Uber in the News. A few days ago we heard its London license has been revoked. The Mayor of London Sadiq Khan gave reasons for protecting inefficient black cab businesses and a plethora of other reasons.
The ride-hailing app firm says it will appeal against TfL’s decision. More than 400,000 names have since been added to Uber’s petition on Change.org to counter/protest against the decision
The petition, started by it’s London office, says: “If this decision stands, it will put more than 40,000 licensed drivers out of work and deprive millions of Londoners of a convenient and affordable form of transport.”
Uber needs to find its way in London
TfL’s concerns include Uber’s approach to carrying out background checks on drivers and reporting serious criminal offenses.
it’s licence is due to expire on 30 September.
It has 21 days to appeal against TfL’s decision and can continue to operate while any appeals are ongoing.
In my opinion, the ride hailing business is a disruptive business with the capability to be a continuous game player in the business world. However, it takes more than being disruptive to be profitable and continuously be in demand. Over the past months, Uber has been in the news for all the unpleasant reasons. Leadership issues and apparent instability in the boardroom (in my opinion)
TfL gave a list of reasons the taxi riding business wasn’t fit to operate in London with the Mayor calling on all London businesses to play by the rules
Many middle-class Londoners will feel conflicted about the cabs vs. Uber war. They complain that the traditional cabs are uncomfortable, expensive and belch diesel fumes into a city with air quality problems. Cabbies also have a reputation for being grumpy and unhelpful — something that Uber drivers, who are given a star rating by every customer, cannot afford to be. Personally, I agree with this as a person.
But those same Londoners are also quietly impressed by the way Transport for London runs the capital’s transport network — you can tell because they don’t constantly grumble about it. (Actually praising it would be very un-London.) The contrast with privatized rail companies only makes commuters feel more goodwill towards the organization.
How the London vs. Uber saga plays out will be an important test of Britain’s mood — and will give clues to its future political direction. There is a feeling in the air that regulators should stand up to businesses that simply ignore any rules they don’t like. Even among Conservatives, free-market fundamentalism is out of fashion. Britons are no longer so in love with “disruption” that we are prepared to overlook the consequences of job security and quality of life it can entail. Perhaps voters have decided that the slogan that galvanized the Brexit vote — “Take back control!” — equally applies to imposing rules on unfettered capitalism.
As i write this there is a campaign against the revoke with thousands protesting. Hundreds of thousands of people have signed a petition calling for Transport for London to reverse its decision not to renew the license.
In my opinion, the business offers an end to end solution for quick on-demand cab businesses. It saw an immediate need and met it. It provided jobs for thousands of unemployed car owners. Even though it had its inefficiencies with its defective payment deductions sometimes over services not delivered, Uber still ticked the boxes for most of its users. It was a far cry from the arrogance of black car drivers who were not proactive but selective in their transportation solution delivery. You wouldn’t find an Uber service provider in a queue waiting for customers -It actually finds and goes to the customer. This was totally disruptive and exciting for customers who needed the service in a hurry.
A bit about Uber’s Technologies
Uber-Technologies Inc. is an American technology/transport company headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, operating in 633 cities worldwide. It develops, markets and operates the Uber-car transportation and food delivery mobile apps.
It apparently conquered London but could not put its acts together.
Lessons Learnt for Businesses
Becoming successful is hard work, staying successful ahead of the game is even harder work.
The business idea is meeting needs creatively and effectively but it seems there is no constant redefinition of the business with respect to different locations as seen in the London experience. On Friday, the regulator (Transport for London) : said it was not “fit and proper” to hold a London private hire operator license on the grounds of “public safety and security implications”. In my opinion, Uber is a victim of boardroom politics enhanced by its present history of leadership misconceptions.
Leadership is always vital and any company that’s going to be successful should have a flowing, proactive leadership. Uber has been looking for a leader for a few months and only succeeded in filing the role. This is bad for Uber.
Uber-London has a series of competition such as Lyft, Cabify and a list of others, so it can’t afford to continue to appear inefficient in the leadership space.
it needs to up its game. Stay focused and keep redefining its strategy.
We wish Uber well and hope it recaptures London. I personally think Uber is one of the best technologies that can happen to transportation. Disruptive technologies are here to stay and will somewhat be resisted. This is Uber’s London Situation presently.
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