The move marks a further retreat from international operations for Uber, after it sold its China business to local rival Didi Chuxing in 2016.

Both firms are describing the deal as a win for both their companies and their passengers.

Grab is South East Asia’s most popular ride-sharing firm with millions of users across eight countries.

Uber will retain a 27.5% stake in the Singapore-based company. Uber’s chief executive will also join Grab’s board.

The value of the deal has not been made public.

But it includes the sale of all of Uber’s operations in the region, including food delivery service Uber Eats.

Uber’s chief executive Dara Khosrowshahi said this was “a testament to Uber’s exceptional growth across South East Asia over the last five years”.

“It will help us double down on our plans for growth as we invest heavily in our products and technology to create the best customer experience on the planet.”

Grab’s chief executive Anthony Tan said the acquisition “marks the beginning of a new era”.

“The combined business is the leader in platform and cost efficiency in the region. Together with Uber, we are now in an even better position to fulfil our promise to outserve our customers.”

Revenue hit by rivalry

Competition in the ride-hailing sector has been fierce, resulting in discounts and promotions offered to riders and drivers reducing profit margins.

But consolidation in the industry was widely expected after Japan’s Softbank Group made a large investment in Uber earlier this year.

SoftBank is a major investor in several of Uber’s rivals including Grab, China’s Didi Chuxing and India’s Ola.

It is believed to have pushed for consolidation in order to improve revenues.

Grab operates in eight countries including Singapore, Malaysia, Indonesia and Vietnam.

In an interview with the BBC in February, Grab’s boss said the firm wanted to become more relevant to users’ everyday lives and planned to expand its food delivery service.

“We want to be that app that allows you to buy your coffee, earn your rewards and then after that, you want to buy your lunch and order in, have your food delivered so you don’t have to go through the traffic jam,” Mr Tan said.

“And when you’re that relevant, that real to every customer across the 600 million base, then you create huge value.”

As a result of the merger, the GrabFood service will expand from two to four South East Asian countries by next quarter, Grab said in statement.

“This will be another great use case to drive continued adoption of the GrabPay mobile wallet and support Grab’s growing Financial Services platform,” the firm said.

Grab added that the acquisition would accelerate its path to profitability.

Last year, Uber lost $4.5bn (£3.2bn) – and its chief executive – as it underwent a fundamental shake-up following a harassment scandal.

In November, Uber’s Dara Khosrowshahi, said the company’s Asia operations were not going to be “profitable any time soon” and said he would like to see some changes.

The firm has also exited its Russian business, selling to local firm Yandex.

–

Source: BBC

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Forty-two Egyptian taxi drivers filed a lawsuit a year ago against U.S.-based Uber and its Dubai-based competitor Careem, arguing they were illegally using private cars as taxis. They also claimed that the two firms were registered as a call center and an internet company, respectively.

Khaled al-Gammal, a lawyer acting for the taxi drivers, said the court suspended the two companies’ licenses, banned their apps and suspended the use of private cars by the two ride-hailing services.

Tuesday’s decision was effective immediately, meaning the companies must suspend services pending a final ruling, although the companies have 60 days to appeal, the judicial sources said.

Uber said it would appeal and it was not immediately clear when a final ruling would be issued.

Careem said it had not yet received any official request to stop operations in Egypt, and continued to operate as normal.

Uber intends to appeal any court decision to suspend ride sharing licenses in Egypt, an Uber spokesperson said.

“We will do all we can to ensure millions of Egyptians can continue to enjoy the benefits of on-demand transportation,” the Uber official said.

“We are fully committed to working with the entire sector – including taxis – to improve mobility in Egypt together. We will appeal this decision, and continue to be available in Egypt in the meantime.”

Uber said Egypt is its largest market in the Middle East, with 157,000 drivers in 2017 signed up and 4 million users having used the service since its launch there in 2014.

The San Francisco-based company said last year it was committed to Egypt despite challenges presented by sweeping economic reforms and record inflation. In October Uber announced a $20 million investment in its new support center in Cairo.

