Shouldn’t We Be Looking After Our Black Cabs?

If you travel a bit you will know that not all cities have good taxi services. One one hand I’ve been handed an iPhone as asked to enter my destination into Google Maps, the other is London. In case you didn’t realise, London’s Black Cabs are simply the best taxi service in the world, bar none.

Firstly, a Black Cab driver, just to get a licence, has to do ‘the Knowledge’ which on average takes three or four years. You know when you see those people in mopeds with a sheet in front of them, wizzing around on the weekend? Well those are ‘want to be’ cab drivers doing to knowledge.

The Knowledge is ‘the in-depth study of a number of pre-set London street routes and all places of interest that taxicab drivers in that city must complete to obtain a licence to operate a black cab. It was initiated in 1865, and has changed little since. It is the world’s most demanding training course for taxicab drivers.’  Black cab drivers have extensive background checks and are all licensed.

The reason for the extensive background checks are for passenger safety. Your kids or single women are safe in Black Cabs. So they know the way around, avoid problems and are safe.

A few years ago, London allowed Uber to enter the city and compete with the Black Cabs. Search ‘Become Uber Driver’ and you’ll get to ‘How to become an Uber driver in 3 easy steps’ which pretty much sums it up. Provide 1. personal information (name and address), 2. Pictures of your car and any damage and 3. License, registration and car insurance copies. Boom you’re an Uber driver.

Add in car services and Addison Lee, plus mini-cabs and why should we care? They are all ways of getting around for a price.

Here’s the Problem!

Uber rides are so cheap they are gobbling up market share from Black Cabs and the others. The model of cheap fares to get you in followed by ‘surge pricing’ during peak times or after a few drinks from Soho causes Uber as a company to lose $3 billion a year. That’s big money. As Uber claimed to be just an app, there’s more to that story.

So the massively important concern for those who care about Black Cabs is whether allowing Uber to devour Black Cabs just means we get cheap fares until the cab are gone and then Uber can jack up the prices? We in London then just traded a brilliant Black Cab service for Uber, anyone with a license, car and sat nav.

Mayor Khan is supporting the Black cabs by spending our money helping them, great. More taxi lanes, fabulous, but if you want to keep your Black Cabs, then you really need to use them.

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