-
I'm interested to know where this "all Uber drivers are criminals" things comes from
Fundamentally a lot of it is racism if you ask me - perhaps unconscious but still racism.
Many Uber drivers are non-white immigrants, while most black cab drivers are white and British.
TfL's stats for cabbies:
Vs. private hire (which includes Uber):
According to this article in the New York Times:
https://www.nytimes.com/2017/07/04/world/europe/london-uk-brexit-uber-taxi.html?_r=0"Uber receives hundreds of complaints a month from its London drivers about racist abuse from black cab drivers, including racist slurs like 'Go back to your country!'."
Interesting to get your perspective as a license issuer (?). I'd agree that separating Uber and its drivers is sensible.
Fox-
In the licensing authority that I work for (names to be changed to protect the indolent) drivers predominantly BME across both private hire and hackney (actually the same thing for us). Without doing a full count, I don't think I'd be out of line saying that it's upward of 70% combined Asian.
There's a lot of context in this though if you look at taxi/private hire driving as work opportunities among post war immigrant populations.
The_Seldom_Killer
I'm interested to know where this "all Uber drivers are criminals" things comes from. I suspect it originates from the established private hire and hackney industry which feel threatened by a new business model and are looking to taint its credibility. Worryingly, the great British public have had no qualms about accepting this narrative as gospel truth. It definitely isn't.
As someone who issues licenses to hackney and private hire drivers I look at a lot of DBS certificates for people applying for new driver badges and badge renewals. For the vast majority, they're clear. Anecdotally I'd suggest that Uber drivers are less likely to have a conviction than those working for other operators. I doubt any serious analysis would show them being worse.
I guess that's a good thing because if 40000 (minus those for whom it is a second job) are about to receive their P45s, there's a lower risk of a correlating increase in criminality stemming from sudden end to legitimate livelihoods.
There's an important and necessary distinction between Uber and its drivers and too many people are eager to taint both with the same brush.