More FOI Revelations With Uber Telling TfLTPH What They Will Be Doing At Heathrow.

      Top : Chapman, Bertram. Bottom : Blake, Kennedy-Todd, Byrne.

There have been more FOI revelations, with UBER telling Tfl how they want to bring in Uber drivers, who are themselves licensed by authorities outside of London, to pick up at Heathrow.

Below is the transcript of an email sent on the 13th of September 2016, by Uber's Tom  Elvidge, to TfLTPH general manager, Helen Chapman. Others cc'ed into the email were 

Blake Peter (TfL); Kennedy-Todd Silka(TfL); Jo Bertram (Uber) and Andrew Byrne (Uber)

Dear Helen,

We discussed at our last meeting the practice of enabling the Uber platform to allow drivers/vehicles licensed with authorities from outside of London to undertake private hire trips within the TfL service area - particularly at Heathrow Airport. This is of course a common practice undertaken by many other UK licensed operators, and the basis upon which non-London licensed operators are able to accept booking requests from Heathrow. Indeed, as you will be aware there are many drivers with other operators and make pickups predominantly outside of their licensed area.

The below sets out how this works with the Uber platform:

A rider requests a booking using the Uber app by setting the location at which they would like to be picked up

The Uber system locates the most appropriate driver to offer that trip to based on the criteria set by the local Uber staff managing the system through the dispatch tools

The driver confirms that he/she is available to complete the booking

The request is accepted by the relevant Uber operator associated with the driver(in accordance with the triple-licensing requirement) with confirmation of the booking being sent by Uber to the rider (including the driver’s name, photograph, vehicle registration and make/model)

The relevant operator maintains the record of the booking in accordance with its local licensing conditions

It is worth noting that a record is also kept of any attempt to make a booking that is not fulfilled due to unavailability of drivers/vehicles. Whilst not bookings, these records are maintained to monitor the number of requests and ability to fulfil them.

I wanted to set this out in writing so that it is clear how the Uber platform operates in regard to drivers from multiple jurisdictions. As you will be aware, Uber holds private hire operator licences in over 60 jurisdictions around England and Wales. Up until now, these operations have configured the system so that non-London licensed partner-drivers are not able to carry out trips within London, but there is no legal restriction preventing Uber’s other licenced operations from taking bookings in London, as TfL itself acknowledges on its website.

Regards, Tom

Tom Elvidge 

13 September 2016 17:34

Chapman Helen (TPH)

Blake Peter; Kennedy-Todd Silka; Jo Bertram; Andrew Byrne Uber Booking Process

Ends

In true Blue Peter fashion, here's another one we found from earlier : 🤗

Source : London Cab Drivers Club

    Interesting thoughts from Twitter: