Taxi owners can breathe a sigh of relief after a controversial proposal to stop limiting the number of taxis operating in London was defeated on a tie vote.

The council further directed staff to make changes to the bylaws especially areas such as deregulating fares and removing the requirement for in-cab cameras.

Coun. Phil Squire said he doesn’t think it would be a fair thing to lift the cap overnight. He however cautioned the taxi owners by saying, “There is going to come a time when there is no cap on taxi licenses. It’s going to happen. You should get ready for it.” The London Free Press reported.

Taxi owners are elated over the decision as some of them had to pay huge amounts of up to $100,000 in order to receive a license to operate in London.

Since Uber drivers entered the industry in droves, the value of transferable licenses has fallen to below $30,000. Uber can accept an unlimited number of drivers something many taxi drivers desire to do by getting a license from city hall rather than leasing from a plateowner.

Last week, taxi owners had threatened to sue city hall.  A motion presented by Coun. Michael van Holst to look into compensating the taxi industry for loss in value was shot down on Tuesday’s city council meeting.

Currently, the city regulates licenses by issuing one license for every 1,100 Londoners.

Coun. Virginia Ridley, a proponent of lifting municipal regulation on the taxi industry, proposed adopting a new ratio of one license for every 1,050 Londoners hence adding 19 more licenses to the already existing ones. The proposal was defeated 7-7. 

It was concluded that more information on how lifting the cap would affect the taxi industry is required. Hence, staff were instructed to gather more talks with taxi drivers, owners, brokers and Uber.

by Airport Pickups London