Uberk split the UK into their Interpretation of what Licensing in the UK should really mean.

( Arrogant Barstewards)

https://www.uber.com/en-GB/blog/changes-to-where-drivers-can-receive-trips/

A statement from the Brighton Unite Branch highlights Uberk's attempt at a "whitewash"

Splitting the UK in to 'REGIONS' which will still mean that a Portsmouth.. Southampton... Havant.. Chichester... and any vehicle with the 'South East REGION' will continue to work in Brighton & Hove although we will no longer see Wolverhampton/Sefton cars working in Brighton.

At the moment there is no specific details on how big this 'Region' is and Uber has be very vague in providing full details.

It appears that TfL PH will be restricted to London only so all the TfL ph drivers who live in Brighton and predominantly work in the city because they either failed the high standards that the city requires or who just could not be bothered to even attempt to go for a B&H licence will not only be able to work in London... so it seems.

The upshot of this is that all of those TfL drivers who obtain TfL licences over the last few years but have never actually worked London will have to head back to London.. and we have been told this figure by Uber is 40,000.... so good luck to all of those who hope to earn a decent wage with decent hours!

The question is why has Uber suddenly taken this change in direction? Is there something that Uber knows will be happening in the future with regard to Cross border Hiring? Uber has not done this as a favour.. this is not how Uber works.

In the bumf uber has put out it states
“Some local authorities – the people that give us our operator licence – have told us that the way the app works can make it hard for them to do their job. One way the app can be difficult for them is by overseeing what private hire drivers are doing in their jurisdiction. We hope that this change will help to make us a better and more responsible presence in cities.”

So is this a case of Uber becoming scared of what the Local Government Association has been pushing for and Uber is trying to act quickly before there is a change in Legislation to actually try and stop any drastic changes.

Is Uber saying to itself:

”We must look like we are changing the way we work to ensure there are no changes to Legislation that will completely stop the way we work!”

However this does not go far enough and this is only to appease local licensing authorities because it doesn’t matter whether a ph is working predominantly in Brighton & Hove from over 250 miles away or just 50... the fact is that Uber is still encouraging PHV's to predominantly work in areas that they are not licensed in.

This announcement should not make people think it is all over as it certainly is not.

What Uber should have stated was:
“From March 14 2018 you will only receive work from the area that you are licensed in”

Do not be fooled by Uber!

The fight goes on to fully change Legislation!

Andrew Peters
Secretary
GMB Brighton & Hove Taxi Section
-----------------------------------------

Further Comment from Leeds.

Hi Les,
Hope you are in good health and keep up the good work.

Uber are offering driver's £1,000 to help them obtain a licence in another area of there choice where they wish to work but the condition is that it will be paid after you complete 250 trips.

In Leeds they are telling drivers if they are licensed by an authority based Yorkshire they can basically work anywhere in Yorkshire. This means that they will go to the less demanding authority within Yorkshire region to obtain the licence.

The good thing is that Leeds, kirklees, Wakefield, Bradford, Harrogate and York (known as the Combined Authorities) have more or less finalised a delegated power sharing agreement meaning any of the authorised officers can stop and check a vehicle from each others area.

Furthermore they are also trying to standardise all the livery, byelaws and driver training standards.
Progress is slow but changes will happen.

I have attached some screen shots about the information uber are giving their drivers or should I say partners. (may not be in order)

Kind regards,
-----------------------------------------

Comment from London:

Good news for you in Manchester as Uber change their MO but here in London  it’s bad news. Lyft are in talks with TfL and Uber looks set to get its licence renewed without going to court. 

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Their will no doubt be several updates over the next few days

 LONDON

A taxi driver has died after a drive-by shooting, which saw suspects approach him in a van before firing shots at the victim.

The Metropolitan Police has said it needs "any fragment of information" about the incident in Barnet in which a 41-year-old man was killed.

Police were called at 11.44pm on Monday (February 12) to Mount Pleasant, at the junction with Edgeworth Road, to reports of shots having been fired.

Officers, including a specialist firearms team, attended the scene and found the man having suffered gunshot wounds.

