Black Cab Demo Causes Central London 'Gridlock'

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 11 Juni 2014 | 23.15

Parts of central London have been left gridlocked after thousands of black cab drivers took industrial action at Trafalgar Square.

Up to 12,000 black cabs headed to the centre of the capital with the intent of causing traffic chaos.

Helicopter footage showed long queues of cabs across Westminster Bridge and along Whitehall to Trafalgar Square.

The traditional cabbies were protesting at Transport for London's (TfL) regulation of rival cab service Uber.

Cabs A line of black cabs pictured in Westminster

The Google-backed app allows users to order a car at the touch of a button, and the fare is calculated using GPS tracking.

But traditional cabbies say this is effectively a taxi meter, which only black cabs are legally entitled to use in the capital.

Sky's Ashish Joshi said that Trafalgar Square was "gridlocked" just before the protest officially started at 2pm.

He said: "This is technology against tradition. It's the new Battle of Trafalgar."

Taxi Uber The protest is aimed at Transport for London and Uber

One driver with 15 years of experience told Sky News: "It's got to be a level playing field. England are playing Italy on Saturday, what if Italy turn up with 15 men against England?

"We love competition, we thrive on competition in this city, but it's got to be a fair competition."

But Uber general manager Jo Bertram has defended the company's business model, and says the number of app downloads has soared.

She said: "Londoners are voting with their fingers, tapping the app in support of new and innovative services as we see our biggest day of sign-ups in London today since launch two years ago.

Spain Drivers in Spain took part in a similar protest

"In fact, today we're seeing an 850% increase in sign-ups compared to last Wednesday.

"Unsurprisingly, the Licensed Taxi Drivers Association, which is stuck in the dark ages, is intent on holding London to ransom and causing significant economic impact to Londoners today, estimated to be £125m."

Earlier the app goaded black cab drivers by urging them to sign up to their pre-booking app, saying it gave greater "choice for consumers".

But the cabbies dismissed it as a PR stunt.

Similar demonstrations have also taken place today in Paris, Madrid and Barcelona.


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