Uber has been given a licence to operate in York again.
Councillors voted to grant the firm a private hire operator’s licence for the first time since 2017 after a mammoth four-hour meeting last night (Monday).
It means the company can now recruit York-based drivers. In the last six years, only Uber drivers licensed elsewhere have operated in the city.
The decision by the licensing and regulatory committee to grant the licence came despite vociferous protests by the city’s taxi drivers.
They demonstrated outside the meeting at the City of York Council West Offices and then queued up to condemn the app-based ride hailing firm.
York Taxi Association chair Arfan Asif told the committee: “If you stand firm with the decision made here in December 2017 to not renew Uber’s licence, when Labour are in government you will see an end to all out-of-town drivers and York will once again have control of its licensed vehicles and drivers working in the city.”
Driver Mohammed Solomon said: “Please help your local drivers to get enough to feed their families. It will only happen if the outsiders get stopped working in York.”
Darren Avey, director of Station Taxis said: “Traditional taxi services require rigorous background checks and vetting processes. Uber’s approach to driver recruitment is significantly less stringent.
“There have been too many reports of assaults, harassment and misconduct by Uber drivers. Granting a private hire licence to Uber would mean endorsing a system of profit over passenger safety.
“Moreover, Uber’s business model is wholly unethical, and granting Uber a private hire licence would be rewarding unfair business practices.”
Chair of York Taxi Association Arshad Mahmood said: “Out-of-town Uber drivers have caused a major crash outside the Mount School and many more dangerous driving incidents due to lack of local knowledge.
“Uber is going to ruin livelihoods of York Hackney drivers with unfair competition.”
Licensed drivers
Matt Boxall, York council’s head of public protection, told councillors that Uber was denied a renewal of their licence in December 2017 due to a significant data breach and 150 complaints about the firm.
He said Uber now operated a 24/7 emergency line for council officers in the event of any concerns.
Cllr Mark Warters (Independent) said he was “deeply uncomfortable that we’re determining this in a pre election period when other meetings a lot less contentious, have been cancelled”.
Councillors were told that the monitoring officer’s advice was that the decision was not politically contentious.
Matthew Freckelton, head of cities for Uber, said that the company had completed one billion trips in the UK since 2012, adding £5bn to the economy. “Uber only uses drivers and vehicles that have been licensed,” he said.
“We do not use unlicensed drivers or vehicles. So a driver will get himself and a vehicle licensed by a licensing authority like yourselves, and then come to us to onboard with Uber.”
He added that “our drivers can’t refuse trips to people with guide dogs or wheelchair users.”
Paul Kane, Uber’s UK head of safety, ran through the company’s security procedures, including the fact that all trips were tracked by GPS “so we have a record of all of the trip from from beginning to end. This helps Uber, licensing authorities and the police and with any investigations that they may want to take after after the trip, about anything that may have occurred.”
Riders could share their trip with trusted contacts and there was an emergency button on the app that called 999.
Questioned by Cllr Warters about Uber drivers regularly picking up customers from York taxi ranks, which can only be used legally by licensed Hackney drivers, Neil McGonigle, Uber’s head of driver operations, said they educated drivers about their legal duties and would take action against drivers found to be in breach.
Mr Freckelton said Uber had “a number of geofences set up to try and ensure that pickup and drop offs don’t take place on Hackney ranks”.
Asked by Cllr Kate Ravilious about wheelchair accessible vehicles, Mr Freckelton said Uber was not a fleet provider, the drivers own the vehicles. “If York licensed drivers with wheelchair accessible vehicles that on-board with our platform, then a wheelchair accessible vehicle will be bookable through the Uber app.”
Majority vote
At the end of the meeting, Cllr Jason Rose said the previous licence was revoked due to a serious data breach by Uber “and we have no idea if they’re better or worse than that now”.
Cllr Paula Widdowson said that, by putting in place a proper working relationship between the council and Uber, more safeguarding was possible. She didn’t see any reasons to decline the licence.
Cllr Danny Myers said, in his view, the lack of welfare facilities for drivers, such as an unstaffed office and no toilet facilities, meant Uber failed the ‘fit and proper test’ required for a licensed operator.
He then proposed that the licence was refused on the basis of the lack of welfare facilities and evidence of Uber data breaches. But only three councillors voted in favour of this motion, and seven voted against.
Cllr Ashley Mason then proposed that Uber be granted a private hire operator’s licence, with two additional conditions: that they would use geofencing to prevent pick-ups in Hackney taxi ranks and other specific places; and that Uber would disseminate information about Blue Badge access in York to its drivers.
This was carried by nine votes to three. Uber was granted a licence for one year.