But despite the best efforts of London Ambulance Service and London's Air Ambulance medics, he was pronounced dead at the scene at 12.15am.

'Number of leads'

Detective Chief Inspector Noel McHugh from the Met's Homicide and Major Crime Command said: "Our investigation is in its early stages but already we are pursuing a number of leads.

"We believe the victim was driving a silver Mercedes, which he had been using in his work as a taxi driver.

"He was approached by the occupants of a blue van; a number of suspects then got out and fired at the victim, who had also got out of his vehicle."

DCI McHugh added: "The suspects then got back into the vehicle and fled the scene in the direction of Edgeworth Road, turning right into Park Road.

"It is critical that we hear from anyone who witnessed this incident; any fragment of information could be vital to our investigation. Please do not assume that we already have your information."

The victim's next of kin have been informed but the man has not yet been formally identified.

A crime scene remains in place, with some limited local road closures remaining. Motorists are advised to avoid the area.

No arrests have been made since the incident, a post mortem examination will take place in due course.

http://bit.ly/2o6RelL 

NEXT WEEK IN THE LORDS

The Electrifying Speed (pardon the Pun) this bill is passing through Parliament means it must had serious Government support

A PDF version of the Bill can be found here.

https://publications.parliament.uk/pa/bills/lbill/2017-2019/0082/18082.pdf 

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Plymouth cabbies could be indefinitely banned from wearing jeans, football tops, hoodies and trainers - in a bid to “enhance the professionalism" of the trade.

A new dress code forms part of the new Hackney Carriage and Private Hire Licensing Policy hoped to be brought in by Plymouth City Council, which sets out a number changes to be adopted by the city’s taxi drivers.

The changes have already been debated by a committee, and they're going forward to the council's ruling cabinet at a meeting being held from 4pm today for further discussion before a final decision is made.

And it could mean an end to taxi drivers wearing what they like to work.

As a 'minimum standard', drivers would be expected to wear collared shirts, collared polo shirts or collared blouses which have a full body and short or long sleeves as well as smart long legged trousers (no denim), knee length tailored shorts, knee length skirts or dresses.

https://www.plymouthherald.co.uk/news/plymouth-news/ban-jeans-english-tests-taxi-1203852

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A taxi driver in Grimsby had his licence revoked after he carried on smoking in his car despite multiple warnings.

Smoke-free legislation introduced in 2007 requires all vehicles used to transport members of the public are to be smoke-free at all times.

All taxi drivers must comply with this legislation and not smoke in their vehicles at any time – including the use of e-cigarettes.

If a licensed driver is seen smoking in their vehicle they are given a written warning on the first occasion.

If a licensed driver is witnessed again, they can have their licence suspended or revoked if they continue to repeat the offence.

North East Lincolnshire revoked the driver’s licence after giving him a number of warnings and suspensions.

The driver, Raymond Robinson, 66, of Hainton Avenue, Grimsby, appeared before Grimsby Magistrates’ Court to appeal the decision but the Magistrates upheld the committee’s decision and agreed the revocation of his licence should stand.

The case comes after a campaign to keep taxis in North East Lincolnshire smoke free had seen the number of warnings issued fall by more than half in only two years.

Cllr Gaynor Rogers, chair of the North East Lincolnshire Hackney Carriage Sub Committee, said: “We care about the health of taxi passengers and want them to have a journey of the highest standard.

“The majority of licensed taxi drivers in North East Lincolnshire are committed to giving their customers a first class service, but in this instance the driver failed to meet the standards expected of them.

“We’ve made it clear to all drivers that smoking in their vehicles is not acceptable and I’m pleased the Magistrates have backed our decision and revoked the driver’s licence.”

https://lincolnshirereporter.co.uk/2018/02/council-bans-taxi-driver-smoking-car/

---------------------------------------------

NOTTINGHAM

A man was stabbed in the face while trying to stop a group of men from stealing a taxi.

Six men got into a taxi at TST Tyres in Hartley Road, Radford, and threatened the driver with a knife. A man who was working at the premises approached them and was slashed to the face.

It happened at about 9.10am on Sunday 11 February 2018.

