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[kitz]

Kitz you seem to be of the impression that the only reason people use uber is pricing, I dont know why you still have that impression after everything that has been posted.

No...  my input on this is I think its wrong that the people who do the hard work get paid a pittance whilst the people at the top get fat. Yes perhaps thats the way of the world as you said, but I object to companies who exploit their workers on this way.   I've no objection to Uber or anyone entering the market.. except when it comes at a cost and dubious working practices.

I haven't looked in depth at what subsidies they are supposed to get from TFL,  but at first glance all those links seem to be centred around scrappage of old cabs >10 yr old to make for a cleaner environment.   A few years back ANYONE with a car >10yrs old would get a scrappage allowance of £2k. 
There's also a more recent scrappage scheme for 7 y/o diesel whereby popular car makes (ie Ford, VW, Toyata etc etc etc) can get up to an 8k scrappage allowance - its about trying to reduce pollution.   

I also dont know what kind of salary you are used to, but £6.75 an hour whilst considered low by todays standards can still easily be lived on.

I really don't see how you can deem £6.75 per hour to be easily liveable on for a working man. For one its below minimum wage!  Its <£14k per annum for a 40hr week.
Have you ever had to pay a mortgage?  Have you have any idea of the price for London rent?  Have you ever had to pay such things as Council Tax, Utility Bills.  Have you ever had to feed and clothe children?   
The fact you think £6.75 is easily liveable on implies that you have absolutely no idea how hard it is to bring up a family as a working man or do any of these thing 
For starters a one bed flat in London is circa £200 pw. Even up north you are unlikely to get a 2 bed house for under £120 pw. 

So who is going to be picking up the tab on any shortfalls?   They're going to have to be claiming Housing Benefit, council tax reductions, free prescriptions, free school meals.   They wont be paying tax (or very little tax) at this rate.  They won't be paying NI. 
Uber wont be paying NI for emplyees nor responsible for taxation or holiday pay or pensions... yet they get their 25% cut. 

The broader picture is it then takes away work from those who are trying to earn a standard living wage.
Having a country whereby workers are having to rely on state subsidies and not paying back in such things as Income Tax, NI and Council Tax does not make for a good  economy.   

Most uber drivers, I have used are not of white british origin, which I think is telling,

Exactly. 

[Dray]

Specifically in London, where black cabs are available, I really can’t see any reason other than cost  that people would choose a minicab like Uber...

You don’t have to worry about agreeing a pick-up point.  You just walk up to one parked at a taxi rank, or you stand by the roadside and wave at the next one that passes.

You just don't get it. If you're in an area of London where there are no black cabs passing, you can't get one.

With Uber you hail one using the app on your smartphone wherever you are,  it turns up within minutes and you just get in. You don't tell the driver where you're going, you don't pay the driver. At your destination, you just get out.

[kitz]

I thought thats what cab:app was supposed to do? It was released before Uber even came to the UK.   
We've had cab:app here for black cabs since 2012.  London has had it since 2011.

[Dray]

Sorry, never heard of it. I've used Uber in London, NYC and LA though.

[sevenlayermuddle]

You just don't get it. If you're in an area of London where there are no black cabs passing, you can't get one.

Did you consider the possibility that is what I meant by the words “where black cabs are available”?

If an area is not covered by Black Cabs then of course, I’ll consider minicab/private hire, such as Uber.   But I’d simply call the office and book one.  No way would I resort to an App that required location access.

I do allow my location to be tracked by a tiny number of close friends and relatives.  Apple can track me too, it’s a price worth paying for the convenience.   But nothing is likely to ever convince me that a taxi operator deserves the same level of trust...

[Dray]

People who use Facebook obviously don’t share your concerns. Do any of your trusted friends and relatives use Facebook?

[kitz]

>> People who use Facebook obviously don’t share your concerns.

Facebook thinks I live in either in Sheffield or Cresswell.  I didn't give it any info..  it just picks that up from natgeo on my IP and I'll let it continue to think that as I've never been to Creswell in my life

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[sevenlayermuddle]

People who use Facebook obviously don’t share your concerns. Do any of your trusted friends and relatives use Facebook?

Nope, for obvious security reasons.

Google neither.  I do use google.com for search, which I am sure they abuse, but I’d never leave a login active, nor grant any Google App access to location data.

[sevenlayermuddle]

Nope, for obvious security reasons

Sorry, need to qualify that.   Don’t use facebook myself, but trusted friends might.   Is that a risk that I am overlooking?

Genuinely interested.

[Ronski]

No...  my input on this is I think its wrong that the people who do the hard work get paid a pittance whilst the people at the top get fat.

