As a working taxi driver this is an awful verdict. One that hopefully will be quashed on appeal.
The overwhelming majority of taxi drivers don’t want to be “employed”.
The whole point of the job is the flexibility. I’m not a fan of Uber but in Cardiff all Uber drivers are existing licenced taxi drivers, driving licenced private hire cars. They’ve all been recruited from existing taxi companies so the overall number of vehicles hasn’t changed.
How the trade works is you get your badge, licence a vehicle with the council and get a radio ( phone with an app ) of a taxi firm. You pay the taxi firm a flat fee £94 a week in my case,adding this to other expenses comes to about £250, what I earn over that is my profit a week. Uber is different in that they take a % of your fares, they can do his because all payment comes from cards or paypall already loged with them. They take their cut and the driver has the balance payed into his/her bank account.
To go to work you turn on the app, you become live on the system and the app offers you jobs, you accept it and go and do it. Work finishes when you turn the app off, you choose your hours and can come and go as you please. This is what 99% of taxi drivers want, it’s a shame a couple of people who shouldn’t have got into the trade can spoil it for everyone else 🙁
I’m not sure how owner drivers could be employed as such. When your taking cash how does the taxi company know how much you’ve taken ? Do the pay minimum wage £7.20 but it cost’s me about £5 an hour to be on the road so £12.20.
Why why why should a system that’s worked for everyones benefit be changed on the whim of a couple of whiners 🙁
Not really sure why anyone outside of the trade has much of an opinion on the whole business.
Edit.
Über’s business model seems nasty and personally I won’t be disappointed if this sticks.
Having read the above, yes it is. But a ruling that applies to them might very well apply to all the trade.