It has had to make deals with local car dealerships to provide its drivers with affordable vehicles and adjust its ride prices to ensure its workers were not hit too hard by inflation.

Egypt is one of Uber’s fastest-growing markets, its general manager in the country, Abdellatif Waked, has said, according to state news agency MENA.

Egypt’s investment ministry said last year that a draft law regulating web-based transport services would provide a legal framework for companies like Uber, but did not say when that bill was likely to be passed.

Uber has faced regulatory and legal setbacks around the world amid opposition from traditional taxi services. It has been forced to quit several countries, such as Denmark and Hungary.

Last year, London deemed Uber unfit to run a taxi service and stripped it of its license to operate. Uber is appealing against the decision.

–

Source: Reuters

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A 49-year-old woman was hit by a car and killed as she crossed the street in Tempe, Arizona.

While self-driving cars have been involved in multiple accidents, it is thought to be the first time an autonomous car has been involved in a fatal collision.

Uber chief Dara Khosrowshahi said the death was “incredibly sad news”.

Police said the accident happened Sunday night while the car was in autonomous mode. A human monitor was also behind the wheel.

Police said the woman, Elaine Herzberg, had not been using a pedestrian crossing. She was taken to a local hospital, where she died.

The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board said they were sending teams to Tempe.

‘Wake up call’

Companies including Ford, General Motors, Tesla and Waymo are investing heavily in research to develop self-driving cars, which are often characterised as the future of the industry and hailed as a way to reduce traffic accidents.

Many states across America have welcomed the tests in the hope of keeping themselves at the forefront of new technology.

However, there have been warnings that the technology is being deployed before it is ready.

Anthony Foxx, who served as US Secretary of Transportation under former President Barack Obama, called the accident a “wake up call to the entire [autonomous vehicle] industry and government to put a high priority on safety.”

More than a dozen states in the US allow autonomous vehicles on the roads to some degree. Officials typically require a person to be on hand either in the car or remotely in case something goes wrong, according to the Center for Automotive Research.

The US is working on national safety guidelines for such vehicles.

Consumer Watchdog, a lobby group that has warned of the risks of autonomous cars, on Monday called for a moratorium of such vehicles on public roads, describing the accident as a “tragedy we have been fighting years to prevent”.

“We hope our calls for real regulation of driverless cars will be taken seriously going forward by Silicon Valley and the Trump Administration,” the group wrote on Twitter.

Uber started testing driverless cars in Pittsburgh in 2016. The ride-hailing firm has also been testing driverless cars in San Francisco, Pittsburgh, Toronto and the Phoenix area, which includes Tempe.

The death comes a year after Uber took its self-driving cars off the roadfollowing an accident that left a Volvo SUV on its side in Arizona. The programme was later reinstated.

Carla Bailo, president and chief executive of the Center for Automotive Research, said more information about how the crash occurred is necessary before officials can say what went wrong and how the self-driving system should be improved.

She also said the fatality should be considered in the context of all accidents.

More than 37,000 people, including almost 6,000 pedestrians, died in traffic accidents in the US in 2016, according to the US Department of Transportation.

“We need to be fair and look at all the data,” she said. “But I don’t think anybody is taking this lightly. By far safety is the first concern.

Tempe Mayor Mark Mitchell said he supports autonomous car tests because of the technology’s potential. He also praised Uber’s decision to suspend the programme as “responsible”.

“Our city leadership and Tempe Police will pursue any and all answers to what happened in order to ensure safety moving forward,” he said.

–

Source: BBC

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As part of the agreement, Uber is giving a 0.34% Uber stake to Waymo, worth approximately $245m (£177m).

Uber has also agreed not to use Waymo’s technology in its self-driving cars, though it maintains it never did.

Uber’s chief executive, Dara Khosrowshahi, expressed “regret” over the way his company had handled the issue.

