In the news

prob dont need to bother tho. preaching, converted etc

Yup. Fight for fair pay and rights for minicabs, price parity...then free market takes over. Best product wins.

Best product wins.

Like cladding?

No, nothing like a closed-finance construction project with budget pressures.

That whole black cab thing reminds me again of yet another painful Facebook discussion with somebody who complains "immigrants lower wages" conveniently forgetting immigrants (maybe not mouthy EU ones like me) are also much more vulnerable to exploitation.

But instead of going full force union power on this (seen in Germany, the Netherlands in building projects, perhaps also here...) which not only created a level wage playing field but can also prevent a lot of misery for others the first reaction is to lock down the border. Le sigh.

Interesting comments on taxi drivers and their (unhelpful) points of view. That said, my dislike for the exploitative and destructive forces of Uber far outweights any frustration I may have with the narrow world view of taxi drivers. Uber aren't succeeding because they are 'innovative' but rather because they are deliberately flouting regulations and using (and haemorrhaging) investors' cash to suffocate local markets.

If Uber didn't exist, black cabs would have probably lost to Addison Lee or similar even more rapidly. They seem determined to embrace anachronism. It took them four years from Uber arriving to actually take card payments. The three years of training was always ridiculously overblown, even before GPS arrived a decade ago. And not going South of the river wasn't just a cliche. The time to consider competing has long gone.

Uber is hitting big trouble in the USA as they get sued left right and center.

Their "disruptive" model is about to be shown up for maybe not as radical / profitable as they think it is.

See also Deliveroo. Not offering insurance / regular hours cos of "flexibility" can easily become yet another workers rights erosion exercise.

Competition however doesn't hurt...in my case the local company I use now has a shite GPS that can't find my house, well for them 10 others.

Uber have the financial backing to buy influence,
recruiting Rachel Whetstone to ensure direct access to the Cameron government,

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/apr/13/data-watchdog-no-10-cameron-uber-correspondence-regulation

Uber also got the legislation changed allowing 'taxi'drivers to operate anywhere, (within England & Wales), so that taxi drivers who committed a de-licensing offence in their home area can just apply in the next administrative area and continue working.

https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/feb/17/uber-exploiting-loophole-to-spread-tentacles-across-uk-gmb-union-says

I guess the advantage to Uber is that Uberdrivers from beyond, say the M25, can now flood into London.

i'm sure uber / deliveroo will flourish in post brexit britain when the tory government re-introduces workhouses.

If the black cab industry does die then they will certainly have to shoulder some of the blame.

their chosen method of protest certainly doesn't endear them to anyone either. choking up bank with their idling shitcars to make whatever point it is they're trying to make (cycle lanes? uber? who fucking cares?) is now way to go through life, son.

marginally more annoying than those fucking die-ins.

“It’s not a racist thing,” Mr. Walsh added. “Lots of cabbies are Jewish and Irish.”

The bank junction protest did nothing more than prove to the Corporation of London that banning motor traffic would actually be quite an improvement.

If black cab drivers had put the amount of effort they've put into whinging about Uber and trying to get it banned into improving their customer experience just imagine how great their product would be by now.

The name is very ironic isn't it? I nearly wrote 'black cabbies' then I thought 'oh but there aren't any are there'.

In other news, this is my favourite headline today:
http://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-julyfourth-idUSKBN19P14M

There are a couple of black cabbies on the rank in Lewisham normally. Having said that, I have heard white cabbies being outwardly racist on the rank in Lewisham more than a couple of times so it hardly paints a pretty picture.

Asking for a friend, why is it okay to call all black cab drivers racist yet not acceptable to level the same accusation at golfers?

Because they called dibs and got sexism.

because its not as bad as calling all black cab drivers golfers or something

There are no closet black cab drivers on here?

Judging by the trainer and stylish cycling clothing threads we have a lot of potential/closet golfers on here.

closet golfers

top euph

I occasionally play golf, but would not describe myself as a golfer.

I enjoy throwing stones at wops and wogs, but would not describe myself as a racist.

Lord Bencathra:

"Lord Blencathra today apologised to the House of Lords for signing a £12,000 per month contract in which he agreed to lobby his fellow peers, MPs and ministers on behalf of the Cayman Islands’ government."

wafc