The injured man was taken to hospital and has since been discharged.

http://bit.ly/2EEJcLe

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ROTHERHAM

A taxi driver who raped a teenage grooming victim has been jailed for nine years.

Ashgar Bostan, 47, raped the girl twice at a flat in Wagon Road, Rotherham, when she was about 14 or 15-years-old.

Sheffield Crown Court heard the girl had been groomed by a woman who lived at the flat and was given alcohol and drugs before she was assaulted.

Bostan of East Bawtry Road, Rotherham, was convicted by a jury of two counts of rape by a majority of 11 to one.

The court heard the victim had been "groomed and manipulated" by a woman called Shafina Ali who was living at the flat in Wagon Road.

The girl said both times she was raped by Bostan she had been given alcohol and drugs and that afterwards he had gone to talk to Ali - who died in 2009 - before leaving.

In statement read to the court on behalf of the victim she said her childhood and teenage years had been "destroyed" by Bostan.

She said: "I often wonder what my life would have been like if I had finished my education, gone on to college and become the teacher I had always dreamed of being.

"I might have had a loving family, husband and children and not have to stay awake every night unable to sleep because of the damage done to me."

http://bbc.in/2sqQj5d

Uber has won a legal battle in France over the employment status of one of its drivers after a labour tribunal said the ride hailing app was “in the business of intermediation and not that of a transportation service” and therefore did not act as an employer.

The decision from the industrial tribunal highlights the complexity of defining and regulating the service even after Europe’s top court said in December it should be treated as a traditional taxi company instead of a technology group.

On Thursday the French tribunal ruled in favour of Uber against a driver, Florian Menard, who argued he was not self-employed and that his service contract with the company should be reclassified as an employment contract. He argued for compensation in lieu of paid holidays and “concealed work”.

The tribunal said Mr Menard had been free to drive the hours he chose and to refuse trips. “The tribunal holds that the parties are bound by no employment contract and that this is in fact a commercial contract concluded between Mr Menard and Uber,” the ruling said. Mr Menard has one month to appeal.

Uber has faced widespread protests in France over working conditions and low pay. Protests have also swept the UK where Uber lost a key legal appeal in November after a London tribunal upheld a ruling that it must treat drivers as “workers” entitled to the minimum wage and holiday pay.

source : FT.

Knowsley Council’s ‘Intended UsePolicy’ is unlawful.

Delta Taxis wins battle to operate throughout Merseyside.

The High Court has ruled that an ‘intended use policy’ requiring Private Hire Drivers to work “predominantly” in the  area of the Knowsley licensing authority is unlawful.

Knowsley Borough Council had amended its Private Hire Vehicle Driver’s Policy so as to require applicants for PHV drivers licences to sign an undertaking that they would work predominantly within the Knowsley controlled district.

The policy created a presumption of refusal of a PHV driver’s licence to any applicant who did not demonstrate a bona fide intention so to work.

Kerr J quashed the policy as unlawful on the ground that section 51 of the LGMPA 1976 provides that a driver’s licence “shall” be granted to an applicant who is a fit and proper person and has held an RTA driving licence for at least a year. Where he ultimately drives is immaterial.

It is well established that, provided vehicles and drivers used to fulfil a PHV booking are licensed by the same authority as licensed the operator, the actual journey undertaken may lawfully pass through, or may even begin and end in, an area wholly unconnected with the licensing authority.

Knowsley council nonetheless sought to persuade the High Court that an applicant who had little or no intention of working within its boundaries was not a fit and proper person within the terms of section 51, because he would be undermining a principle of “local licensing” that has been recognised as central to the private hire regime provided by the 1976 Act.

The judge rejected Knowsley’s submission as contrary to the decided cases on the meaning of “fit and proper person” within that section (McCool v Rushcliffe (1998) and Leeds City Council v Hussain (2002)), namely, that the ‘fit and proper’ criterion relates to the personal characteristics and qualifications of the driver.

Generic licence

The judge agreed with Delta’s submission that a PHV driver’s licence is generic in nature – i.e. it is a licence to drive private hire vehicles generally, rather than to drive a specific vehicle.*

It follows that the enquiry made by a licensing authority as to an applicant’s fitness and propriety is an enquiry restricted to his fitness to drive private hire vehicles in general. The locations in which a PHV driver might lawfully work are not relevant to that enquiry.

