Uber’s Blitz on London Leads to Drop in Black-Cab Recruits
The black cabbies are worried that yearly earnings of up to 50,000 pounds ($78,000) and a way of life going back centuries are under threat as London is flooded by Uber. Photographer: Simon Dawson/Bloomberg
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London’s famous black cabs, which have ferried city-goers around the capital for more than a century, are in danger of being run out of town by upstart U.S. taxi app Uber Technologies Inc.
Data obtained by Bloomberg from Transport for London, the transit authority, show black-taxi license applications, which include new licenses and renewals, are down 20 percent so far this year from the same period a year earlier. The industry is laying the blame squarely at Uber’s door.