BELFAST

Controversial multi-billion dollar mobile US taxi-booking app Uber is eyeing up Belfast as one of its next targets.

And it's likely to face stiff competition from Northern Ireland's two big taxi firms - Value Cabs and FonaCab.

In an interview with the Belfast Telegraph, Jo Bertram - Uber's general manager for the UK and Ireland - said: "We'd definitely love to come to Belfast one of these days." 

It aims to be in every major city in Europe in the next couple of years.

Uber is a taxi-booking app for mobile phones which allows customers to locate the nearest cab using GPS, before dispatching it.

The service currently operates in Dublin and across the UK, with drivers signing up to work for the company, providing their personal information and completing a criminal record check.
They can then choose their own hours, with Uber taking 20% of the total fare.

It's already in most major cities in the UK, and its global business is now valued at £26bn.

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/business/news/uber-taxi-app-giant-to-shake-up-cab-industry-in-belfast-30923939.html

Comment: Belfast looks like it has considerable problems in store this year. The news from Uber is bad enough, but, in June the proposed single tier license is supposed to commence. The proposed single Tier system in Belfast is regarded by some, myself included, as a trial for the rest of the UK.

The single Tier license would mean PH cars can ply for hire outside the inner core of Belfast City Centre. The Uber move would mean that their cars would be able to do similar

http://www.belfasttelegraph.co.uk/news/local-national/northern-ireland/shakeup-of-taxi-licence-regulations-delayed-until-june-30800262.html
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GLASGOW

A SEX pest taxi driver terrified women by locking them in his cab, a court was told.
Michael Boyd, 33, gave up his licence after complaints about his creepy conduct.
But he then lied to get a licence for a neighbouring area – where he continued to prey on his female passengers.

He leered at women and sat outside their houses for as long as half an hour after dropping them off.
And some passengers believed he had been performing a sex act on himself shortly before they got into his vehicle.

Boyd is awaiting sentence next month at Paisley Sheriff Court after admitting placing passengers in a state of fear or alarm and lying on his licence application.

He gave up his East Ayrshire licence in 2013 but when he applied to East Renfrewshire last year he avoided the complaints against him being detected by saying he had never held a permit before.
The court was told Boyd picked up a woman from a party in Neilston, Renfrewshire, in the early hours of last June 28.

Pamela Flynn, prosecuting, said he told the woman she had “nice boobs”.
She went on: “The witness was shocked and felt it was inappropriate.

“The accused carried on into comments about her being out of his league but he just wanted to have sex with her. He repeated himself, asking why he couldn’t get a girlfriend. She noted the doors were locked and that he was driving on a back road.”

The victim was so scared for her safety that she texted and phoned her brother and got Boyd to go and pick up her boyfriend.

A week earlier, Boyd, from Kilmarnock, leered over another woman he took to her home in Barrhead.

Flynn said: “When he dropped her off he asked her if she would go out with him. She refused, saying she had a boyfriend.

“The witness noted he drove to the end of the street, turned his vehicle around and sat outside her home for a further 30 minutes, which added to her concerns about the accused’s behaviour.”
In March last year, he locked another woman in the back of his cab after picking her up in Glasgow city centre.

He began ranting at her, quizzing her on why she was still single.

Flynn told Sheriff David Pender: “She was very aware of the accused looking her up and down, which made her feel uncomfortable.

“He went into a rant, saying he was 31 and had never had a girlfriend. He then harassed her about whether she would date him or set him up.”

In April last year, Flynn said, Boyd left a couple feeling uneasy after picking them up at a flat in Glasgow’s Dennistoun area to take them back to Paisley.

Flynn said: “Both witnesses were extremely concerned that the driver’s seat was quite far back, to the extent that the girl in the back had to sit side on.

“They also noted the accused appeared to be really fidgety and nervous. They formed the view that he had been masturbating shortly before they got in.”

The couple decided to leave the car but the doors were locked.

After they argued with Boyd about it, he stopped the vehicle and let them out, not bothering to ask them for any money towards the fare.

Boyd was working as a taxi driver in his home town in 2013 before giving up his licence and went on to work the Glasgow area with his East Renfrewshire permit.

Sheriff Pender ordered him to be assessed by social workers and a group who work with sex offenders.

http://www.dailyrecord.co.uk/news/scottish-news/sex-pest-taxi-driver-preyed-5013562