Black cab drivers are paying private detectives to pose as Uber customers ahead of a crunch court case, it has been claimed.
The London Taxi Driver Association (LTDA) has launched a private prosecution against the controversial taxi booking app in the latest escalation in London’s taxi wars.
Black cab drivers are furious that Uber, which uses a smartphone application to connect drivers with fares, is undercutting them by up to 50 per cent.
Drivers who use a smartphone provided by Uber can keep 80 per cent of the fare, with the remainder going to the company.
The LTDA claim that the application’s fare calculator acts like a taxi metre, which is only legal in licensed black cabs.
General secretary Steve McNamara told the Sunday Times: “In order to prosecute them we obviously had to get evidence and ride in the cars and private detectives and all of that.”
Transport for London, which allows Uber to operate in London, said it would be asking “to determine the issue of using smartphones as taxi metres” when the case is heard.
