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With a report on Uber by the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ) opening a Pandora’s box, the company is in damage-control mode. Distancing itself from the actions of its management pre-2017, Uber, while acknowledging the “mistakes” of the past, has said that under CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, it “is a different company”.
“There has been no shortage of reporting on Uber’s mistakes prior to 2017. Thousands of stories have been published, multiple books have been written — there’s even been a TV series,” Uber said in a statement yesterday.
Five years ago, those mistakes led to a big moment of reckoning in corporate America.
The company brought in Dara Khosrowshahi as the new chief executive officer (CEO) and also hired Eric Holder, a former US attorney general, to investigate and overhaul its business practices.
Based on Holder’s recommendations, Khosrowshahi rewrote the company’s values; revamped the leadership team; made safety a top priority; implemented best-in-class corporate governance practices; hired an independent board chair; and installed the controls and compliance necessary to operate as a public company.
Also Read: “Shift blame to flawed Indian system”: How Uber reacted to 2014 rape case
“When we say Uber is a different company today, we mean it literally: Ninety per cent of current Uber employees joined after Dara became CEO,” said the company in its statement.
Several reports from the time when Khosrowshahi took over quote him as saying that the company was doing away with its “pirate culture” and the new focus was on “growing responsibly”.
One of the biggest criticisms of the company was its lack of diversity. So, Khosrowshahi’s first big hire was a chief diversity and inclusion officer, Bo Young Lee, and also a first chief operating officer (COO), Barney Harford.
Khosrowshahi, unlike his predecessor, was keen to meet lawmakers to resolve regulatory logjams. The first one was to meet London lawmakers after the city revoked Uber’s licence to operate.
The biggest change came when Uber signed a deal last year with Britain’s trade union body, GMB, that its private hire drivers would become members of the union. Uber signed the deal two months after agreeing to guarantee its 70,000 UK drivers a minimum hourly wage, holiday pay and pensions in March after a landmark Supreme Court ruling, according to a report in The Guardian.
This March, Uber also joined hands with the famous yellow taxis of New York, which can now be booked using Uber’s app.
The India story
Uber’s run-ins with the Indian government are well-documented. Only last month, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) pulled up both Uber and Ola on rising complaints of consumer rights violations.
A senior official at CCPA confirmed that the authority has issued notices to online cab booking platforms, including Uber, on rising complaints from users. “The replies to these notices are currently under examination. We would consider any further action after completing the review of the replies,” said the official, asking not to be named.
In March this year, Bombay High Court, too, pulled up cab aggregator platforms Ola and Uber for operating in Maharashtra without valid licences. The court also asked both the companies to get the requisite licences by March 16. However, in order to not inconvenience commuters, the court allowed these cars to operate. There is yet no clarity on the issue.
Uber is also facing heat from its driver partners who have been complaining that their earnings have fallen drastically. An Uber driver that Business Standard spoke to for an earlier report had said that the company takes anywhere between 20 and 30 per cent as commission and with the cost of fuel and inflation rising, their earnings have gone down significantly.
The other big ask from Uber in India has been the “panic button” for the safety of passengers. This was one of the biggest ask from the Indian government after the 2014 rape case in New Delhi. According to the ICIJ report, the percentage of vehicles that have this panic button is still small.
When contacted, an Uber India spokesperson said: “We continue to enhance safety on the platform, including the share-trip feature through which a rider can share their trip details with their trusted contacts, while they are riding in an Uber. In addition, rider and driver contact details are anonymised when they are connected to ensure their safety and privacy.
India is one of the first countries in the world with a Code on Social Security (2020). Asked if the company is doing anything about that, though the CoSS is yet to be implemented, the company spokesperson said: “At Uber, we are working directly with drivers and social startups to get them registered on the government’s e-Shram portal to ensure welfare delivery even before CoSS has been notified. We have a role to play in boosting the pace of its adoption, and supporting the government’s efforts to mobilise and register gig workers so that they can benefit from this historic legislation.”
In India, while Uber is no way near achieving what it has in the UK in terms of making taxi unions a part of its ecosystem, in March this year, the company set up its first Driver Advisory Council.
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