No More Premiums To Use A Wheelchair Accessible Taxi The Law Changes. MyTaxi, Gett & uberACCESS – All Want Our Business

April 2017: A change in the law (Equality Act 2010) brings three key new protections to disabled people in England and Wales.  This means that taxi and private hire vehicle drivers will be obliged by law to:

• Transport wheelchair users in their wheelchair
• Provide passengers in wheelchairs with appropriate assistance; and
• Charge wheelchair users the same as non-wheelchair users

There’s a £1000 fine if they don’t adhere to the Law.

As a taxi user I say, Hallelujah! Read the full article here from Muscular Dystrophy Trailblazers.

At the same time Uber have told us that they have expanded uberACCESS to other cities in the UK…

“uberACCESS – Uber’s award-winning service designed for wheelchair users – has recently launched in Birmingham and Manchester.

uberACCESS offers wheelchair users the chance to book a fully wheelchair accessible private hire vehicle through the Uber app at the same price as Uber’s affordable uberX service. Every vehicle is fitted with a rear-entry ramp and four point restraints and is driven by one of Uber’s highest rated partner-drivers who has completed a specialist disability equality training course provided by disability charity, Transport for All.

Since launching in London in May 2016, uberACCESS has helped hundreds of wheelchair users to make thousands of safe and affordable journeys around the city. We’re therefore delighted that we’re now able to offer this same opportunity to wheelchair users in Manchester/Birmingham. For more information on uberACCESS please visit our blog which contains a 45 second clip interviewing existing users of the service in London.” 

This sounds great but there are only about 100 accessible vehicles from Uber in London and MyTaxi (ex HAILO) has 100% accessible taxis, 120k of them in London so along with Gett they are the preferred option if you can’t wait for Uber to get more vehicles. We’ve used both MyTaxi and Gett and both have their advantages – MyTaxi has more drivers and is therefore quick to respond, Gett have fixed fares and Uber is the cheapest but don’t expect one quickly on a Friday night!

uberACCESS, MyTaxi and Gett also have vehicles throughout the Uk but there’s no definitive number of how many and where. If anyone has had a good or bad experience with either let us know and get in contact.