Expenses on Uber/Taxi journeys
Request ID: FOI-1813-1718
Date published: 21 December 2017
You asked
1. Total amount spent on Uber journeys by TfL employees;
2. Total amount spent on black cab journeys by TfL employees.
We answered
TfL Ref: FOI-1813-1718
Thank you for your email received by us on 13 October 2017 asking for information about expenses.
Your request has been considered in accordance with the requirements of the Freedom of Information and our information access policy. I can confirm we hold some of the information you require.
All expenditure within the organisation is carefully assessed to ensure it is essential to providing a safe, efficient, extensive and reliable transport network, including expenses incurred by staff. Expenses claims in relation to cab journeys will typically be from staff who are called upon to travel out of the capital on business and attend conferences and other out of hours business related activities.
The total expenditure using staff expenses on Uber journeys between 1 October 2016 and 31 March 2017 is £1781.13. This is comprised of 78 individual claims, 54 of which (£1260.61) were for the same person who was using Uber to travel for work during their recovery from an injury and subsequently claimed the fare back through expenses. These were approved in accordance with the appropriate policy as they related to work-related site visits and a staff medical condition as confirmed by our Occupational Health department
Whilst reviewing the receipts for all expenses listed as “Taxi” within this time period it became apparent that it was often impossible to distinguish black cab receipts from some licenced minicab receipts from the information shown on the receipts.
Therefore, whilst we can not provide you with an amount and cost specifically for Taxis, we have provided figures below for all ‘non-uber’ trips claimed on expenses for completeness:
Total taxi and private hire spend excluding Uber 01 Oct 2016 – 31 March 2017 = £16581.70
Total taxi and private hire trips excluding Uber 01 Oct 2016 – 31 March 2017 = 863
If this is not the information you are looking for, or if you are unable to access it for some reason, please do not hesitate to contact me.
Please see the attached information sheet for details of your right to appeal as well as information on copyright and what to do if you would like to re-use any of the information we have disclosed.
Yours sincerely
Lee Hill
Senior FOI Case Officer
FOI Case Management Team
General Counsel
Transport for London
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