Operators concerned over Uber’s Oxford comeback

Oxford operators are concerned that the city council’s decision to grant Uber a license to operate in the city will flood the city with out-of-town drivers looking for jobs.

Oxford was one of Uber’s prime targets for its now-ended Local Cab scheme, which saw Uber jobs offered to existing private hire operators, as the ride-hail giant claimed that up to 10,000 Uber users opened the app in the city every week – only to find no cabs available.

Uber initially partnered with major local operator 001 Taxis when it took the local cab scheme to Oxford in 2021. But Uber users have been unable to access cars since Local Cab was scrapped at the end of 2023. Uber is now licensed to operate in Oxford and its surrounding areas. It launched in the city last week after Oxford City Council said it “found no reason to refuse the application”.

001 Taxis Oxford boss Amir Khan said Uber’s arrival would impact firms already operating in the city. “The main concern is wherever they go, they flood the market with taxis,” he told local media.

“They could be local taxis, but a lot of the time it’s out-of-towners, which impacts local drivers who have been working in these areas for a long time. The worry is the flooding of out-of-town vehicles, which will kill the trade for local drivers. The earnings will just diminish.”

Khan also expressed concerns about vehicle standards. “The vehicle standards are not to the standard they are in Oxford. The vehicles, drivers, the processes are all different.”

Uber said it was “delight- ed to be launching in one of the UK's most iconic cities”, though Sajad Khan, secretary of the City of Oxford Licenced Taxicab Association, said the company faced challenges in Oxford.

“Oxford is a small city and the work is dependent a lot on students,” he said “If students are away it gets very quiet.” He said that since the Covid pandemic, more people were working from home and fewer people were arriving at Oxford railway station.

He added that granting Uber a license also contradicted council strategies to reduce traffic and emissions. But Uber said it was increasingly focused on growing its electric vehicle fleet, adding that London was now Uber’s “global leading city for EVs”.