Sir Bert Massie CBE
11 June 2014
2 North Sudley Road
Aigburth
Liverpool
L17 0BG
T: 0151 727 3252
e : bert@massie.com
Mr. Boris Johnson
Mayor of London
Greater London Authority
City Hall
The Queen's Walk
More London
London SE1 2AA
Dear Mr Johnson
Uber
I wish to add my name to those who have deep reservations about
the introduction of the Uber App in London for private hire taxis.
My interest in this issue is that I am a wheelchair user and a regular
visitor to London. I travel between Liverpool and London by rail
and use black cabs to around central London.
The electronic meter that Uber use appears to me to be so close in
function of the meters used in cabs that it represents unfair
competition to the black cab trade. Yet drivers of black cabs have
many more obligations placed on them including that of ensuring
their vehicles are accessible to wheelchair users. I clearly have an
interest in ensuring that there continues to be accessible taxis in
London. However, unfair competition could eventually lead to a
reduction in the number of hackney cabs and a point could be
reached where such cabs become a threatened species. Failure to
ensure the future of the accessible cab fleet would have a severe
and negative impact on the ability of London to meet the travel
needs of disabled people.
I would urge you to reconsider the use of Uber and to undertake a
study of the use of this technology on the viability of the black cab
fleet and on the equality and mobility implications for disabled
people.
In supporting the continued use of accessible cabs in London and
other parts of the UK, I am not unaware of the difficulties that still
remain in London. I was there yesterday and, as usual, about three
accessible taxis with their “hire” light illuminated drive passed me
before one stopped. Much more could be done to require hackney
drivers to stop for wheelchair users but if the hackney cab trade
collapses even the 1 in 4 ratio of cabbies who stop will seem like a
memory of the good old days.