Brighton Pride 2022 saw the city packed, so it was really good to see it officially back here again after it was cancelled last year due to you know what.
Apparently, there were only 54 arrests, which is quite remarkable, considering the number of outsiders who came to the city. And of course, this was not limited to those coming here for a good old ‘knees-up’ (can you tell how old I am?) In fact, everyone came from far and wide and we lost count of how many Uber Oot’s (out-of-town cars) that were here - probably no doubt under the encouragement of Uber.
And whilst the local drivers of the local firms (both hackney and private hire) were charging the council-controlled metered rates, which is £5.20 for the first mile then £2.60 per mile thereafter, Uber of course was cashing in - or could one claim ‘profiteering’ from the event - someone may say that, but I couldn’t possible comment...
In fact, since Uber arrived here in 2016 we have never seen such astronomical fares being charged in the city!
We were given hard evidence of this from an Uber customer who showed a Brighton & Hove driver the amount she was charged to travel 3.5 miles on the day of the event, which was a Saturday.
This was £97.17, which works out at around £27 per mile. I kid you not! No wonder the city was swamped with so many Oot’s! And this, we were told, was not the only example.
We all know that Uber apparently shows what the fare would be in advance, so of course it is the customer’s fault if they use its service and more than likely be taken by a car and driver not licensed by Brighton & Hove City Council with no compulsory CCTV in place.
So: “Yer pays yer money and yer take yer choice.” Or is it a case of: ‘Stand & Deliver’?
But here is the rub; there has never been anything to stop drivers working on multiple apps and of course drivers that are on the three main local companies are free to work on Uber as well, which I’m sure is the same all over the country.
So, where those drivers are being offered huge fares, they will naturally forego the local company work, which means those long-established companies are then unable to offer the great service that they use to. And as I have said many times, what will probably happen in the end is that Uber becomes the only service around and controls the market and the fare structure.
I believe this is what they called being ‘disruptive’. Anyway, that customer paid up, had a moan, but will absolutely no doubt use Uber again because it is ‘hip and trendy’.
72 SEPTEMBER 2022 PHTM
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