Hailo sides with London cabbies in Uber dispute as it ditches private hire
The battle between black cabs and taxi apps has just ramped up another notch.
Hailo, a mobile app which lets users hail a black cab or private minicab, today announced it had resigned its private license and is returning to black cabs only in London.
This comes as Transport for London is initiating a consultation on new regulations for private hire vehicle – many of which are expected to damage controversial taxi app Uber.
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Andrew Pinnington, chief executive of Hailo, said in a blog post entitled Back to Black: "Together we need to start by exposing the two big pieces of misinformation about the taxi trade: that cabbies don’t like new technology, and that taxis are a dying trade."
"Cabbies began using tech before companies like Uber even existed."
TfL's consultation includes plans for a minimum waiting time of five minutes– even if a car is immediately available – while sharing a ride with other people would be banned, as would displaying nearby drivers’ availability on apps. The rules would apply to Uber and other ride-hailing apps.
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