Other grounds

Once the ‘intended use policy’ was held to be unlawful, it was not necessary for the Court to rule on the other grounds of appeal raised by Delta. The judge, however, indicated (without ruling on the point) that it was strongly arguable that the policy was a disproportionate measure to meet the council’s expressed aims of vehicle/public safety; but he remarked that he was yet to be persuaded that the intended use policy was so uncertain of meaning as to be unenforceable

Judicial review brought by Uber Britannia limited
A judicial review of the ‘intended use policy’, brought by Uber  on overlapping but by no means identical grounds, was heard at the same time as Delta’s appeal, and was equally successful in its principal arguments.

Licence conditions: geographical considerations?

Although Delta and Uber were ad idem with regards to their primary contention that Knowsley’s intended use policy was ultra vires, the two firms parted company on one potentially important issue  – which, although it was academic in the instant case, the judge said might arise for decision in future litigation.

The issue surfaced in oral argument, which tested the limits of whether it would be lawful to import geographical considerations into PHV licence conditions.

Delta accepted that an appropriately worded condition which promotes the principle of local PHV licensing (as identified  by the courts) is capable of being lawful; Uber, on the other hand, argued that such a condition would in all cases offend the principle in Padfield because it would curtail the ‘right to roam’ – which, it was Uber’s contention, is fundamental to the legislative scheme for private hire vehicles given by the 1976 Act.

Mr. Justice Kerr expressly demurred from deciding the point, but towards the end of his judgment he commented that he was “fortified” by what he had heard in thinking that a fit and proper person might, in principle, be required to abide by a condition (otherwise lawful) imposed in order to meet any perceived erosion of localism.
 
Gerald Gouriet QC and Charles Streeten appeared for Delta Merseyside Limited

Instructed by Keith McKinney of Aaron & Partners LLP


http://licensing-lawyer.co.uk/knowsley-intended-use-policy/

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A 24-year-old Uber driver stopped and searched by cops was found with a “lethal” lock knife “precariously clenched in between his buttocks”.

Police pulled over Kareem Worthington of Providence Court, Islington, after he was spotted driving his silver Mercedes “erratically” in New North Road yesterday afternoon.

Worthington appeared “nervous and agitated”, and when cops saw some white powder which they believed could be a controlled substance, they took him to Stoke Newington Police Station.

During a strip search officers noticed “something coming out of his backside”.

“It was the knife,” said Det Insp Paul Ridley.
“I’ve come across knives concealed and stored everywhere, but never before behind someone’s backside, it’s ridiculous.”

Worthington told police he keeps the knife in his car all the time, and when cops pulled him over he decided to hide it.

He appeared before Thames Magistrates Court today and pleaded guilty to possession of an offensive weapon.

He was immediately sentenced to six months imprisonment.

Worthington was convicted for possession of a bladed article in 2011 and 2012, and was imprisoned for affray in 2014.

Two other men were found with knives during stop and searches by police in Hackney yesterday.

“That’s the scale of what we are dealing with,” said Det Insp Ridley.

“That’s why it’s so crucial we continue stopping and searching people. There are lots of people out there who are carrying knives.”

http://bit.ly/2nNW9ZB
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Prague taxi drivers staged their biggest protest so far in the centre of the city against what they describe as unfair competition from drivers using Uber and other similar applications.

An estimated 1,500 to 2,000 drivers congregated on the edge of the city on Thursday morning with the aim to stage a go slow snail protest in the centre in the early afternoon. The protest ended around the middle of the afternoon.

Minister of Transport Dan Ťok condemned the protest and said he would not meet protest leaders before an already agreed date later in the month.

The latest protest is part of a series undertaken by so-called official drivers who have to pay the city for their licenses and obey other rules. They say competition from unofficial drivers is undercutting their business.

The drivers have been pressing city and national authorities to put both types of taxi drivers on the same footing.


http://bit.ly/2sgJmnl   

BOURNEMOUTH

A TAXI driver who attacked his "vulnerable" female passengers has been jailed.

