This Innovation can make Uber Cash Payments possible, and still keep the Drivers safe
It is exceptionally dangerous to drive for hire in South Africa. Cab drivers have always been victims of crime because their work is vulnerable in nature. They are forced to accept cash-in-hand payments for trips, so drivers need to carry their earnings as they work. This makes them easy targets for robbers.
Uber Upgrade
Uber’s online app hailing and cashless payment systems were excellent safety solutions for vulnerable taxi drivers. Automated credit card payment means that drivers are paid without any cash entering or leaving the car and drivers needn’t brand their work on their vehicles or approach strangers to offer transport. There have been a few cases worldwide of the hailing system being exploited by criminals who use fake Uber accounts to summon drivers to isolated locations and then rob them. But, so long as Uber drivers have not had to carry money, this form of crime has been very uncommon.
But then Uber introduced cash payments to South Africa.
South Africa, you asked and we listened. Choice is a beautiful thing and now all of you will have the option to pay for Uber rides using a card or cash. That’s right — you get all the Uber awesomeness and even more options when it comes to paying for your ride. If paying in cash — simply choose the CASH option, take a ride and pay the fare directly to your driver at the end of the trip. — Uber South Africa (2016)
The company sold the move as a grand experiment with worldwide implications. Uber noted that South Africa has very low debit and credit card penetration, and wrote that “[o]ne of the reasons we are running an experiment here in South Africa is to learn more about these usage habits of cash payments and how we can develop a solution that is safer and completely directionless for our communities.”
Uber’s primary incentive with this move was to increase business by making the service available to customers who do not have credit cards, or will not use them for travel (they cited an article about cash payments making up 65% of South Africa’s transactions in the same press release).
Yet, when Uber said that they listened, it clearly wasn’t to the drivers.
The Cost of Cash
Cash in the car renders Uber drivers targets for crime, and robbers can summon drivers using the app. Driver after driver has told me how unhappy they are with this change. Many have stories of fellow drivers who have been attacked since the cash payment option was activated. Nearly all of them already had areas of Cape Town that they refused to go to for work, for fear of their lives and livelihoods. Now, they feel vulnerable all the time because, even if they aren’t carrying any money, the public perception is that they are, and criminals see their classic Uber cars, the Avanzas, Corollas and Mobilios, as moving targets, no matter what areas the drivers operate in.
Brazil’s economic reality is similar to South Africa, and their drivers have suffered the same predictable consequences since the move to a cash payment option. A Reuters report found that:
Demand took off, but so did crime. In Sao Paulo, robberies involving Uber drivers rose ten-fold, the data shows. Attacks rose from an average of 13 per month in the first seven months of 2016, reflecting some degree of danger even before the cash option took effect, to 141 per month in the rest of the year, the data shows.
After months of South Africa’s Uber drivers being forced to accept cash payments, Uber finally allowed drivers to opt out of cash trips in August 2017. Much of a driver’s success hangs on good performance, which is measured by a range of factors, from rider ratings to how often they reject trips that are offered, so it was important that “Uber said driver-partners who declined cash trips would not be penalised and the new safety feature would not have any negative impact on the dispatch process.” (The Times)
But the continuing existence of a cash payment option dramatically increases the risk of operating, to all drivers.
Cash payments means more users means more trips means more money for Uber, but not necessarily for the drivers, because Uber does not cap the number of drivers allowed to operate in a given time and place. A perception of more available work in such an accessible market leads to more workers. Many drivers I spoke to said that they have been making less money since the introduction of cash payments, because more people signed up as drivers in response. Even though there have been more trips, the work has been spread more thinly.
So the cash payment option increases the number of trips, but also incentivises drivers to take serious risks in order to get trips, like taking trips from and to dangerous areas, and accepting cash trips. And all drivers suffer, because they are forced to either turn down potentially dangerous trips and make less money, or take those trips and put themselves in danger.
Uber needs a different solution that allows cash payments, but keeps the cars cashless. Here is one solution:
Uber Debit Cards
Uber can sell custom-made debit cards at partner retailers that are dotted across cities. Anybody may buy a card and load money onto it by paying cash at the counter. This loaded money can be used to pay for Uber trips, much like similar top-up card systems that are used on public transport systems around the world.
Each card will have a QR code, which the driver will scan into their app using their phone’s camera when they meet the rider. The app will check that the balance of money loaded on the card is sufficient to cover the cost of the requested trip. Once the trip is completed, the cost of that trip will be docked from the card, and the money will be transferred to the driver and Uber.
This method allows people who do not have bank accounts linked to credit and debit cards to use Uber, and no cash changes hands in the car. This is also safer for the rider, who need not carry cash for Uber on them before they catch their ride.
The system is costly, because it requires Uber to create and maintain the transactional database, and install card purchase and money upload machines in partner retailers. Yet, it is absolutely worth paying to make working as an Uber driver much, much safer, especially since Uber is constantly criticised for shirking what many see as it’s responsibility to it’s drivers as an employer of sorts. The company makes huge profits in part because it does not honour workers’ rights. No Uber drivers get paid leave for sickness, time off, pregnancy and birth, or the like. Uber drivers don’t get medical aid or pensions. Uber has aggressively resisted court orders to treat it’s drivers as conventional employees. It seems unlikely that the company will be forced to change it’s business relationship with drivers in most countries.
Especially in light of this, the least Uber can do is make a little less, and restore safety for the people who make it all of it’s money.
