Uber drivers are among those who face paying an extra £3,000 a year each to operate in London even if the company keeps its licence, according to The Sunday Times.
Transport for London (TfL), the regulator, plans to force private-hire vehicles to pay the £11.50-a-day congestion charge because of concern that the proliferation of minicabs is choking streets and emptying bus services. If Uber shoulders the payments, it could cost the company between £20m and £60m a year.
At a meeting of licensing and enforcement officers in Leeds this month Tom Moody, head of policy for taxis at TfL, said the authority would propose the move within months. “We will be looking at the congestion charge potentially for all private hire vehicles,” he said. “In the summer of next year, we will likely be consulting on that and other policies.”
It is understood that the “other policies” being considered by Sadiq Khan, London’s mayor, include extending the charge from 6pm until 11pm or midnight and applying it on Saturdays for the first time.
Congestion and Uber competition have caused sharp drops in bus use.
According to a presentation to the TfL board, passenger numbers have fallen 5.6% in two years, creating a £100m hole in the authority’s coffers. In big cities outside London, bus use is down 4%.
Source : Sunday Times.
TAXI LEAKS EXTRA BIT:
It seems there was a method behind TFL's madness of giving out PHV licenses like sweets, after all....they are now going to charge them the congestion charge. That's 125,000 times £30k per year. The expanded London Minicab fleet is now being blamed by TfL for the massive congestion that is bringing London to a grinding halt.
Funny, when Tom Moody announced the proposed bonus to TFL's coffers, he never once mentioned the segregated cycle lanes or the fact that at any one time, there are twice the number of buses needed.
The daily spectacle of a wall of buses, adding to the congested pollution...Total number of passengers 6, not counting the drivers!
Outside the rush hours, you can see empty bus after empty bus. Driver etiquette is appalling with blatant disregard to yellow box junctions (which buses are exempt from paying fines).
We've also seen a huge upturn in the number of bus related RTAs, caused be driver fatigue. It's a well known fact that many bus drivers are supplementing their income by driving long shifts ironically working for Uber. TfL registered Prius can be spotted, parked up outside most bus garages.
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