Express & Star

Uber apologises after losing London licence

Ride-hailing app CEO Dara Khosrowshahi addresses Londoners in an open letter

Published

Uber has apologised after losing its licence to operate in London.

In an open letter published on Twitter, Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi apologised on behalf of the company “for the mistakes we’ve made”.

Last week, Transport for London (TfL) rejected the ride-hailing company’s application for a new licence on the basis the company was not “fit and proper” to operate in the capital.

The letter by Khosrowshahi, who became CEO of Uber in August, stated that the American company would be appealing against the decision, but did admit “we do so with the knowledge that we must also change”.

He wrote: “While Uber has revolutionised the way people move in cities around the world, it’s equally true that we’ve got things wrong.”

If the appeal is unsuccessful, the company will be forced to cease operations in London after September 30 until a new licence is issued — 40,000 Uber employees would be out of work as a result.

Uber has launched a petition in an effort to pressurise TfL into reversing the decision —so far it has received 785,000 signatures.

Khosrowshahi also personally appealed to TfL following the decision to reject the application for a new licence, saying: “We are far from perfect, but we have 40,000 licensed drivers and 3.5 million Londoners depending on us.

“Please work with us to make things right.”

Sorry, we are not accepting comments on this article.