How will the Uber ruling impact the taxi industry?
You may have heard the news about the UK Supreme Court’s ruling against Uber last week. In essence, the judges ruled that Uber drivers cannot be considered self-employed. This obviously has massive implications for the gig economy in this country.
We’re proud to say that the ruling won’t have any impact on our business or the prices that we charge. This is because our drivers are employees with full rights to holiday pay, pensions, sickness pay and so on. This has always been the way that we do business at ecocabs, but it’s increasingly rare in the taxi industry. A massive 83% of drivers are self-employed according to the Department for Transport.
Respecting our workforce
The name Ecocabs was chosen by our MD, Matthew Kirkby, back in 2006, not just because he had concerns about the environment, but because he wanted to build the company in a conscious, ethical way. He said, “Ecocabs is not part of the gig economy. We take our drivers on as employees. They’re a vital part of what we do and they deserve rights such as sickness pay.
Ecocabs has found that employing taxi drivers this way leads to longer length of service and having more knowledgeable drivers. Treating our staff well means that we attract high-quality candidates – many of our drivers are former professionals including police officers, engineers and teachers.
Looking to the future
Matthew Kirkby, our MD, said, “I believe that the Supreme Court ruling is good news for the taxi industry as a whole. It should mean that companies like Ecocabs can compete on a more equal footing with those such as Uber. The gig economy has been chipping away at workers’ rights, but we all deserve to be treated with respect.”
