The Guardian newspaper has reported the storm that is brewing between Uber, the taxi application service that, ahem, hails from California. But who are Uber? Until now, no-one had ever heard of Uber and, now that this has been reported in the press, they have been given some precious publicity. In effect, they are merely a conduit to put customers in touch with a driver. But the London Taxi Drivers Association argues, along with similar protests in Brussels, Berlin, Paris, Houston, Portland, Vancouver and Toronto to name but a few, that they are just avoiding the licenced taxi rules and procedures. Their time and distance devices (which are not directly connected to the vehicle) are coincidently supplied by Uber, but it remains to be seen how the self-employed drivers insure their vehicles. One must assume that these vehicles are insured for cheap private hire insurance as the vehicle is in essence pre-booked? However, car sharing is currently allowed under normal private car policies, which is believed to be the case that Uber are putting forward, much like if you were to give a colleague a lift to work and you shared the petrol costs.. But what constitutes pre-booked, a phone call? Riders use an app to hail a taxi nearby – so should it be a case of a driver needing public hire insurance?

There is a distinction here as the Hailo app, for example, calls a black cab and is legitimised in that respect. The LTDA is not sure that Uber calling itself a shop with selling anything such as EBay and despite the fact that it is definitely not a transportation carrier should be able to circumvent the necessary rules that all others must adhere to. Others say it is just a natural progression in the evolution of technology. The question remains as to whether the courts will determine Uber as a company that carries passengers for hire and reward that needs cheap minicab insurance.