London cabbies shut city down over Uber
Drivers of London's famous black cabs brought traffic to a standstill over the car service app Uber. Jim Boulden reports.
All of this over an app. London Cabbies Stage, a one-hour protest here in central London, basically bringing traffic to a halt. The reason, of course, is London cabs say that anybody who uses the Uber service is taking business from them. They say that this app called Uber makes your iPhone a metered taxi service, and they should be regulated, they should have to follow the same rules as the black cab companies have to follow. Now we ask some taxi drivers why they decided that they had to take this step to take a protest.
'Well I've spend three years learning a knowledge meanwhile run in London,to provide a good service for Londoners where apps don't do that. You just, anyone can come and drive.'
'laws says Uber which is an illegal act because they've given their drivers a meter. Any by
law, in this country, laws is technique, technique carries taxi, we're the only one allowed to have meters, that's what makes us a taxi.'
'Well, I just want people to realize what’s going on really, 'cause I think that's the thing they don't know before. So, yeah, hopefully, that's the idea. So hopefully , it will bring people's attention to what's going on.'
Now the protests weren't just here in London. There' are also protests scheduled by taxi drivers in places like Berlin* and Paris. Uber has already been effectively outlawed in Brussels by court. Here in London the transfer for London has said because of this uprising by taxi drivers they will ask the high court a judge to decide once for all. Is Uber on your iPhone a metered taxi service or can it operate the way Uber would like to see it operate which they say? Of course, brings down the cost on traveling.