permanently fixed by a licensing officer and only removable by the same.
https://tinyurl.com/havantphv1
Brighton ranks
A major bugbear of ours is that we get a menagerie of Uber OOTs forming ranks in the city centre. A local condition that applies to local PHVs states that no more than two cars can sit together.
“Any private hire vehicle, singularly or with others, which gives the appearance that it is available for immediate hiring, may commit an offence. No more than two vehicles may congregate in any one location giving the appearance that they are a rank and may be plying for hire, except at the office location of the operator for whom they work.”
Of course, this cannot be applied to the Uber Oot’s which just do what they like. So, I have put in for two new ranks in exactly the same place where they rank up on the seafront. Mind you with the council pleading poverty, let’s see how long Planning and Parking will take to deal with it. However, once these are approved, I will ask licensing to ensure that Uber geofences those areas.
IoL – Taxi Conference - March
It was brought to my attention by my colleague and good friend in Southampton, Ian Hall, that Uber is to make a presentation at the Institute of Licensing conference titled: ‘Navigating Tomorrow – The evolving landscape of mobility and Licensing’ - Matthew Freckelton Uber.
Mmmm, “… evolving landscape…” land…areas…
evolving… Devolution! More like the ‘Uber Mythical Regions’ to me. But the main point here is why has Uber, the multi-billion dollar global monster, got a place at the table of the IoL and not Jo’s Cabs, Speedy Cars and thousands of other independent cab companies?
BBC
I was really peeved off over Christmas when two minutes in to the revived sit-com Outnumbered, the main character, Pete, casually said: “Don’t keep your Uber waiting”. I was just as peeved when Doctor Who also mentioned Uber in an episode a few years ago. So of course, me being me, sent off a complaint to the BBC:
“Blatant advertising of a multi-billion-dollar company
I am making a strong complaint about the BBC advertising the multi-billion-dollar American company Uber. Why did the BBC consider it acceptable to advertise Uber when local companies have been struggling to stay in business due to Uber’s
PHTM FEBRUARY 2025
well known aggressive predatory pricing war to wipe out the local companies. This is unforgivable and the BBC needs to take immediate action to edit this and replace the audio ‘Uber’ with ‘cab’. Failure to do so will result in a complaint to Ofcom.”
I got the following reply:
“Dear Andrew, Thank you for contacting us about Outnumbered broadcast 26 December on BBC One. Under the terms of its Charter the BBC doesn’t undertake any product placement or receive any payment for featuring any products or services within our programmes. To clarify, there isn’t an outright ban on making references to brand names within our output, as people naturally refer to and use brands, commercial products and services in everyday life and to avoid doing so would be unrealistic. That said, we acknowledge you’re unhappy that Pete made reference to ‘Uber,’ at the start of the episode. We very much value your feedback.”
Well, I don’t accept that and I shall be taking this further. I won’t get anywhere, but I need to make a stand because I hear this on the radio far too often now where Uber has become the misused ‘Hoover’ terminology for vacuuming.
Worthing
Ten miles to the west of us is Worthing that has had its own share of trouble with the same Uber OOTs as us, but has to date managed to escape Uber actually being an operator there. There was the attempt a couple of years ago by a local company that ran the Autocab system with Uber trying to muscle in with ‘Uber Local’ that completely failed nationally, including here in Brighton. The scheme was taken on by gullible owners at the time but Uber then abandoned it making fools of those cab company owners which really cheesed them off. However, Uber has now applied for an operator’s
licence and Worthing
licensing sent out a memo to the local trade announcing it -not that the Worthing trade could come up with any objection that the council could take note of.
Uber will get the licence and ultimately it will be down to the local Worthing PH drivers to either support Uber or loyally support their local bases. Of course drivers have to do what they think is best, and no doubt the Uber carrot will be dangling with incentives. If they do sign up then they should immediately start planning on joining the national Uber strikes, such as the one planned on Valentines Day…. yeh…. Good luck with that chaps!
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