Regulating Brighton’s UBER drivers

Campaigning this week led by the real “Steve Endacott” in Brighton with large TV trucks transmitting at the back of Brighton Station and by the pier caused a surge of calls to AI-Steve from disgruntled Brighton Hackney Taxis, complaining about two specific issues.

1. Cross Border Taxis. Brighton allows taxi drivers licenced in surrounding towns like Lewis to operate in Brighton even though they passed the “knowledge” in the much easier Lewis area and do not know the streets of Brighton as well.
2. Uber Drivers. Brighton regulations require Uber drivers in Brighton to be licenced, but Uber appears to be recruiting most of its taxis from less busy areas outside of Brighton and then deploying them all day in Brighton, undercutting the prices that Brighton Taxis are forced to charge via their meter rates, which are set by the council.

Brighton taxi drivers would like Uber to be banned entirely from Brighton. Still, the SmarterUK party recognises that many visitors from other areas will use Uber as a default due to its app’s convenience and do not feel it should be banned. However, SmarterUK will fully review the estimated taxi capacity required. Assuming, as claimed, there are sufficient Brighton-licensed taxis, we would ban Uber from using cross-border taxis and insist they work only with taxis licenced in Brighton and Hove itself.