A minimum five-minute wait, is that not the daftest thing you’ve ever heard? Many agree, including Simon Walker, director general of the IoD:

“These new rules would embed economic inefficiency and create artificially high prices for passengers”…

“Imposing a minimum five-minute wait time will just mean passengers stand on the side of the road looking at their car, unable to get in – wasting time, clogging streets and costing money. Outlawing companies from showing available cars on an app is a Luddite solution to a problem which doesn’t exist.

“Their proposals for further restrictions to an already heavily-regulated industry are backwards and would damage London’s reputation as a city which celebrates innovation and embraces change.”

TfL is looking at 25 different proposals, with this below a quick summation of the changes that will most affect Uber in London:

1. Operators “must provide booking confirmation details to the passenger at least five minutes prior to the journey”: Uber matches passengers with the nearest riders, meaning they are picked up in, on average, three minutes.

2. Companies “must not show vehicles being available for immediate hire either visibly or virtually via an app”: One of Uber’s key features is a map of available drivers in the area around the passenger.

3. Operators “must offer a facility to pre-book up to seven days in advance”: This option that would create major headaches for Uber, since it does not allow passengers to pre-book rides.

4. Drivers may only work for one operator at a time: Uber says many of its drivers are part-time workers whose main employer is a traditional minicab firm.

5. There should be “controls on ridesharing in public vehicles”: Uber’s chief executive Travis Kalanick has said he wants to bring the UberPool service to London, which allows several customers to share a car.