In a statement, he said to Waymo: “While we won’t agree on everything going forward, we agree that Uber’s acquisition of Otto could and should have been handled differently.”

The deal comes after four days in court in which former chief executive Travis Kalanick took the stand.

He was accused of orchestrating a plan to steal more than 14,000 confidential files from Waymo when the firm was still part of Google. It is now owned by Google’s parent company, Alphabet.

“We are committed to working with Uber to make sure that each company develops its own technology,” a Waymo spokesman said on Friday.

“This includes an agreement to ensure that any Waymo confidential information is not being incorporated in Uber Advanced Technologies Group hardware and software.”

–

Source: BBC

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Ride-sharing firm Uber is being sued by Waymo, the self-driving company spun out of Google.

Uber is accused of stealing and using trade secrets relating to Lidar (light detection and ranging) – one of the technologies that enables an autonomous car to understand what is happening around it.

While bitter and expensive legal disputes between tech companies are common, it’s rare for these tussles to be played out in public and in front of a jury – and that’s what we’ll see over the next three or so weeks.

At stake is a potential damages payout of hundreds of millions of dollars. Or, perhaps worse, an injunction to halt, or at least hinder, Uber’s self-driving research. This would be a big blow to the company, which once said leading the way in self-driving tech was critical to its survival.

Waymo will make its case first, and then it will be up to Uber to defend itself.

What is the accusation?
The row centres around a man named Anthony Levandowski, a former Google employee considered a leading mind in autonomous research.

He worked on Google’s self-driving programme before leaving in January 2016. It is alleged that when he left, he took with him more than 14,000 confidential documents, which were blueprints and other technical information about Lidar.

He then founded Otto, an autonomous trucking company, which after less than a year was acquired by Uber for $680m (£481m). It formed the basis of Uber’s self-driving division, and Mr Levandowski was at the helm.

Waymo alleges this whole process was an elaborate charade, and that Uber, specifically then-chief executive Travis Kalanick, was in talks with Mr Levandowski before he left Google.

Otto was merely a front for Uber’s plan to pinch their technology, Waymo claims.

Uber denies this version of events, though not entirely. It’s not disputing the documents were taken, but insists it didn’t gain anything whatsoever from them.

The crucial point Waymo will need to prove is that not only did Uber have the documents, but that it used them to gain an advantage of some kind.

What are the trade secrets?
In the original filing, Waymo cited 121 secrets and patents Uber was said to have stolen. That number has since been reduced to eight.

The significance of this reduction depends on which company’s spin you want to follow. In background briefings, Uber said the fact so many of the claims were dropped from the case proved they were flimsy.

Waymo said it was forced to select a handful of the most significant claims in order to have a trial that didn’t last months, or even years.

Judge William Alsup’s comments, it has to be said, seem more closely aligned with Uber’s interpretation.

He described at least one of the dismissed “secrets” as “Optics 101” – meaning, the very basics of the technology, not the kind of insight that would justify calling it a secret.

Either way, the jury will be asked to rule individually on the eight secrets. Discussions about the specifics will be off limits to press, but the jury will see each secret in detail in order to make its decision.

Part of that process will be determining whether the information could be considered a secret in the first place.

Key to Waymo’s strategy will be convincing the jury that secrets can cover failure as much as success.

If Waymo spent millions of dollars and hundreds of hours discovering that something didn’t work, is Uber capitalising on that trade secret by saving itself the effort?

Who will appear in court?
While Mr Levandowski is on the witness list, don’t expect much if he appears.

Throughout this case, he has “pleaded the Fifth” – the protection afforded by the American constitution to not say anything that could incriminate oneself. Because of this, Uber has since fired him.

Should Waymo call Mr Levandowski to the stand, we can assume it’s theatre – the man at the centre of the row refusing to speak a peep is not a great look for Uber.

We expect, within the first few days, to hear from Mr Kalanick. The controversial co-founder of Uber was forced to step down as chief executive last year following a string of scandals of which this case is but one.

