Speeches by Arthur.

“Kimberly, I am picking on you but I think others have made the same point. You talked about the lack of incentives and training for drivers of accessible vehicles, but you could provide those incentives and training if you wanted to—as a company.”

“Emma, if I was to call an Uber, how likely is it to be a wheelchair-accessible vehicle?”

“Is it more than 5% likely, more than 50% likely, more than 1% likely?”

“Is it not shameful you do not know?”

“Is that not incredible that you do not know? Is that not quite important? What does it say about your values as a company that you do not know how much of your fleet is accessible to wheelchair users?”

“Black cab companies are able to operate at a profit in the most part, as I understand, with accessible vehicles, but for some reason you are saying that your business model is not compatible with that. Is it not that you are hammering down prices and disabled people are paying the price for that? I am looking at you bu…”

“Yes, because you are undercutting them with a cheaper fleet. That is what is happening.”

“Exactly.”

“I think I can predict the answer to my first question. There is evidence that app-based companies are focusing too much on their business model and not enough on compliance. Is there any truth in the suggestion that your business model comes before compliance with your local licensing arrangements?”

“That is a good point, because there could be quite serious allegations against a driver, and you are saying there could be a delay. It is a good point.”

“So this is about you meeting minimum requirements rather than showing leadership and having more accessible vehicles in your fleet?”

“You will say the same, I assume, Emma?”

“Thanks for making the point about video, Saskia. I am now kicking myself for not asking this in the previous session where video and audio recording came up. I do not want to lead you too much in your answer, but what access arrangements do you want around that recorded data? If you have a taxi or an Uber where you are…”

“Perhaps a more legitimate concern is that in many jurisdictions you operate, I understand you do not have a physical presence in terms of a contact point. You may have a phone number or an email address but you do not have a physical person. What does that mean for interactions with you? If your customer—or one of your…”

“Very quickly, James, before I was elected here last year I was a councillor in Edinburgh and I sat on the committee that dealt with taxi drivers. I thought that the flow of information between the police and the local authorities was very good and the police were quite precautionary in their approach. They would tell t…”

“Are they staffed?”

“Do you have an office in every jurisdiction?”

“Emma, do you think you would benefit from having a physical presence in each licensing authority?”

“That includes vehicle maintenance and it does not include waiting times so that is slightly misleading.”

“So what would one of your customers do, Emma, if they wanted to speak to an Uber member of staff face to face?”