Tuesday Afternoon Taxi Protest
A planned protest by hundreds of black cab drivers will likely bring traffic to a standstill around Victoria in central London this afternoon.
From 2pm as many as 2,500 black cabs will converge on Victoria, where Transport for London's offices are, and block the roads for up to an hour and a half as they protest TFL's policy towards mini-cabs, and the service Uber in particular.
This is the latest action in a long-running battle between cabbies and TFL over the operation of peer-to-peer minicab hire service Uber. Since the mobile app based service was introduced to London hundreds of minicabs have undercut traditional black cabs on price for ferrying passengers about.
The black cab drivers argue though that regulation around the service is inadequate and unfair competition. They claim that background checks on people applying for minicab licenses is lax, potentially putting customers in danger. They also say minicabs, which are legally only allowed to take passengers that have pre-booked cabs, are flouting the rules and touting for work, picking up passengers off the street.