We are also likely to see Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Google’s co-founders.

Google’s co-founders are expected to be called to the stand
Less glamorous but perhaps more useful will be the numerous Uber engineers who will be rigorously questioned about how they were directed by Mr Levandowski, and whether those stolen documents and secrets ever surfaced in Uber’s work.

Overseeing the proceedings is Judge Alsup, a favourite among journalists for his highly-quotable courtroom quips, but not a person either legal team will be looking forward to dealing with.

Judge Alsup is a force to be reckoned with: he famously learned some coding skills in order to have a better grasp on a different trial between Google and database specialist Oracle.

What are the strategies and risks?
Jury trials bring about a whole new psychology to how lawyers must approach a case. Attacks and rebuttals must be thorough but not overwhelming; simplified but not patronising.

Uber knows it could face a jury which, being from San Francisco, may already hold a negative view of the company.

During the selection process, Uber asked potential jurors if they were, had been, or just knew a taxi driver – such is the animosity over Uber’s impact on traditional business. It also asked if anyone had deleted Uber’s app in protest at various ethical decisions the company has made in recent times.

Uber’s baggage in front of the five man, five woman jury can’t be understated: Mr Kalanick has a reputation as a hard, cut-throat operator – and that’s just to his friends.

Given a past of covering up a security breach, surveilling journalists, and using secret software to evade government officials, it will hardly be a huge leap for the jury to believe Mr Kalanick wasn’t above tapping up a rival’s star employee.

Privately, Uber accuses Waymo of wanting to dumb down the jury’s technical expertise in the hope of getting jurors who know less about sophisticated technology. Waymo strongly denies this, and if it is to win it will need to do a lot more than paint Uber as some kind of tech bogeyman.

We can expect Judge Alsup to have little patience for anything that strays far from the intricate facts of the trade secrets in question.

Ultimately, it’s up to Waymo to draw a clear line, from stolen documents, to Uber’s self-driving work.

What are the potential outcomes?
Let’s consider the jury decides that Uber stole and used all the trade secrets of which it’s accused. That could mean it would have to pay more than $1bn in damages.

Calculating such an amount could be difficult, though. It’s hard to measure the real cost to Waymo given the technology is yet to be commercialised, at least in the ways these companies envision.

More straightforward would be an injunction that would stop Uber’s self-driving programme altogether.

That would be an extreme outcome – it’s more likely that any injunction would just apply to whichever trade secrets the jury decides were infringed.

As I see it, there is a scenario would allow both companies to claim a moral victory, even if, technically, the decision goes Waymo’s way.

If a jury decides Uber did steal and use trade secrets and an injunction is handed down, Uber will immediately brush it off by claiming it doesn’t use the secrets anyway.

Indeed, the company has already outsourced its Lidar needs to San Jose-based Velodyne. At most, an injunction might impact Uber’s plans to make the technology in-house.

Another outcome, of course, is that Waymo fails to convince the jury that any trade secrets were stolen, and that’s the end of that.

What is the bigger picture?
This case is being so keenly watched because it already represents an enormous argument in Silicon Valley, one about the cross-pollination of ideas and expertise.

When extraordinary brains do incredible work at powerful companies, what right do they have to take those ideas with them?

Uber unquestionably benefitted from Mr Levandowski’s expertise. But is that because of trade secrets, or simply because of who he is?

The jury won’t be asked that question, but the outcome of this case will be seen by many as providing an answer.

–

Source: BBC

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It also had to agree to have the effectiveness of the stricter controls assessed by an independent auditor every two years for the next 20 years.

The charges relate to God View, a software program that enabled the ride-sharing company to monitor real-time locations of customers and drivers.

Uber faces fines if it fails to comply.

The US Federal Trade Commission began investigating Uber following allegations about the God View program in the media in 2014.

After the investigation started, Uber developed an automated system for monitoring employee access to customer and driver personal data.

However, the FTC said the company had stopped using it eight months after it had been put in place.

