Why London has banned Uber - again | The Business Standard
Skip to main content
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
The Business Standard

Thursday
June 12, 2025

Sign In
Subscribe
  • Latest
  • Economy
    • Banking
    • Stocks
    • Industry
    • Analysis
    • Bazaar
    • RMG
    • Corporates
    • Aviation
  • Videos
    • TBS Today
    • TBS Stories
    • TBS World
    • News of the day
    • TBS Programs
    • Podcast
    • Editor's Pick
  • World+Biz
  • Features
    • Panorama
    • The Big Picture
    • Pursuit
    • Habitat
    • Thoughts
    • Splash
    • Mode
    • Tech
    • Explorer
    • Brands
    • In Focus
    • Book Review
    • Earth
    • Food
    • Luxury
    • Wheels
  • More
    • Sports
    • TBS Graduates
    • Bangladesh
    • Supplement
    • Infograph
    • Archive
    • Gallery
    • Long Read
    • Interviews
    • Offbeat
    • Magazine
    • Climate Change
    • Health
    • Cartoons
  • বাংলা
THURSDAY, JUNE 12, 2025
Why London has banned Uber - again

World+Biz

Leonid Bershidsky
26 November, 2019, 06:10 pm
Last modified: 26 November, 2019, 06:15 pm

Related News

  • Uber contributed to Bangladesh economy with Tk5,500cr worth of activities in 2024: Report
  • Ride-sharing driver arrested for reportedly trying to kidnap actress Nijhum
  • Taiwan blocks Uber's $950m Foodpanda deal over competition concerns
  • Taiwan blocks Uber's $950 mln Foodpanda deal: Bloomberg News
  • Uber celebrates 8 years in Bangladesh, empowering over 350,000 drivers

Why London has banned Uber - again

The ride-hailing company has changed fundamentally since the days of Travis Kalanick. That makes TfL's complaints even more troubling this time.

Leonid Bershidsky
26 November, 2019, 06:10 pm
Last modified: 26 November, 2019, 06:15 pm
Why London has banned Uber - again

London first banned Uber under its buccaneer of a founding chief executive officer, Travis Kalanick — and now for a second time under Kalanick's successor, Dara Khosrowshahi, who was meant to be the adult in the room. Though the ban won't be a popular decision among Londoners and many will call it disproportionate, it shows Uber Technologies Inc. has more fundamental problems than the temperament of its top managers.

In September 2017, Transport for London (TfL), the UK capital's transportation authority, refused to issue the ride-hailing company a license to operate in London, one of the five cities that, according to Uber's initial public offering prospectus, account for 24% of its revenue. It cited the lack of proper background checks for drivers, the company's reluctance to report offenses allegedly committed by those drivers, and its use of software that denied rides to people identified as government or law enforcement officials.

Uber went to court, but simultaneously Khosrowshahi, who'd been CEO for less than a month, appealed to the London city authorities in a tweet:

The Business Standard Google News Keep updated, follow The Business Standard's Google news channel

Dear London: we r far from perfect but we have 40k licensed drivers and 3.5mm Londoners depending on us. Pls work w/us to make things right.

Both the legal appeal and the stated desire to work with regulators instead of fighting them, as Kalanick did, had beneficial effects. A London court granted Uber a 15-month license, and when it ran out, TfL extended it for two months as it waited for additional documents. Monday's news release from TfL praised the company for interacting with the transport body "in a transparent and productive manner."

But TfL went on to say that a change to Uber's technology had allowed unregistered drivers to upload their photos to the Uber app and to pick up passengers as though they were the booked driver, resulting in at least 14,000 uninsured trips — some of them with drivers who didn't have a valid license. TfL said dismissed and suspended Uber drivers were also able to use the system to pick up passengers.

Similar problems have been reported outside the UK, too. Earlier this year, an unregistered driver taking Uber bookings reportedly raped a woman in India. Another such case received much public attention in Australia: To beat Uber's identification system, which involves taking a selfie, the scammer simply held up the photo of a registered driver to the camera.

This is no longer about being uncooperative and treating regulators as enemies who work for traditional taxi lobbies. Khosrowshahi's Uber isn't like that. It has made an effort to cooperate with the London authorities, adding a clean-air fee to its fares and promising to push drivers to switch to electric vehicles by 2025. And it's pledged to continue working with TfL even as it appeals the new license denial. Uber's service, too, will continue during the appeal process.

TfL's complaint this time around is about operational failures and engineering errors. The company, which booked $5.4 billion in losses in the three years through 2018 and another $2.3 billion in the first three quarters of this financial year, appears still to be focused on grabbing market share rather than on the quality of its offering or optimal customer safety.

