‘I hope you get run over’: Black cab drivers target Uber’s female boss with sick Twitter trolling

• e-mail

The boss of Uber has become the victim of horrific trolling from black cab drivers including comments on rape and her being run over.

Jo Bertram, the UK general manager of the private hire company, has been victimised by the drivers on social media as tensions between the company and taxi drivers step up.

In May, one London cabbie even made comments about the boss being aroused by rape in a conversation thread about passenger safety in the cars.

Scroll down for video  

Victimised: Jo Bertram, UK general manager of Uber, has become the victim of vitriol on Twitter from taxi drivers who object to the service which many feel has undercut them and is not subject to the same stringent guidelines. They are calling for Transport for London to level the playing fields

Animosity: The situation has resulted in serious hostility towards Uber drivers from Hackney cabs

Call for action: Many London taxi drivers are on constant contact and hope to overcome the challenge

On Twitter, black cab driver Henry Kaczorowski, 49, wrote: 'Wonder what she must feel every time a woman gets is sexually assaulted in an Uber car.

'I wonder if she gets a little tingle between her legs,' reports The Sunday Times.

Another cab driver, calling himself taxi driver Al Mac, tweeted that he hoped Bertram gets 'run over' by a Toyota Prius, the vehicle that most Uber drivers drive.

Uber said that the tweets were concerning and have 'no place in today's society'.

They told the Sunday Times that the negative comments are far outweighed by the huge support they get from their riders and 'driver partners'. 

The animosity towards the company comes because many London cab drivers have been massively undercut since the company arrived in the market. They have taken to calling them 'scabs' and 'rats'.

They feel the company has an unfair advantage as Uber drivers are not subject to the same licensing restrictions and do not have to sit 'The Knowledge', an intense test that shows black cab drivers know their way around London.

Uber drivers generally use satellite navigation systems to get around. 

Unrest: In Paris, taxi drivers overturned a car during protests against the car sharing app

Let it burn: In Marseilles, they burnt tyres in the street during huge protests about the new app

Cabbies feel as though Transport for London should be doing more to regulate Uber and level the playing field. It's led to jokes online that they acronym, TfL stands for Totally Failing London.

London is not the only place where controversy has surrounded the company, which only operates in major cities around the world.

In Paris, strikes over Uber led to vandalism as taxi drivers in the city overturned one of the cars. In Marseille, they burned tyres in the streets. The protests were against a car-sharing service called Uber-Pop and the company agreed to suspend the service to stop the civil unrest.

Uber France CEO Thibaud Simphal and Uber Europe General Manager Pierre-Dimitri Gore-Coty were arrested after concerns over the legality of the service. 

There are similar problems in New York as there are in London and the authorities have seized hundreds of Uber cars this year for picking up people on the street, which they are not allowed to do. There are similar complaints from drivers in London, as the company should only get fares via telephone calls or the app.