Concerns were also raised over a 2015 breach that exposed personal data about more than 100,000 Uber drivers.

“Uber failed consumers in two key ways: first by misrepresenting the extent to which it monitored its employees’ access to personal information about users and drivers, and second by misrepresenting that it took reasonable steps to secure that data,” said FTC acting chairman Maureen Ohlhausen, who presided over the settlement.

“Our order requires a culture of privacy sensitivity for Uber.

“It is going to make them take privacy into account every day.”

Uber said it was pleased that the FTC investigation had ended.

“We have significantly strengthened our privacy and data security practices since then and will continue to invest heavily in these programmes,” an Uber representative said.

Comparitech security researcher Lee Munson said: “While such an agreement with the FTC may sound incredibly arduous, Uber will probably benefit from a necessary change in approach which will stand it in good stead for the incoming EU General Data Protection Regulation, which threatens stiff penalties for companies that are lax with employee and customer data.”

Fines and lawsuits
Apart from the FTC investigation, Uber was also sued by the New York attorney general over the God View allegations.

And, in January 2016, Uber agreed to encrypt all rider geo-location data, as well as to pay a penalty of $20m (£16m) to settle concerns over how it had handled the data breach.

One year later, the FTC ordered Uber to pay a further $20m over claims the company had misled drivers about the potential income they could earn.

Separately, Uber’s former forensic investigator Ward Spangenberg has been suing the company over alleged age discrimination and whistleblower retaliation.

In a court declaration from December 2016, Mr Spangenberg alleged that Uber had let its employees spy on celebrities and ex-partners.

–

Source: BBC

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A consortium led by Japan’s Softbank is buying a chunk of the company from existing shareholders as well as new Uber shares in a $9.3bn (£6.7bn) deal.

Mr Kalanick, who stepped down as chief executive in June, is selling $1.4bn worth of stocks, it is widely reported.

While he had long been worth billions on paper, this deal cements his wealth.

Mr Kalanick was driven out of the top job by a series of scandals, but his ties with Uber remain strong.

He remains a director at the company and is offloading less than a third of his holding – meaning he still has a stake that’s currently worth about another $3bn.

A billionaire, but with reduced powers

Dave Lee, BBC North America technology reporter

If you believe in karma, look away now.

Travis Kalanick is a man who presided over a rampant culture of sexism, the covering up of a major hack, spying on journalists and, allegedly, the theft of trade secrets from Google. To name but a few issues.

And now he’ll officially be a billionaire.

On the other hand, the finalising of this massive deal will see Mr Kalanick’s powers reduced. He’s selling 29% of his shares, and Softbank, the Tokyo-based group which seems to be taking a stake in every bright idea in Silicon Valley, will gain two seats on Uber’s board.

The cash injection will offer both a boost and a cushion as Uber looks to continue its loss-heavy strategy to grow in just about every city and major town in the world.

The consortium’s $9.3bn will buy it a new 17.5% stake in Uber.

Of that $9.3bn, about $1.3bn is a cash investment in new shares, with the rest going to existing Uber investors.

Uber called the deal a “great outcome for our shareholders, employees and customers, strengthening Uber’s governance as we double down on our technology investments and continue to bring our services to more people in more places around the world”.

Softbank, which was already an Uber investor, said it was “very pleased” with the deal and looked forward to “helping Uber become an even bigger global success”.

“Uber has a very bright future under its new leadership,” said Softbank director Rajeev Misra.

As part of the deal, Uber’s board has expanded from 11 to 17 directors, with Softbank’s investor group taking two of the new seats.

San Francisco group Dragoneer is another key investor.

The shake-up comes as Uber concludes a difficult year, in which it faced a sexual harassment scandal, investigations by regulators and a lawsuit over allegedly stolen technology.

It also continues to experience steep losses.

SoftBank has been making a series of increasingly high-profile technology investments, backing China’s Didi Chuxing and Southeast Asian taxi-hailing app Grab, among other companies.

