TfL licencing delays a ‘matter of life and death’, family says

The family of an Uber driver say they fear the stress caused by a delay in the renewal of his private hire licence may have contributed to his death.

Robert Dale was among many cab drivers left unable to work in recent months because of licensing delays, which were due to software problems at Transport for London (TfL).

Mr Dale, from Twickenham, south-west London, died aged 65 after a heart attack in November, three months after he had applied for his licence renewal and a month after it had expired.

TfL previously apologised for the delays and said they were caused by a cyber-attack in September, along with the installation of new software.

All private hire drivers in London must be licensed by TfL to operate legally in the capital.

Due to problems processing them following the cyber attack, many drivers had to stop working for months, with some still affected.

The Dale family believes the “failings of TfL” led to Mr Dale’s mental health deteriorating and his quality of life declining before his death.

In a recent letter to TfL and the mayor of London, Mr Dale’s son Ben Dale said his father had written numerous emails urging TfL to renew his licence, as its expiry date approached, with the emails becoming increasingly desperate.

In his letter on 28 May, Ben said it had been “a matter of livelihoods, mental health, and in our case, life and death”.

He said his father had been “happy, popular and dedicated” but there had been a noticeable change in him when he was left unable to work.

“Every single day. That is all he talked about,” he said.

“We started to really feel like we were losing our dad and my mum, her partner, mainly because of the complete stress that he was just consistently under.

“It was relentless”.

Alex Marshall, president of IWGB trade union, said many drivers were still suffering the effects of losing out on work.

“It’s a complete scandal,” he said.

“These guys are living hand to mouth so even going a day without work is really difficult

“We’ve heard so many stories of people’s lives being torn apart…. we’re hearing of cars being repossessed, people having to move out of their houses…. people not being able to feed their families…”

TfL recently began to issue drivers with temporary licences so they could continue working. But drivers have been holding protests and asking for compensation for their financial losses.

One driver, Kambiz Hemati, said he was still “up to his neck in debt”.

He waited four months for his renewal, and described that time as “like hell”.

“I wasn’t working and the costs were piling up,” he said.

Mr Hemati said he had bought an electric car, as requested by TfL, and was beginning to default on the monthly payments for it as well as his mortgage, and he was worried about his young son.

“I had to borrow from banks and use credit cards,” he said.

“I have to pay that all back and that means more hours and tiredness. This is not the way drivers should be treated.”

Helen Chapman, who is in charge of licensing for TfL, said her team was “carrying out a comprehensive review” and would respond to the Dale family’s concerns in full.

She added they “were aware some drivers have been further impacted due to the introduction of a new licensing system”.

“We have taken a number of steps to mitigate the impact of these delays by recruiting and training additional staff and granting short-term private hire vehicle driver licences,” she said.

A spokesperson for the mayor of London said his “deepest sympathies and thoughts” were with the Dale family and the concerns raised in their letter “would be looked into”.