Transport for London (TfL) will not grant Uber a new private hire operator’s licence in the UK capital, following a pattern of failures it believes placed passenger safety and security at risk.
As the regulator of taxi and private hire services in London, TfL was required to make a decision on Uber’s fitness and propriety before its current licence expires.
And while TfL admitted that Uber had made “a number of positive changes and improvements” since the Chief Magistrate granted it a licence in June 2018, TfL also stated that it had identified “a pattern of failures by Uber, including several breaches that placed passengers and their safety at risk”.
As a result, TfL said it “does not have confidence that similar issues will not reoccur in the future, which has led it to conclude that the company is not fit and proper at this time”.
Uber was granted a temporary two-month licence in September as further information was required on these issues, some of which TfL said emerged late in the process of its reapplication.
According to TfL, a key issue identified pertained to a change to Uber’s systems, which allowed unauthorised drivers to upload their photos to other Uber driver accounts.
This allowed them to pick up passengers as though they were the booked driver, which, claimed TfL, occurred in at least 14,000 trips.
TfL said that this meant these journeys were uninsured and some passenger journeys took place with unlicensed drivers, one of which had previously had their licence revoked by TfL.
Another failure allowed dismissed or suspended drivers to create an Uber account and carry passengers, while other breaches included several insurance-related issues.
Some of these led TfL to prosecute Uber earlier this year for causing and permitting the use of vehicles without the correct hire or reward insurance in place.
These breaches led TfL to commission an independent assessment of Uber’s ability to prevent incidents of this nature happening again.
However, this assessment concluded that TfL currently does not have confidence that Uber has a robust system for protecting passenger safety, while managing changes to its app.
Legislation means that Uber now has 21 days to appeal, during which it can continue to operate pending any appeal and throughout any potential appeals process.
Uber can seek to implement changes to demonstrate that it is fit and proper by the time of the appeal.
While Uber continues to operate, TfL said it will continue to scrutinise the private hire operator, which includes the need for Uber to meet 20 conditions set by TfL in September 2019.
TfL said particular attention will be paid to ensuring that the management have robust controls in place to manage changes to the Uber app so that passenger safety is not put at risk.
Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, said he fully supports the decision by TfL. “I know this decision may be unpopular with Uber users, but their safety is the paramount concern.
“Regulations are there to keep Londoners safe, and fully complying with TfL’s strict standards is essential if private hire operators want a licence to operate in London.”
“There is undoubtedly a place for innovative companies in London. But it is essential that companies play by the rules to keep their customers safe.”