–

Source: BBC

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According to him, the advent of Uber and other taxi-hailing companies presents tough competition that puts traditional taxi businesses at risk, particularly if they fail to embrace technology.

[contextly_sidebar id=”7WqYy7rkau5vZ9FOBR1PgiKzMIj1LqKb”]Speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Wednesday, Titus-Glover said local assemblies could develop a system that will ensure proper log of commercial drivers in the area is kept with each driver being easily traceable by passengers they pick.

Such a system, similar to the ones used by ride-hailing companies like Uber would ensure the safety of potential clients, making the taxis more convenient options for them.

“The distinction is the technological challenge…The local assemblies must take up the challenge. The assemblies must up their game so that they be able to track all these vehicles commercial taxi drivers within the jurisdiction of these assemblies. Uber has come with a competition, but what are they doing,” he said.

He emphasized that the Ministry was determined to ensure that, relevant policies to regulate the larger transport industry are introduced.

He, therefore, called on the various local assemblies to take charge of processes to ensure that commercial drivers are able to match the competition presented by Uber and other taxi-hailing companies.

“The assemblies must sit down so that all these taxi drivers that are operating within these assemblies, they should be able to get the application, and the drivers be taken through some training. This is where we have reached, in this era, we are going with technology, therefore, the assemblies must take up the challenge,” he said.

Taxi drivers agitated

Local commercial drivers in the country’s capital, Accra are protesting over the operations of Uber in the country.

They claim that the operation of Uber is negatively impacting on their business.

In their complaint to the Ministry of Transport, they, among other things, proposed the imposition of commercial vehicle operation taxes on Uber drivers and the branding of Uber vehicles as commercial taxis.

But the Transport Ministry has not considered their proposals.

At a recent meeting between the three stakeholders, the Ministry ordered Uber to present data on the number of vehicles on the platform among other information to ensure transparency in their operation.

Many Ghanaians have rallied against the taxi drivers following their action, accusing them of being responsible for the success of Uber’s operations in the country due to their poor services.

However, the taxi drivers operating under the Ghana Private Road Transport Union [GPRTU], have said they are not scared of competition from Uber.

The Vice Chairman of GPRTU, Robert Saba in a Citi News interview said, “We believe in competition, we do not fear competition. We’ve been in existence several years for now so we do not fear competition, but the right thing must be done…We don’t have that platform but we can create that platform.”

–

By: Jonas Nyabor/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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This comes after the company took part in a stakeholder meeting that was held by the Ministry of Transport of Ghana on January 10.

After the meeting, some reports indicated that Uber had been ordered to adhere to rules that stated that Uber cars must be painted like taxis, but the Ministry later clarified that such reports were untrue.

“While no conclusions have been reached, we will continue these conversations towards an outcome that benefit all stakeholders in the transportation ecosystem. We will meet again next month with officials of the Ministry of Transport of Ghana to further update stakeholders on the outcomes of our policy outreach,” said the General Manager of Uber West Africa, Lola Kassim, in a statement that was released after the meeting.

Ever since Uber was launched in Ghana, regular taxi drivers and some transport service providers have been raising concerns about how people are using their private cars to provide taxi services, and not paying the various taxes and levies that they are supposed to pay.

Uber cars must have taxi colours – GPRTU insists

The Ghana Private Road Transport Union [GPRTU] has insisted that Uber vehicles must be sprayed with taxi colours per Ghana’s traffic regulations.

According to the Union, per the current laws, Uber’s vehicles are operating illegally in Ghana because they are breaching some requirements of the Road Traffic Regulation 2012, L.I 2180.

The Transport Ministry’s Public Relations Officer, Gloria Holm-Graves, told Citi News that the said meeting was not conclusive.

“The meeting wasn’t conclusive because it is an ongoing process. We are listening to some of the laws and all that. The commercial drivers were raising all those things; about what is required for one to operate as a taxi service in the country, all the regulations that are available that one is expected to fulfill, and all of that.”

