Hopes throughout the Taxi trade of Uber not being relicensed by TfL, are not very high.

Uber’s four-day hearing at Westminster Magistrates’ Court is scheduled to begin today.

TfL rejected Uber’s application for a new London licence in November 2019 due to “several breaches that placed passengers and their safety at risk”.

While Uber have been given a whole day to put forward their opening argument, TfK have asked for just 45 minutes. 

This has all the hallmarks of a complete fit up just like the Arbuthnot case. 

In 2017 the company had been seeking a five-year licence but was refused. Following a two-day hearing at Westminster Magistrates' Court, Chief Magistrate Emma Arbuthnot said Uber was now considered "fit and proper" and they where put on probation for 15 months to prove themselves. 

Changing Their System 

After the probationary period TfL rejected Uber’s renewal, when it was found that a change to the company’s systems allowed unauthorised people to upload their photographs to legitimate driver accounts, enabling them to pick up passengers.

Jamie Heywood, Uber’s regional general manager for northern and eastern Europe, said: 

“We have worked hard to address TfL’s concerns over the last few months, rolled out real time ID checks for drivers, and are committed to keeping people moving safely around the city.”

Uber has been allowed to continue operating in London until the appeal process is completed.

While on probation, Uber where also found to have a large number of drivers with fake criminal record check certificates (13,000 exposed in the Sunday Times) yet TfL appear to have swept this scandal under the carpet, along with reports of millions of data breaches and thousands of complaints regarding sexual assaults including rape of passengers by their drivers. 

Unusually, when the probationary period finished, TfL decided not to revoke Uber’s licence, but just refused to renew. This gave Uber the right to carry on operating whilst on appeal.