London’s transportation regulator has said that it won’t renew Uber’s license to operate in the city. London is the ride-hail giant biggest markets.
Transport for London, which regulates taxis and for-hire vehicles in the city, said it has identified a pattern of failures by Uber that threatened rider safety. TFL says Uber hadn’t corrected the failures.
Uber and TFL have been fighting, in 2017, the regulatir banned Uber citing their approach to driver background checks and its failure to report criminal offenses involving drivers and passengers. Similar thing that has happened with Kenyan taxi drivers.
According to Transport for London, they uncovered at least 14,000 incidents in which Uber’s system allowed drivers to upload their photos to other drivers’ accounts, meaning the person who picked up a rider wasn’t necessarily the person attached to the account.
In other instances, drivers who had been dismissed or suspended from the platform were allowed to create new accounts and drive again.
“While we recognize Uber has made improvements, it is unacceptable that Uber has allowed passengers to get into minicabs with drivers who are potentially unlicensed and uninsured,” Helen Chapman, TfL’s director of licensing, regulation and charging, said in a statement.
The directive means Uber will only be able to operate in London for the next 21 days. Uber said it would appeal the decision before a magistrate judge.
“TfL’s decision not to renew Uber’s licence in London is extraordinary and wrong,” Jamie Heywood, Uber’s regional general manager for Northern and Eastern Europe, said in a statement.