But speaking on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, Vice Chairman of GPRTU, Robert Saba, who said they are not scared of the competition posed by Uber, insisted that they are only fighting for fairness.

According to him, per Ghana’s traffic regulations, taxis must have some of their parts painted with yellow colours as well as have a section indicating the number of passengers the taxi could take, information about the owner of the taxi among other things, adding that because Uber taxis do not have such information; they are currently, what he termed, “invisible.”

He also insisted that because taxi drivers pay tax and other levies to the state, Uber drivers must do same.

“We believe in competition, we do not fear competition. We’ve been in existence several years for now so we do not fear competition but the right thing must be done.”

“What I’m saying is that they [Uber], are operating like taxis but they do not pay the fees which taxis are paying. For instance, the wings of Uber vehicles must be painted yellow in accordance with section 130 of the L.I. You cannot use private vehicles for commercial purposes. That is also an offence. We pay fees to District Assemblies to emboss our vehicles, do they do that? They do not so all these expenses are not taken into consideration by them, so if they reduce their fares, that is good enough.”

Police must arrest Uber vehicles

Further arguing why he believes Uber vehicles should be painted with taxi colours, the GPRTU Vice Chairman said that should be the case “because Uber’s operation is equal to that of a taxi.”

He also insisted that drivers of Uber vehicles should be arrested by the Police because they are flouting the traffic regulations.

“The police should be arresting them, but they are failing to do that. The district assemblies are also part,” he added.

About Uber App

Uber Technologies Inc. is a global taxi technology company headquartered in San Francisco, California, United States, operating in over 630 cities worldwide and has a platform with an embedded GPS system which is also mobile friendly and connects passengers to taxi services at an affordable rate.

In Ghana, Uber is present in the national capital Accra, and the Ashanti Regional capital, Kumasi.

Hundreds of drivers have jumped onto the platform to make a living either on full-time or part-time basis.

In recent times, there had been arguments about whether Uber was a transport company or a technology service provider.

We can create an App like Uber – GPRTU

According to the GPRTU Vice Chairman although they do not have such a platform or APP used by Uber, they could also create one to enhance their services.

“We don’t have that platform but we can create that platform. We can do that. But I’m saying that their operations are not in accordance with road traffic regulations that are what we have to tackle for now.”

–

By: Jeffrey Owuraku Sarpong/citifmonline.com/Ghana

Follow @ojsarpong

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A licensed driver on its app must take an uninterrupted six-hour break after 10 hours of driving with a passenger or travelling to pick up someone.

Drivers who do not take a long enough break will not be able to log in to the app and take trips.

The ride-hailing firm says it believes the move “is an industry first”.

But the association that represents black cab drivers told the BBC it was “a toothless cap”.

‘No rule’

Andrew Byrne, Uber’s head of policy, said: “We are not aware of any other private hire operator in the UK that has introduced such a limit.

“While drivers only spend an average of 30 hours a week logged into our app, we want to do our part to ensure they don’t drive tired.”

A director of the National Private Hire and Taxi Association told the BBC: “There is no rule for our drivers.

“Over the last two decades there have been at least three attempts made by the European Commission to put UK taxi and private hire vehicles under the working time directive.

“But it’s never been allowed to happen because our taxis, unlike buses and coaches, do not have a tachograph fitted so we can’t keep track of drivers’ hours or restrict them.”

Steve McNamara, general secretary of the Licensed Taxi Drivers’ Association for black cab drivers, told the BBC: “This is a toothless cap that still allows Uber’s drivers to work over 100 hours a week, and is a PR stunt that will not improve passenger safety.

“Uber can’t claim its drivers are self-employed and aren’t subject to minimum wage, but then try to limit the hours that they can work.”

“Unlike Uber drivers, all black cab drivers undertake enhanced driving tests and as such are well aware of the dangers of working long hours. This high standard of safety is reflected in the low number of accidents involving licensed black cab drivers”.

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Source: BBC

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