Uber loses London license

Uber has lost its license to operate in the city beyond midnight local time, London transit officials stated.

In a statement, Transport for London (TfL) said it had identified “a pattern of failures by the company including several breaches that placed passengers and their safety at risk.

Uber reacted to this, saying that it would appeal the decision not to renew its license, describing it as “extraordinary and wrong.”

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However, It can continue to provide services in London while the appeal is heard.

The city first declined to renew its license in 2017, citing several concerns including how Uber responded to serious crimes.

Uber appealed that decision and was later granted permission to operate for 15 months.

In late September, the regulator granted Uber an additional two-month license.”We have fundamentally changed our business over the last two years and are setting the standard on safety,” Jamie Heywood, Uber’s general manager for northern and eastern Europe, said in the statement.

“TfL found us to be a fit and proper operator just two months ago, and we continue to go above and beyond.”

But transit officials, and Mayor of London Sadiq Khan, expressed concern that at least 14,000 trips in recent months involved unauthorized drivers uploading their photos to the accounts of other Uber drivers, allowing them to pick up passengers as if they were the booked driver.

“At this stage, TfL can’t be confident that Uber has the robust processes in place to prevent another serious safety breach in the future,” Khan said in a statement.