Yesterday, (June 11) central London ground to a halt as thousands of black cab drivers parked-up to protest against drive-sharing app Uber.
They claim this piece of technology, which calculates the journey distance and fee and relays the information to the driver, is threatening their livelihood.
The drivers claim Uber acts as a taximeter, which private vehicles are not allowed to use and wants it banned - A lack of overheads allows Uber to offer drivers 80% of the customer's fare.
TFL who could rule on this issue are unsure on which side to fall down on, so have referred it to the High-Court.
Chris Jordan is managing director of Cabfind.com, a travel management services firm. He believes the technology should be welcomed and investors and lenders are starting to see the potential of the private car hire company.
"Although Uber has certainly been aggressive when it comes to challenging taxi legislation, not just in the UK but around the world, it hasn’t all been bad news for the taxi industry,” Jordan explains.
"Since Uber and Hailo exploded onto the scene, people are beginning to realise that the private hire and taxi industry has enormous potential. As a result, investors, lenders and grant funders can finally see past the traditional dingy smoke-filled minicab office, a misrepresented outlook, and understand the many opportunities within the sector.
"With innovations in technology constantly changing the way taxis are managed and resourced, it was also inevitable that a global player like Uber would emerge sooner or later. After all, the private hire industry has been evolving for 20 years since first developing data dispatch systems to compete with traditional hackney cabs.
“As a trade, we should be embracing these changes, as we have always done and accept that taxi global brands; Uber being a forerunner, is probably a part of tomorrow. Only we can decide our own futures.”
Missing a trick
Jordan says despite the success of Uber, it’s still “missing a trick” with trying to eliminate the taxi operator altogether rather than working with existing private hire and hackney networks.
“Uber seems to have overlooked the fact that private hire operators are already successfully dominating two thirds of the market and providing an excellent service. This is mainly because of the improvements made in computer, dispatch and data technology as well as the surge towards mobile phone usage, allowing consumers to book private taxis wherever and whenever they want and managing supply and demand for the taxi firms.
"Uber may be the Goliath of the taxi industry at the moment, but the taxi market is gearing up to meet the challenge head on. Now is a very dynamic time for the sector and I, for one, am very excited at the opportunities these innovations are bringing.”