At the same time, Uber's expenses have stopped falling as a share of revenue — something that should be happening consistently if its breakneck global expansion is ever to pay off. Khosrowshahi has promised operational profitability by 2021, but the path there isn't clear.

Even if the company's London appeal is successful, it faces another legal challenge in Britain: Uber's drivers have sued for full employee, rather than contractor, status, and have been winning so far. The final decision of the UK Supreme Court on worker status is expected early next year. If it's in the drivers' favor, Uber will need to start adding value-added tax to its fares, paying unemployment insurance and funding employee benefits, thus erasing its cost advantage over traditional taxis. 

Khosrowshahi didn't just inherit a dishonest company culture from Kalanick; he was handed a business model based on running as fast and as far as possible without looking properly at regulatory risks and technological challenges. What's happening in the UK isn't just a local challenge. It's also a test of whether Uber can operate at a real-world speed in places where regulators and workers are harder to appease than in the US.

Disclaimer: This article first appeared on Bloomberg.com, and is published by special syndication arrangement.

Top News

uber

Comments

While most comments will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive, moderation decisions are subjective. Published comments are readers’ own views and The Business Standard does not endorse any of the readers’ comments.

Top Stories

  • Wreckage of a Boeing 787 Dreamliner showing part of its registration "VT-ANB" in Ahmedabad, India, June 12, 2025. REUTERS/Amit Dave
    All 242 people on board Air India plane have died
  • CA Yunus meets King Charles
    CA Yunus meets King Charles
  • News of The Day, 12 JUNE 2025
    News of The Day, 12 JUNE 2025

MOST VIEWED

  • File photo of ex-prime minister Sheikh Hasina and her son Sajeeb Wazed Joy. Photo: Collected
    Joy spends Eid with Hasina in India: Indian media
  • Infofgraphics: TBS
    DGHS issues 11-point directive to prevent spread of Covid-19 in Bangladesh
  • Saifuzzaman Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    UK crime agency now freezes assets of ex-land minister Saifuzzaman: AJ
  • File photo of BNP Standing Committee Member Amir Khasru Mahmud Chowdhury. Photo: Collected
    Khasru flies to London ahead of Yunus-Tarique meeting
  • Chief Adviser Muhammad Yunus speaks at the Chatham House in London on 11 June 2025. Photo: CA Press Wing
    No desire to be part of next elected govt: CA Yunus
  • Illustration: Khandaker Abidur Rahman/TBS
    Three hospitals ‘held hostage’ as discharged July uprising injured keep occupying beds

Related News

  • Uber contributed to Bangladesh economy with Tk5,500cr worth of activities in 2024: Report
  • Ride-sharing driver arrested for reportedly trying to kidnap actress Nijhum
  • Taiwan blocks Uber's $950m Foodpanda deal over competition concerns
  • Taiwan blocks Uber's $950 mln Foodpanda deal: Bloomberg News
  • Uber celebrates 8 years in Bangladesh, empowering over 350,000 drivers

Features

Among pet birds in the country, lovebirds are the most common, and they are also the most numerous in the haat. Photo: Junayet Rashel

Where feathers meet fortune: How a small pigeon stall became Dhaka’s premiere bird market

1d | Panorama
Illustration: Duniya Jahan/ TBS

Forget Katy Perry, here’s Bangladesh’s Ruthba Yasmin shooting for the moon

1d | Features
File photo of Eid holidaymakers returning to the capital from their country homes/Rajib Dhar

Dhaka: The city we never want to return to, but always do

3d | Features
Photo collage shows political posters in Bagerhat. Photos: Jannatul Naym Pieal

From Sheikh Dynasty to sibling rivalry: Bagerhat signals a turning tide in local politics

5d | Bangladesh

More Videos from TBS

What exactly happened to the ill-fated Boeing aircraft?

What exactly happened to the ill-fated Boeing aircraft?

1h | TBS World
Govt to set up Debt Office as loan burden to hit Tk29 lakh cr by FY28

Govt to set up Debt Office as loan burden to hit Tk29 lakh cr by FY28

1h | TBS Insight
Curfew imposed for second night in Los Angeles

Curfew imposed for second night in Los Angeles

2h | TBS World
When will coronavirus testing start in hospitals?

When will coronavirus testing start in hospitals?

2h | TBS Today
EMAIL US
contact@tbsnews.net
FOLLOW US
WHATSAPP
+880 1847416158
The Business Standard
  • About Us
  • Contact us
  • Sitemap
  • Advertisement
  • Privacy Policy
  • Comment Policy
Copyright © 2025
The Business Standard All rights reserved
Technical Partner: RSI Lab

Contact Us

The Business Standard

Main Office -4/A, Eskaton Garden, Dhaka- 1000

Phone: +8801847 416158 - 59

Send Opinion articles to - oped.tbs@gmail.com

For advertisement- sales@tbsnews.net