Uber rival Ola has been refused an extension to its
licence in London after regulators found it was not “fit and proper to hold one
after discovering a number of failures that could have risked public safety”.
Ola was founded in 2010 by Bhavish
Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati in Mumbai and has since grown to 250 cities and
operates more than a billion rides every year.
Ola has been operating in London since February
2020 and the company recently made TfL – which regulates private hire companies
in London - aware of “a number of failures that had potential public safety
consequences”. These included:
- Historic
breaches of the licensing regime that led to unlicensed drivers and vehicles
undertaking more than 1,000 passenger trips on behalf of Ola.
- Failure
to draw these breaches to TfL's attention immediately when they were first
identified.
Applicants have a right to appeal a decision not to
grant a licence to a magistrates' court within 21 days. Ola can continue to
operate pending the outcome of any appeal process.
Helen Chapman, TfL's director of licensing, regulation
and charging, said: “Our duty as a regulator is to ensure passenger
safety. Through our investigations we discovered that flaws in Ola's operating
model have led to the use of unlicensed drivers and vehicles in more than 1,000
passenger trips, which may have put passenger safety at risk.”
She added, “If they do appeal, Ola can continue to
operate and drivers can continue to undertake bookings on behalf of Ola. We
will closely scrutinise the company to ensure passengers safety is not
compromised.”
At the end of September, Ola rival Uber had its licence
to operate in the UK capital renewed after it demonstrated it had addressed safety
concerns.