No, in London the Uber drivers are licensed. You are not allowed to run a service with unlicensed drivers. The problem is that taxis were given a monopoly on m

No, in London the Uber drivers are licensed. You are not allowed to run a service with unlicensed drivers. The problem is that taxis were given a monopoly on metering by time and distance (largely, minicabs are supposed to pre quote, not sure how Uber gets around this), and a monopoly on street hailing. Smartphones make stret hailing much less advantagous.