One Uber taxi drove into the back of another on Goswell Road on the morning of Monday October 26.
The front vehicle struck a bollard, and a man was charged with a driving offence. There were no injuries.
Black cab driver Jimmy Smythers saw the crash happen. “This is not uncommon,” he claimed.
Mr Smythers, who has driven taxis in London for 14 years, highlighted a series of other accidents in Islington which he blamed on Uber drivers unfamiliar with the area. “I don’t think these drivers have ever driven in London before,” he said.
Uber drivers do not sit the stringent ‘Knowledge’ exam which all London cabbies must take, and Boris Johnson has suggested that Uber employees should be subject to a higher standard of testing by TFL.
According to Uber spokesman Harry Porter, Uber drivers currently need to pass a “mini-Knowledge” exam to qualify. “TFL have done large inspections, and we’ve always passed with flying colours,” he said.
Stephen Mepham, the treasurer of the cab-drivers’ section of the Unite union, said:“People have been told that the streets are paved with gold, if they just buy a Prius and download an Uber app.”
Like Mr Smythers, he felt that Uber drivers were “totally reliant on their sat-nav,” leading them to make illegal turns and go the wrong way down one-way streets.
But Porter said these claims were made by black cab drivers angry at the rampant success of their app-based rival.
“There’s room for both,” he said. “We’re increasing the size of the market, which is good for everyone.”
Black Cabs have a right to be angry when their own journeys are stalled due to Uber drivers constantly in the wrong lane, driving down one way streets the wrong way, and causing roads to be closed because they’ve managed (amazingly) to flip the car on its roof!
If the level of entry is reduced to someone else showing the potential driver where the M25 is on a map, then you are sure as hell going to have problems once he/she has to navigate it for themselves the following day.
TfL are haemorrhaging approximately 700 licenses a week (40,000 in 2 years), most of which have applied so they can work the Uber app. As a result, London’s roads are clogging up with PH Drivers having to work longer and longer hours because of massive over saturation. So yes, a dire combination of exhaustion (80 hours per week) and an enslavement to the SatNav makes the perfect recipe for a.collision- or snarled up congestion. Enough to make EVERYONE angry, not just taxi drivers, who have good reason to be angry.
In many ways I am revolted by Mr. Porter’s shrug that accidents such as the one reported is the result of angry black cab drivers. What utter distain he has for public safety.
Mr. Porter should realise that I have photographic evidence – literally hundreds – accumulated in under 3 months and the United Cabbies Group have almost 10,000 verifiable complaints against Uber Drivers.
Deflecting, as opposed to addressing the issue does nothing but exasperate an already intolerable problem. By all means Mr Porter, spin in business, but not with people’s lives.
Not all Prius with a Minicab badge on it is an Uber car,some work for different cab offices. Whenever a prius is crashed on the street, fingers are pointed to Uber claiming that they don’t know the area. What about the black cab crashes, what does that explains.
These are NOT taxis, these are private hire vehicles. Only licensed London Hackney Carriages are allowed to be called Taxis in London (and indeed the rest of the country) please amend this article accordingly as it is misleading. The term evokes images of real taxis as having been involved.