Your leader (20 September) is wrong to suggest that drivers who use the Uber app in London are not regulated. All UK drivers are licensed by the local authority and must have commercial insurance in place. In the capital, this process includes going through the same enhanced Disclosure and Barring Service check as teachers and black cab drivers, a medical assessment and a map reading test.
What we object to is Transport for London piling unnecessary extra costs on to private hire drivers that won’t apply to black cab drivers, such as written English exams costing £200. These new rules threaten the livelihoods of thousands of drivers.
As for surge pricing, fares automatically rise when demand is very high to encourage more drivers to go to busy areas so passengers can get a car. This is completely transparent in the app, all riders are treated the same and it has nothing to do with phone battery.
Tech companies continually innovate to improve our cities. For example, our new car-sharing option, UberPool, has saved more than 1.3m miles being driven and we recently launched fully electric cars too. Government should be supporting, not stifling, such progress.
Tom Elvidge
General manager, Uber London
