back to article The North remembers: York scraps Uber's licence over data breach

The northern city of York has voted against renewing Uber's licence as the backlash against the ride-hailing firm's business practices continues. Uber's licence to run its private hire taxi operations in the city is due to expire at midnight on December 23. But the city council has rejected its application for renewal because …

  1. Locky
    Coat

    Uber?

    Uber?

    We used to dream of catching an Uber....

  2. Detective Emil

    No humblebrag?

    Wow! Is York so unimportant that Uber does not consider it worth having its PR group cook up a mess of marketingspeak in response. You know the sort of thing: helping local economy, thousands of satisfied riders, work together to address this small misunderstanding …

  3. John Brown (no body) Silver badge

    Pricing?

    Is it still true that Uber are losing money on every ride? If so, then surely after all this time it's too late to claim they are just doing start-up introductory pricing and are now using their financial power to put real taxi companies out of business. I'm pretty sure that's illegal in the UK yet it never seems to get mentioned in any of the disputes over licensing.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Is it still true that Uber are losing money on every ride?

      I don't see how.

      It's been no cheaper than any other taxi firm when I've used it.

    2. Naselus

      Re: Pricing?

      "Is it still true that Uber are losing money on every ride?"

      Yes, it very much is. Uber's overhead is actually higher than other taxi firms, since the business model can't take advantage of even the very limited economies of scale other taxi companies do (like, for example, bulk-buying cars and employing their own maintenance teams), while also running a huge and very expensive international lobbying arm and legal department to try and get round local laws.

      So unless they're charging some 15% higher than other taxi companies, they're losing money. In their 'mature' markets, they've taken about as much of this from the drivers' share as they can get away with, but these markets still return losses.

      There's really no amount of scale that can possibly make Uber profitable - it can only ever compete with traditional private hire firms at a loss. The only way that the business model remotely works is it it can become a monopoly in a given market and jack up prices, and even that is questionable - about 50% of the cab market is very price-sensitive and will simply stop using private hire vehicles if the price rises.

      1. Gene Cash Silver badge

        Re: Pricing?

        > bulk-buying cars and employing their own maintenance teams

        Uber doesn't have these expenses since the owners buy & maintain their own vehicles.

      2. J.G.Harston Silver badge

        Re: Pricing?

        ...and if Uber really take the piss with prices it will just result in Private Hire being subject to the same price ceiling as Hackneys.

  4. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    Oi!

    Since when has York been neighbouring Sheffield? They are about 50 miles apart, in different counties and speak in a completely different language (Sheffield is all "Dees and Dars"). Its like saying that Oxford is neighbouring London.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oi!

      Indeed, York can go and associate itself with *shudders* Leeds

    2. Naselus

      Re: Oi!

      Your Britishness is showing. We regard 50 miles away as being practically another country. Meanwhile, in Houston, they regard it as a suburb.

    3. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oi!

      Differing counties? Only since 1974 surely? I know some who'll be deep in the cold, cold ground before they recognise a metropolitan county.....

    4. Excellentsword

      Re: Oi!

      It's in north and you're all the same.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Oi!

        It's in north and you're all the same.

        And they all have whippets, vote Labour, wear flat caps (except when on Ilkley Moor), and live exclusively on black pudding and mushy peas.

        1. AMBxx Silver badge
          WTF?

          Re: Oi!

          Sheffield doesn't even qualify as a Riding - just East, North and West.

    5. Alistair
      Windows

      Re: Oi!

      over here, 50 miles is "just round the corner."

      I commute more than that.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Oi!

        Yes, but this Yarkshire we're talking about: Shank's Pony is still the favoured means of transport. And there is also the small matter of the River Humber betwixt the two hamlets.

        Where's the flat cap icon when you need it?

        1. Naselus

          Re: Oi!

          "And there is also the small matter of the River Humber betwixt the two hamlets."

          We may not be as sophisticated as the southern folk, but we northerners have developed the concept of bridges.

