UBER UPDATE
UBER CONFIRMS ITS LAUNCH IN SWANSEA AND STOCKTON-ON-TEES
Passengers in Swansea can now book rides with Uber for the first time in the city. The launch is in response to the rising demand with more than 4,000 locals opening the Uber app looking for a trip each week, the company said. The introduction of Uber in Swansea is the brand’s first new launch in a city since 2017. The firm was given its licence to operate by Swansea council earlier this year.
Majid Iftikhar, a driver who has already signed up for Uber in Swansea, said: “Uber is perfect for me as I can work when I’m free, my wife doesn’t drive so I can drop off and pick up kids from school.” However,
Richard Thomas, of
Richard’s Taxi Service, felt the announcement was a “concern” for drivers in the city. He explained: “I’m disappointed, to be honest, there is no work for us now as it is, and with them, it’s going to really affect us. The town is too small for Uber, it has done the dirty on the normal drivers. I don’t think it will work in Swansea. I hope people will stick by the taxi service. It is a concern for everybody.” Uber is also officially set to launch in Stockton-on-Tees. Bosses say over 4,500 local residents have been opening the Uber app looking for a trip every week. Uber first arrived on Teesside in the form of the 'Local Cab' option
back in 2021, which allowed customers to book a taxi through the Uber app by connecting them with local taxi firm Skyline Taxis. But it is now finally launching in full across Stockton but has not yet confirmed how far across Stockton it will cover.
Rumours of Uber launching on Teesside have swirled for years, with reports in 2016 about how the company sadly had no plans to launch
the taxi service in
Middlesbrough, despite previously saying it was a location it had looked at for future expansion. However, Uber Eats is already in place across several locations on Teesside and has been for several years.
UBER PAYS $178 MILLION TO END LEGAL FIGHT WITH AUSTRALIAN TAXI DRIVERS
Uber will pay $272 million Australian dollars (£140 million) to settle a long-running dispute with Australian taxi and hire car drivers who lost out when the company entered the Australian market. A class action against Uber had been expected to go to trial in the Supreme Court of Victoria on Monday 18 March, but Maurice Blackburn Lawyers - representing 8,000 taxi and hire car drivers - said the case will be dropped because Uber has agreed to the financial settlement. Maurice Blackburn, principal lawyer Michael Donelly, said that drivers and car owners suffered financial losses due to Uber’s
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aggressive entry into the market in 2012 and that the company consistently attempted to avoid compensating them. “On the courtroom steps and after years of refusing to do the right thing by those we say it harmed, Uber has blinked, and thousands of everyday Australians joined together to stare down a global giant,” he said. An Uber statement described the complaints of the taxi industry as “legacy issues” and said rideshare regulations did not exist anywhere in the world when the company started more than a decade ago. “The rise of ridesharing has grown
Australia’s overall point-to-point transport industry, bringing with it greater choice and improved experiences for consumers, as well as new earnings opportunities for hundreds of thousands of Aust- ralian workers,” the statement said. “Since 2018, Uber has made significant contributions into various state-level taxi compen- sation schemes, and with today’s proposed settlement, we
put
these legacy issues firmly in our past.” It’s the fifth-largest class action settlement in Australia’s history and comes five years after the action was launched.
APRIL 2024 PHTM
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