London's safety blitz of rideshare drivers sees 30 per cent of vehicles fail - so far

More than halfway through a licensing and safety blitz by the City of London, almost a third of the Ubers and Lyfts checked have failed their inspections.

One hundred private vehicles-for-hire licensed by city hall to carry passengers were randomly chosen to report for an inspection at Silverwood Arena between Tuesday and Friday this week.

“The first few days we had 33 vehicles inspected, and of those, ten failed and they were taken off the road and off the [ride hailing] platform,” reported Director of Municipal Compliance Orest Katolyk, on Thursday afternoon.

Since 2017, the city has licensed private vehicle-for-hire drivers and online platforms that choose to operate in London for the purposes of customer safety and consumer protection.

Katolyk said that vehicle safety concerns were flagged in most of the 30 per cent that have failed their inspections since Tuesday.

“The majority of reasons that they were removed off the road were for safety of the vehicle - things like bald tires, vehicles being too old to operate under our by-law, and also [overly] tinted windows,” he explains.

The results surprised Tyler Griffiths who said that he uses Uber about twice a week, “[It's] concerning, especially when the safety test is based on things that [vehicles] need to be safe, like brakes and tires.”

Heavily tinted windows are a big concern for weekly Uber and Lyft passenger Abbi Otis because London has been identified as a hub for sex trafficking, “I may not see who's inside and not know what to expect. I can't see who's inside [or] what’s inside.”

There are currently 7,500 drivers licensed to operate as Ubers or Lyfts in the city of London.

By comparison, there are just 700 taxi licenses.

The 67 remaining drivers have until Friday afternoon to appear for their random inspection or the city will work with Uber and Lyft to have them removed from the apps.

“Anytime there's a violation of the by-law, we consult with the platforms and work very closely with them to ensure that those vehicles and those drivers are taken off the platform,” Katolyk added.

The city’s next licensing and safety blitz will focus on taxis.