          1. Muscleguy
            Boffin

            Re: Oi!

            Yet back in the day when cultures were being developed a natural boundary such as a large river or a mountain/hill range was enough.

            Dunsinain is about 2/3 of the way between here in Dundee and Perth, there are the remains of an iron age hill fort on the site. Birnam wood is to the NW, not an obvious place for an army from England to come from nes pas?

            Except the site of Dunsinain is very steep to the South, West and East but slopes to the North AND around Dunkeld/Birnam the mighty river Tay runs through a narrow steep sided gorge inviting relatively easy bridging. Such realities played a big part in warfare for quite some time. Stirling was the site of so many battles because it sits above marshy ground where the Clyde and Forth headwaters are. Any army heading north had to pass through there.

            The original Tay bridge which blew down was not built until the late 19thC. The road bridge was not finished until 1972 if memory serves. This suburb, Broughty (Broch Tay) Ferry is a ferry both because the rail ferry which preceded the bridge but also because horse, pedestrian and automobile transport was from here across to Tayport in Fife until both bridges were up. Ditto the two Queensferries on the Forth. Fine for post riders but you couldn't put an army over on them.

            1. Fruit and Nutcase Silver badge
              Coat

              Re: Oi!

              @Muscleguy

              Dunsinain...

              Birnam wood is to the NW, not an obvious place for an army [...] to come from nes pas?

              Tell that to Macbeth!

        2. Roland6 Silver badge
          Pint

          Re: Oi!

          >And there is also the small matter of the River Humber betwixt the two hamlets.

          If you live in north Linc's the river Humber isn't a "small matter", but then I wouldn't regard Hull and Grimsby as 'hamlets'...

    6. anothercynic Silver badge

      Re: Oi!

      Oxford *is* neighbouring London... London Oxford airport is closer to London than London Stansted.

      :-D

  5. macjules

    ... was met with a "huge cheer" from assembled black cabbies at the meeting.

    Presumably the militant mobile unit of the London Taxi Driver's Association ("Excuse me driver, are there really 3 York Minsters?"), rather than cab drivers of a certain colour?

    1. keith_w

      Re: ... was met with a "huge cheer" from assembled black cabbies at the meeting.

      Surely a London TDA driver would be taking you past St. Paul's or the Abbey 3 times, not York Minster?

      1. AMBxx Silver badge

        Re: ... was met with a "huge cheer" from assembled black cabbies at the meeting.

        There's no black cabs in York. Just your regular cabs with a sticker on the side.

        After York station messed up their queuing system, the last thing they needed was Uber.

  6. Charlie Clark Silver badge

    Grammar

    whether to appeal the decision

    Appeal is intransitive. We need to know whether the appeal is for or against the decision.

    1. jmch Silver badge
      Happy

      Re: Grammar

      "Appeal is intransitive. We need to know whether the appeal is for or against the decision."

      Technically correct, but English is a bastard language that borrows schadenfreudes from around the world and thumbs it's nose at grammatical niceties, and any English speaker reading that will have understood that it means appeal against.

      1. Charlie Clark Silver badge

        Re: Grammar

        I understand the who prescriptive / descriptive role of language and I'm not normally too much of a pedant. But the recent use (this year) of protest and appeal without the relevant prepositions is unusually annoying.

      2. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Re: Grammar

        and any English speaker reading that will have understood that it means appeal against

        And any Reg Commentard worthy of the title will upvote Charlie Clark, on the basis that Pedantry is one of our core values.

        1. tfewster
          Headmaster

          Re: Grammar

          It's not pedantry, it's technical accuracy ;-) We're nice people, really.

  7. ravenviz Silver badge
    Thumb Down

    due to expire at midnight on December 23

    That's handy then, just before when taxis are required more than ever!

    How many people might see fit to drive home after a few if they can't get a cab and it's freezing?

    1. AMBxx Silver badge

      There's no shortage of taxis in York. Think how many are needed every time there's a horse race.

