss the continuing issue of private hire cabs from as far a field as Sheffield abusing the system to operate illegally in Bristol, as the Post reported last month.

One of their fears is that any private-hire cab that picks up passengers from the street without a booking is putting themselves and the passengers at risk.

As well as this, they are taking up to £100 a night on weekends from legal "Hackney carriage" and Bristol-based private hire drivers, abusing them if they are confronted about the illegal practice, and are smearing both reputations, the men claim.

None would give their name, not because they didn't believe in their convictions, but because they feared the council may revoke their taxi licence for daring to speak out.

One said: "It puts passengers at risk. They don't know by looking at a cab if they are from Bristol, but unless they have ordered it they are not insured against anything and often they are over-charged because they don't use a taxi meter.

"For instance, a couple of lads were dropped into Bristol by a cab and he charged them £55, which should have been between £35 and £38 – it's a shameful rip off and who gets blamed? Us, that's who. If they had been in our cab they would pay what it says on the meter – simple as that."
http://www.bristolpost.co.uk/Taxi-drivers-speak-illegal-practice-continues/story-22736192-detail/story.html?
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EIRE

TAXI users should be able to afford a proposed 10 to 15pc increase in taxi fares - according to a taxi drivers' union.

The fare hike, which is currently being considered by the The National Transport Authority (NTA), is believed to be worth an extra €50 per week to drivers.

The ongoing review will feature a public consultation process next month and prices could be in place for winter.

"I presume [customers] can afford it if they're using taxis. We're providing a service - it's only fair we get an increase," spokesperson Christy Humphries of National Private Hire and Taxi Association (NPHTA) said.
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EIRE again

Taxpayer faces €400m bill over taxi driver case
The State will be faced with a bill of at least €400m if the High Court rules taxi drivers can be compensated for deregulation.

The potential liability was revealed in a briefing document prepared for new Transport Minister Paschal Donohoe.

More than 1,100 taxi drivers have lodged claims that the value of their taxi plates were wiped out overnight when the sector was deregulated in 2000.

A High Court ruling is currently awaited on three test cases.

In a note marked "confidential", officials warned Mr Donohoe, who became minister last month, that "if established legal principal was to be overturned, the State could be faced with claims in excess of €400m".

The State has not previously revealed how much the cases could cost the taxpayer if the taxi drivers are successful.

The drivers who brought the test cases bought licences valued at IR£80,000 (€101,600) before deregulation.

http://www.independent.ie/irish-news/news/taxpayer-faces-400m-bill-over-taxi-driver-case-30507482.html