I certainly agree with that, they may have the brains but the people with the brawn should get paid a fair wage, how you work out what a fair wage is I don't know.

[kitz]

Nope, for obvious security reasons.
Google neither.  I do use google.com for search, which I am sure they abuse, but I’d never leave a login active, nor grant any Google App access to location data.

Google hasn't 'got me'.. although I have heard [unsubstantiated] rumours about them picking up router IP's when mapping.

There is one organisation that has and that's Amazon - because I use them a lot for deliveries and am on a static IP. 
Also I use Alexa.. which gives me local news and weather.   Not much I can do about that.    My devices are registered to me at this address.   
Alexa though,  has made my life soooo much easier right now and because of that I guess I just have to say sod it and think of well Ive nothing to hide.

[sevenlayermuddle]

I don’t worry tooooo much about organisations that track my home IP, on services used by home PC or tablet.    My IP is static, but all they know is that I live where I live, and even then only to a wide margin of error, and even then the IP databases seem to be hugely inaccurate.

The thing that sends a shiver down my spine is Apps that want access to location on my phone.   That will be accurate GPS data, to within a few yards, potentially updated in real time with every move I make.   I don’t totally disallow location access, a few Apps have it.   Network Rail App, for example, I alllow location access.    But I am very very choosy and based on Uber’s track record, such as the events that spawned this thread, not a chance.

[Dray]

Maybe read Hut 6 by Gordon Welchman. He thought the war was over 

[WWWombat]

I really don't see how you can deem £6.75 per hour to be easily liveable on for a working man. For one its below minimum wage!  Its <£14k per annum for a 40hr week.
Have you ever had to pay a mortgage?  Have you have any idea of the price for London rent?  Have you ever had to pay such things as Council Tax, Utility Bills.  Have you ever had to feed and clothe children?   
The fact you think £6.75 is easily liveable on implies that you have absolutely no idea how hard it is to bring up a family as a working man or do any of these thing 
For starters a one bed flat in London is circa £200 pw. Even up north you are unlikely to get a 2 bed house for under £120 pw. 

So who is going to be picking up the tab on any shortfalls?   They're going to have to be claiming Housing Benefit, council tax reductions, free prescriptions, free school meals.   They wont be paying tax (or very little tax) at this rate.  They won't be paying NI. 
Uber wont be paying NI for emplyees nor responsible for taxation or holiday pay or pensions... yet they get their 25% cut. 

The broader picture is it then takes away work from those who are trying to earn a standard living wage.
Having a country whereby workers are having to rely on state subsidies and not paying back in such things as Income Tax, NI and Council Tax does not make for a good  economy.   

The final sentence in the above paragraph reminded me of an interesting graphic I came across a year ago...

It breaks the UK household incomes across 10 deciles, and for each group shows the related income -vs- tax -vs- benefits. It kinda shocked me... You need to get a household "original income" up into the 7th decile before the tax outweighs the benefits. A household (not personal) income of around £35k !!!

From that graphic, an "original income" of £14k would be between the 3rd and 4th decile, and would be associated with benefits of a similar total.

[Chrysalis]

Hospital appointment this Thursday so will try cab:app out for the return journey, to get there I will still use uber as I dont want to experiment and possibly miss my appointment.

To 7LM, sorry standing out hailing a taxi or walking to a taxi rank is too much inconvenience for some of us, or not even possible due to health issues.  I think you undervalue the benefits of the app, and also does a meter tell you the "final" cost "before" the journey has ended?  How does one know a black cab will be available at any given moment, have you 100% of the time got one quickly (within say 5 minutes) doing what you said? The basis of your argument seems to be you like the "higher class" service, thats fine if you affluent and also dont mind the downsides of hailing cabs etc., but not everyone cares about what you said, they can be even considered completely irrelevant. You have spent time trying to explain why that service is better for you, but not why choice should be removed from consumers.  I am pretty sure it wouldnt be too hard for people to find health and safety issues with black cab services, and are black cab drivers also self employed? meaning their employment rights are not a whole lot different to uber drivers. So no guaranteed hours or pay, and no paid holidays.

There is a place for black cabs which is great, I got no issue with them still offering a service, my issue is them trying to remove consumer choice, because for some people uber is the preffered option.

To kitz, we can quickly put things in perspective on the £6.75 an hour to simply say some people have to live on 10k a year and thats including benefit topup to income, to those people 6.75 an hour 40 hours a week would be dreamland, thats the basis of me saying its very manageable, yes luxuries would be sparse, life wouldnt be too comfortable, but you can certainly feed yourself and find shelter.  I think wages should be high enough to the point that things like tax credits shouldnt be a thing, but thats fixed by changing employment laws, not state manipulation of a market. The wrong approach is been taken here.