      1. Anonymous Coward
        Anonymous Coward

        Is that a horse v taxi race?

        just asking.

    2. J.G.Harston Silver badge

      What sort of a plonker schedules their license application to expire two days before Christmas? Obvious failure of "fit and proper person" IMO.

      ...while not prejudging any case and treating all applications on their merits, etc. etc.

  8. bed

    Oi!! (II)

    Looking at a map of the United Kingdom, York is near the middle not the North. But don't let geogaphy get in the way of a headline.

    1. FIA Silver badge

      Re: Oi!! (II)

      .... that was brave!

      So, whilst you're here, any views on ST vs SW or Emacs/VI?

    2. Ol'Peculier

      Re: Oi!! (II)

      Exactly. I read a post on Quora last week from somebody that had gone to a B&B "far in the North".

      It was in Thirsk FFS...

    3. BebopWeBop
      Headmaster

      Re: Oi!! (II)

      Well not really. Based on common press usage, the North refers to Northern England. They then mass Wales into either South or North, and Scotland, mainland or picturescue highlands, occasionally with islands appended. Now in Scotland of course the South seems to very occasionally refer to England, and splitting my time between Edinburgh (common descriptions from the west === poncy bastard), and the Borders (turncoat Bastard - long memories of the Reavers round here where distinguishing between the pirates who ruled the border areas - England and Scotland - was difficult, they stole from everyone)you get a different type of distinction. I supose (although not having lived there) that Wales has the advantage, speaking a fairly healthy and robust alternative language in lots of the country and can distinguish between "southern bastards", "English speaking bastards" and "English incomer bastards"

    4. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oi!! (II)

      The north and south is divided using what is known as the "watford gap".

      https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Watford_Gap#North/South_divide

      Hope that clears it up.

      If in doubt if the beer is warm you are in the south, if it's cold you are in the north.

      1. Naselus

        Re: Oi!! (II)

        "If in doubt if the beer is warm you are in the south, if it's cold you are in the north."

        Statement also applies to any part of the anatomy.

      2. Roland6 Silver badge
        Pint

        Re: Oi!! (II)

        The north and south is divided using what is known as the "watford gap".

        ...

        Hope that clears it up.

        Well given the accuracy of the El Reg headline, we have to assume the article is referring to "The North". If memory serves me correctly, "The North", starts slightly north of Harrogate on the A1, hence York is in "The South"!

        But given El Reg is HQ'd in London, anything north of Watford (the town not the Gap) is in "the north".

    5. batfink

      Re: Oi!! (II)

      Nup - put that map down Bed. It's beyond the Watford Gap, therefore is North, and not be visited without passport and translator.

    6. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: Oi!! (II)

      Please don't confuse the UK with England.

      England is most of the bottom bit of the big island, except the pregnant belly on the West, that's Wales. The top part of the big island is Scotland, that is most definitely not England, and I think both countries wish it to remain that way (and would prefer for the other country to go away).

      In the middle of the big island means you are in the North Of England, although, if you have a wide definition of middle, you might hit the South of Scotland.

      Is that clearer?

    7. John H Woods Silver badge

      Re: Oi!! (II)

      "York is near the middle not the North"

      It's in the North of England. Which (*prepares for downvotes*) is most sensibly described as above 53 degrees.

  9. J.G.Harston Silver badge

    "the decision – made with seven votes to deny and three to renew – was met with a "huge cheer" from assembled cabbies at the meeting."

    I hope that means "when the cabbies were invited in after the decision had been made". The actual decision-making part of a license application/renewal is done behind closed doors with the applicants and interested parties waiting outside. And also, it is normal procedure to state the decision, never to give voting figures, as it is *the board* that makes the decision, not the individual members.

POST COMMENT House rules

Not a member of The Register? Create a new account here.

  • Enter your comment

  • Add an icon

Anonymous cowards cannot choose their icon

Other stories you might like