Re: "Dawn Raid Manual"
Unless lawmakers passed laws that made it illegal and applied it retroactively. Which happens all the time.
You see lawmakers doing this in your face constantly. Take the Boris Johnson confidence vote for example. There weren't enough votes to oust him outright, so those that opposed him decided to push an agenda to change the rules. I don't know how far they got, because the clown resigned before any changes could take place...but it was there on the table.
I can only assume that the push to regulate and fuck around with Uber was driven entirely by political folks wanting a slice of the pie. I have yet to meet anyone that is staunchly against Uber in any way.
There are plenty of folks that won't use them for various reasons, but nobody that irrationally hates Uber simply for existing. I think most people, myself included, think that competition is a good thing and that public transport and mini cab firms have had a tight grip on transport for way too long. It used to be the case that if you went anywhere, there would only be two or three mini cab operators in a given area. Now on top of that there are various options available and pricing (at least in my area near Heathrow) has become a lot more competitive.
That said, I have noted some subtle tactics that have been employed by the airport that might be there specifically to keep independent ride share drivers out of the competition.
For example, it now costs £5 to drop a passenger off at T5 (it's all done via ANPR and works a bit like the congestion zone). Now my local mini cab firm has an agreement with the airport whereby they pay a flat annual fee regardless of the number of passengers they drop off. A sole independent Uber driver has no chance of getting a deal like this.
Unless Uber has an agreement with T5 (which seems unlikely) then this would be a shady move, no?
I mean your Addison Lee's and so on can strike a deal, but that one decent local mini cab firm operating out of a shed in a railway arch or even a friend you might have that works for Uber at night without telling anyone cannot compete.
So yeah, Uber might well be shady, but that doesn't preclude everyone else around them being just as shady also.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
