London City deals Uber a fatal blow, refuses to renew its operating licence
Transport for London has confirmed that Uber will not be issued a new private hire licence, According to TfL, the ride-hailing app firm was not fit and proper to hold a private hire operator licence due to the following speculated reasons:
Uber’s approach and conduct demonstrated a lack of corporate responsibility :
Registered sex offenders, identity thieves, burglars, a kidnapper and a convicted murderer had passed the firm’s screening process and were driving for the company until they were cited for providing illegal rides.
Uber’s process for onboarding drivers is dangerously negligent. Neither Uber nor Lyft uses fingerprints or law enforcement to background-check their drivers. And Uber doesn’t even bother to meet with drivers in person before allowing them to ferry passengers.
The result is a series of incidents involving “ridesharing” passengers being harmed and criminal offenders behind the wheel
Tfl may likely have been monitoring activities of Uber:
According to sources, Tfl GPS technology has the capacity to electronically record every trip – more than one million in London each week – of Uber transactions; the numbers of sexual assault may likely have escalated, Uber drivers in London are accused of sexually assaulting customers once every 11 days.
It’s approach to reporting serious crimes:
Figures from the Metropolitan Police Service and West Yorkshire Police showed that a total of 36 claims of sexual assault had been made against drivers, most of these crimes were not reported.
Uber has continually failed to report a lot of serious crimes, included as one of the controversial crimes it failed to report was a sexual assault, and an incident in which a driver produced what was thought to be pepper spray during a road-rage argument.
Improper background check on Uber drivers:
Uber allows convicted murderers, rapists and burglars to be drivers due to background check failures.
London Prosecutors claim there are systemic failures in Uber’s background check process which has allowed convicted criminals to drive passenger
Other related offences include:
It’s approach on how Enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service(DBS) checks are obtained
Approach to explaining the use of Greyball in London, software that could be used to block regulatory bodies from gaining full access
The current licence expires on 30 September. Uber can appeal the decision within 21 days and will be able to continue to operate until that appeal process has been exhausted.
