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Black cabs stand ready to compete with Uber, but not in a race to the bottom

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LONDON, ENGLAND – JULY 27: A Hackney Carriage taxi drives past the Grosvenor Gardens Cabmen’s Shelter on July 27, 2017 in London, England. The Cabmen’s Shelters were established in 1875 when horse-drawn carriages called Hansom Cabs were used. Sixty-one were built across London up to 1914 to provide shelter, hot food and non-alcoholic drinks to the cab drivers. Now only 13 Cabmen’s Shelters remain in London providing the same services to modern day Hackney Carriage cab drivers, commonly known as the black cab, as well as takeaway to the general public. All are now Grade II listed buildings, as they were in the 19th Century, and now are looked after by the charity Cabmen’s Shelter Fund. (Photo by Chris J Ratcliffe/Getty Images)

The London tax trade is a rigged market where app-based operators have enjoyed years of political indulgence while black cabs are subjected to an ever-tougher regulatory environment, says Mark White

James Ford’s recent City AM column – ‘The London taxi trade is dying – and it’s not Uber’s fault’ – is less a diagnosis than a eulogy dressed in Silicon Valley spin. It dismisses licensed taxi drivers as inflexible, romantic relics, refusing to adapt. But the reality is more serious – and more structural.

The London taxi trade is not dying of natural causes. It is being killed by deliberate........

© City A.M.