Uber: cheap, easy and quick to waive your rights
By now I’m sure most of you reading this are aware that after having given Uber a 4 month time period to clean up their act, TfL didn’t renew Uber’s license to operate within our capital and their license expires today.
This motion has been supported by our current Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan, yet faced opposition from the 800,000 or so signatures gained via the company’s Change.org petition.
I’m going to state this from the off — I don’t buy Uber’s apology, I don’t buy their concern for their drivers’ jobs and I don’t get why people are signing that petition.
The basis of the petition is that Uber provide a ‘safe, reliable and affordable’ service to those of us that use it and that this decision will leave 40,000 people out of a job.
We’re talking about a company who are being told they can’t operate because of, amongst other reasons, a failure to report serious criminal offences to the police and whose own UK drivers sued Uber last year for the humble win of minimum wage and holiday. A company whose previous CEO accused a rape victim of conspiring against Uber instead of at the very least (and I do mean very least) apologising for her trauma. A company who is collaborating with Volvo to put $300million into self-driving technology.
This doesn’t sound that safe or like they’re acting out of some sense of moral outrage to keep these drivers in a job.
In August, Dara Khosrowshahi was hired as CEO to replace Travis Kalanick in a bid to clean up Uber’s reputation. Good news. Their reputation is filthy and Khosrowshahi has a huge job on his hands.
It would be unfair then to say that Uber isn’t at least trying. I can acknowledge that. But it’s also true that a deadline is a deadline. Couldn’t Khosrowshahi or someone else within the organisation have flagged the upcoming deadline and outlined their proposal to implement change?
The apology from Khosrowshahi came after the petition. It should have been the other way around.
We have given Uber unquestioning support before they even acknowledged that they have anything to apologise for.
The idea that this is a backwards-thinking move from the Mayor and TfL and that they don’t support innovation is ludicrous. You can be a supporter of innovation and still tell people off when they deliberately undermine you.
I personally am a big supporter of technological advances for good. I work for a company whose aim is to make women’s lives better through technology. I use a smartphone. I would love a connected heating system in my home so I can warm the house up before I get there. I would love plug sockets that I can check are off when I’m not in the house. I would love a taxi service that provided me with a safe, affordable and reliable lift when I need it.
I could get a Nest, or maybe a Tado? Maybe I’ll check this list of 12 of the best connected heating systems? I could buy a WIFIPLUG or a Den…you get the point.
Competition exists, of course it does. Each brand has their ‘unique selling point.’ When we make these purchase decisions we make a choice over which of these are the most important for us. Uber isn’t always the cheapest, it doesn’t have a reputation for keeping us safe and it doesn’t have a reputation for excellent rights for its drivers. What it does have is a fairly user friendly app, but… really?
Corporate responsibility is important. Workers rights are important. Women’s rights are important. Yes, Uber are making efforts to be better but it’s not the thought that counts, it’s the application of that thought into action. We should be asking to save Uber if and only if they comply with the standards set. We should be thanking TfL and Sadiq Khan for caring about the rights of those workers, about the safety of Uber users and for asking the company take responsibility for its actions.
