Why Uber has been banned from London - what it did to lose its licence

At 11:59pm, Monday 25 November, Uber's licence to carry passengers for money in London expires.

"Transport for London (TfL) has concluded that it will not grant Uber London Limited (Uber) a new private hire operator’s licence in response to its latest application," TfL said in a statement.

The firm can't say it didn't have warning. It was first banned in September 2017, over passenger safety fears, only to overturn that on appeal.

And last time its licence came up, it was only granted a two month extension rather than the traditional 5-year one.

Uber now has 21 days to appeal, and can continue to operate pending any appeal and throughout the appeals process.

The firm has vowed it will appeal, but for people wondering what caused one of the planet's most popular travel apps to be told it's not good enough for London, this is what TfL found out:

Why TfL rules against renewing Uber's licence

When it comes to deciding who can and can't operate a taxi or private hire service in London, TfL has one main priority - passenger safety.

And in its views Uber doesn't measure up.

"TfL has identified a pattern of failures by the company including several breaches that placed passengers and their safety at risk," the regulator said.

And while it said Uber has made positive changes, it doesn't think Uber can be relied upon not to have more problems in the future.

As a result, it ruled "the company is not fit and proper at this time".

What TfL found out about Uber

The biggest problem TfL found was about who's behind the wheel of your Uber.

The regulator found that there was a hole in the app's security that let unauthorised drivers to upload their photos onto other Uber driver accounts.

"This allowed them to pick up passengers as though they were the booked driver, which occurred in at least 14,000 trips - putting passenger safety and security at risk," TfL said.

And that's a problem because the journeys were uninsured, some journeys took place with unlicensed drivers and one of the drivers even had their licence revoked by TfL.

Another issue they spotted allowed sacked or suspended drivers to create new accounts and carry passengers - "compromising passenger safety and security".

Other "serious breaches" TfL found include insurance-related problems, one so bad TfL prosecuted Uber earlier this year for "causing and permitting the use of vehicles without the correct hire or reward insurance".

Helen Chapman from TfL said: “It is clearly concerning that these issues arose, but it is also concerning that we cannot be confident that similar issues won’t happen again in future."

What Uber's doing about it

Uber said it was working to fix the problems TfL found, and it plans to appeal the decision to remove its licence.

In a message to customers, Uber said: "Today Transport for London (TfL) announced that they will not be renewing Uber’s licence to operate in London.

"We think this decision is wrong and we will appeal. You and the 3.5 million riders who rely on Uber in London can continue to use the app as normal.

"Over the last two years we have fundamentally changed our business, and TfL found us to be a fit and proper operator just two months ago.

"We remain 100% committed to your safety."

How Uber can get its licence back

TfL acknowledged the work Uber had done, but said it needed more.

"While Uber has worked to address these issues, they highlight the potential safety risk to passengers of weak systems and processes," TfL said.

"It is a concern that Uber’s systems seem to have been comparatively easily manipulated."

TfL has commissioned an independent assessment of Uber’s ability to prevent incidents of this nature happening again.

Chapman said: “As the regulator of private hire services in London we are required to make a decision today on whether Uber is fit and proper to hold a licence.

"Safety is our absolute top priority. While we recognise Uber has made improvements, it is unacceptable that Uber has allowed passengers to get into minicabs with drivers who are potentially unlicensed and uninsured."

As to what Uber can do to turn it around, she added: "[As part of an appeal] Uber will have the opportunity to publicly demonstrate to a magistrate whether it has put in place sufficient measures to ensure potential safety risks to passengers are eliminated."