Technology

Posted on December 7, 2017 by staff

Sheffield City Council suspends Uber’s licence

Technology

Sheffield City Council has suspended Uber’s licence to operate in the city.

The move comes after the taxi app reportedly failed to respond to the local authority’s requests about the management of the firm.

Uber will be allowed to continue operating in Sheffield until December 18th, and if it appeals against the suspension, it can still run until the appeal is finalised.

“Uber’s licence was suspended last Friday (29 November) after the current licence holder failed to respond to requests, made by our licensing team, about the management of Uber,” a Sheffield City Council spokesperson said.

“We received a new application, for a licence to operate taxis in Sheffield, from Uber Britannia Limited, on 18 October 2017 which we are currently processing.

“Any new application is dealt with by the Licensing department, who will decide if those applying for the licence meet the criteria. It will only be referred to the licensing sub-committee if a decision by the committee is required.”

“The legislation does not allow for the transfer of an operator’s licence.”

An Uber spokesperson added: “We informed Sheffield City Council on 5 October that we would need to change the name on our licence as the named individual would soon be leaving the company.

“The council told us they couldn’t change the name on the licence, as most other councils have done, and that we would instead have to apply for a new one.

“We submitted an application for a new licence on 16 October which continues to be processed. While we are in regular contact with the council, we did not receive the correspondence the council refers to as they sent the letters to an incorrect address.

“We hope this administrative error can be quickly resolved so we can continue serving tens of thousands of riders and drivers in Sheffield.

“If the new application can’t be resolved by 18 December we will of course submit an appeal so we can continue to serve people in Sheffield.”

Uber is also currently fighting a ban in London after the app was stripped of its licence by the city’s regulator in September. The decision was made after Transport for London concluded that Uber was “not a fit and proper operator”.

Last month, Uber admitted to hiding a 2016 hack which saw the personal details of 57 million customers and drivers stolen.