it's five years since uber first
launched its app in London and in that
time it's made its fair share of both
enemies and friends but today Transport
for London announced that it would not
be renewing ubers licence to operate in
the city at the end of this month in a
statement they said the company was not
fit and proper to hold a licence and had
demonstrated a lack of corporate
responsibility cfls concerns relate to
four main areas rivers approach to the
reporting of serious criminal offences
such as sexual assaults by its drivers
for which it's been criticised by the
Metropolitan Police the way the company
performs background checks on its
drivers and the way it obtains medical
certificates finally TfL raised concerns
about ubers use of a controversial piece
of software known as grey ball which
critics have argued has allowed eber to
avoid law enforcement and sting
operations on its drivers well I think
this is a courageous decision by
Transport for London because for some
time now serious concerns have been
raised about ubers business practices
and I think the evidence has built up
over a considerable period of time now
to show that uber is an unfit and
improper regulator who proclaims to have
three and a half million users in London
but immediate concerns are for its
thousands of drivers it's a devastating
decision there's 120,000 private hire
drivers in London more than doubled that
number has been in the last five years
all of those people are now facing
unemployment and worse than that debt
associated with vehicle commercial
vehicle loans that they've taken out to
go and work for uber
for its part we've organized all of the
allegations made in EF Elle's
announcement and said it will
immediately appeal the decision
crucially the company will retain the
right to operate during the appeals
process which could take many months so
cereal users of the app shouldn't fret
about their morning commute quite yet
Matthew Thompson BBC News