London black taxis vs Uber

London’s black cab drivers want to offer superfast WiFi to passengers travelling across the capital and have taxi ranks outside every Night Tube stop as part of new efforts to keep the taxi industry competitive.

The growing pressure the taxi trade is facing from Uber has resulted in an alliance of cab drivers, the London Taxi Company, trade unions and black cab apps such as Gett and Hailo to form a set of plans which they feel will help the trade continue to be the ‘best in class’.

They have advised that they will be calling upon the next Mayor of London to get on board with the ’28-point plan’ to help the industry thrive.

Steve McNamara of the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association (LTDA) stated; “What we are launching today is London’s taxi revolution, a guarantee to make the best taxi service in the world even better. Faster, smarter, greener is our offer and our ask of the next Mayor of London,”

Peter Johansen, the chief executive of London Taxi Company said: “London acts as a beacon for cities around the world and the next mayor has the opportunity to enact an ambitious policy agenda to ensure that our city remains a world leader in technology, service and on the environment. This means there are real choices to be made for the next mayor to keep pace with London’s ever changing transport challenges.”

One of the group’s main objectives is to have a cap placed on the number of licensed minicabs in London. The plan also calls for minicab drivers to pay the congestion fee which they are currently exempt from.

“The traffic in central London has to flow better and move faster, we must continue to adopt new technologies including apps, wifi and contactless to ensure we are smarter,” said McNamara. “Coupled with the right investment in infrastructure, such as rapid charging points to support the introduction of the new zero emissions taxi by 2018, we can make London the world’s first zero emissions taxi city.”

They have also pointed out that they would like the Mayor and TFL to integrate black taxis and ranks into plans drawn up the same way in which the Tube and Buses have been. With this they have requested that taxi ranks are set up at all 24-hour Tube stations “to create a fully integrated transport services”.

A further plan flagged as “action required” is a pilot for fast WiFi to be rolled out over the next two to five years in order to bring the industry more up to date and in line with services provided by other modes of transport.