London taxi cab drivers protest in the City over Uber regulation
Black cab drivers brought traffic to a standstill outside Bank Tube station yesterday evening, in a protest against the way ride-hailing app Uber is regulated by Transport for London.
Cabbies want to draw attention to what they perceive as a lack of regulation of the private hire vehicle (PHV) licences used by Uber drivers.
Writing for Morning Wire, Len Martin, chairman of United Cabbies Group, said TfL has been issuing PHV licences “like sweets” over the past three years, and claimed: “Uber does not fit with the PHV operators’ legislation on many counts.”
He also hit out at accusations that Black Cabs are expensive, explaining that the costs are set by the regulator: “If your costs and prices are set by someone else, how can you compete in a free market? The answer is, you can’t – and it’s anything but a free market.”