Minutes:
The Chairman of the Licensing Committee gave a verbal update on the meeting which he and the Council’s Licensing Officer had attended with Uber’s Head of Cities. The meeting discussed the implications of the presence of Uber Drivers within the Borough and their registration with Transport for London (TFL) which some Surrey Heath Hackney Carriage and Private Hire licensed vehicles felt was unfair competition.
At the beginning of 2018, Uber had created internal regional boundaries to where its drivers could pick-up passengers. The exclusive London Zone was expanded to include London and the surrounding areas which included Surrey Heath. It was picked up during the meeting that there some anomalies in respect of the boundary area within the Surrey Heath borough area. As a result, the Council had asked Uber if they were minded to conduct a review in respect of the boundaries and in particular the anomalies with in the Surrey Heath Area. However, due to the significant resource to undertake this work Uber declined to undertake this work immediately, but committed to review the Surrey Heath area when they next remapped and reviewed the boundary. Furthermore, it was noted that there were Uber Drivers who lived in Surrey Heath but were registered by Transport for London (TFL).
Members were advised that if they had concerns in respect of enforcement issues regarding Uber drivers, these should be flagged with the Police or the Council’s Licensing Team. It was noted that a longer term solution could be the creation of nationwide rules in order to remove inconsistencies in conditions and rules between different geographical areas. It was noted that a follow up meeting had been arranged with Uber for 6 months’ time.
RESOLVED that the update be noted.