During a campaign of violence carried out over a week, Anthony 'Tony' Rees grabbed one woman by the throat and shoved her to the ground, and dragged another victim from his taxi.
Two other women were verbally abused by the 60-year-old.

The Daily Echo reported an investigation was underway after the incidents, all of which took place in October last year.

Rees, of Cleveland Road in Bournemouth, was sentenced to four months in prison after admitting two counts of assault and one of using threatening, abusive or insulting words or behaviour at Poole Magistrates' Court on January 30.

Magistrates said his victims were "vulnerable" and he was in a "position of trust" at the time of the attacks.

The first incident took place on October 8 in Alma Road when passengers Charlotte Ball and Evie Harrison were verbally abused. The women said Rees was "screaming and swearing and threatening" them.

On October 11, he assaulted Eimear O'Sullivan in St Catherine's Road, Bournemouth after she took a taxi from Bournemouth train station. He grabbed her by the throat and neck and shoved her, causing her to fall and hit her head.

She suffered bruising to her lower back, chest, ankle and arm during the assault.

On October 14, he attacked Josie Hagan in Abbott Road, Bournemouth, dragging her from his taxi. Ms Hagan suffered grazing to her knees and elbows.

A friend of one of the victims took to Facebook to warn others about the driver, posting images of the independent hackney carriage's licence plate number.

The post was then shared almost 1,000 times, and more than 150 people - including Ms O'Sullivan and Ms Ball - commented on it.

Sergeant Gareth Gosling, of Bournemouth police, said: “Anthony Rees’ violent behaviour was targeted at young women who were in a vulnerable position as passengers in his taxi.

“We carried out a detailed investigation into these matters and the taxi licensing authority, Bournemouth Borough Council, was informed so it could take appropriate action.

“I hope this case demonstrates that we will take action following reports of this nature.”
Nananka Randle, Bournemouth council’s licensing team manager, said the council was contacted by police on October 20.

"The decision was made to revoke his license with immediate effect following consultation with three members of the licensing board," she said.

Applicants are required to present an enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service (DBS) certificate on application. Licensed drivers have to submit an enhanced DBS every three years.

Rees was also ordered to pay a total of £300 in compensation, as well as costs.

http://bit.ly/2BM68HA 

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Almost 1,100 taxis in Wakefield - around 90 per cent of the entire fleet - face being taken off the city’s roads after councillors agreed to toughen up on emission levels.

Wakefield Council’s licensing committee has agreed that all diesel cabs must come under the lowest pollutant category available - known as the Euro Six standard - for which only vehicles manufactured after September 2016 will qualify.

With diesels making up 1,158 of the 1,228 licensed cars and minibuses operating, the majority are already older than two years and would not be permitted to operate from the city.

Five other cities in the UK, including Leeds, are being forced to introduce congestion charges and Euro Six standards to combat high levels of pollution.

However, Wakefield is not included, and the Wakefield District Private Hire and Hackney Carriage Association, which represents drivers, is questioning why such standards are being implemented so soon.

They fear huge numbers of drivers will simply quit, with others forced to hike up passenger fares to cover costs.

In what the association has described as a ‘double whammy’, the drivers are also facing a 60 per cent hike for a three-year licensing badge, which has risen from £231 to £384 for private hire vehicles.

Wajid Ali, co-chairman for the group said: “We want a better phasing-in period, that would be common sense, but the council has ignored it.

“There’s probably going to be a good 45 or 50 per cent of driver who will be pushed out completely because they can’t afford it. They have families to feed and mortgages to pay.

“We want to go green, it’s the future, but at what cost?” And if the emission standards weren’t enough, the badge costs will drive us out.”

The association suggested that a Euro Five standard - which covers diesels cars manufactured after 2009 - would be a more sensible solution.
Some drivers could head to neighbouring districts to be licensed, although many see this as being bad for the trade.

This would also mean that Wakefield Council loses hundreds of thousands of pounds through licensing fees.

Wakefield Council says the decisions were made following a public consultation and that drivers will have a two-year grace period to make the necessary changes.

http://bit.ly/2nL9lhh