Time for Uber to Grow Up

Uber has disrupted the traditional for-hire vehicle transport business around the world, but also has been the subject of its own internal disruption, including a tidal wave of executive exits. Making Dara Khosrowshahi the new CEO will not solve the problems at Uber

It’s time for Uber to grow up. The difference between Uber and brands like Apple, Beats and Pepsi is that the latter have millions of fans, cheerleaders and advocates on the outside AND also have fans on the inside. Most people think of brands as an external audience of users, customers and fans, but don’t always think of the fans inside the company.

Currently, the inside of Uber is in a mega crisis, having been hit with complaints of female harassment and discrimination, deceiving authorities on many levels (e.g. “greyballing”), drivers complaining of low pay and other unsavory business practices.The problem is not simply that Uber needs to be humanized. The problem from the public perspective is that the public does not like what Uber has become. Additionally, Uber's internal values are an accident waiting to happen.

Company management that once deliberately and sometimes brutally sidestepped unions, laws, local rules and civic duties in order to exist in disruption mode, will have to decide what values they embrace. The 9-year-old company will have to wear big boy girl and act like the $70 billion community it claims to have become. Claims of sexual harassment, discrimination, and equal wages will need to be handled in a proper fashion. Most importantly, as Former President Jeff Jones’ exit from Uber suggests, at its core, Uber does not believe in itself.

While Uber has found a significant position in the gig economy, it will first have to re-examine its role and responsibilities toward its drivers. This will have to extend beyond including the tipping option on its app. If Uber drivers don’t believe in Uber, then no one will....and why should drivers believe in Uber when their entire business model is based upon one day, very soon, getting rid of drivers in favor of the self driving vehicle. To Uber, their drivers are just a means to an end. While drivers need to earn a living, there are plenty of other companies, especially in New York City, that a driver can work with and be treated with respect. Longstanding companies like Carmel Car and Limousine Service, run by my longtime friend Avik Kabessa, Dial 7 Car and Limousine Service, Vital Transportation, Executive Transportation Group, all treat drivers with respect and that is why they stay with these companies. Some may have left, but eventually they all come back. The grass is not greener at Uber and recent events inside and outside of Uber have proven this to be true.

The test will be the typical test. Is is the test of time. Carmel, Dial 7, Vital and ETG have been around for decades because they know how to treat not only their affiliated drivers, but also their customers as well. It is too bad Uber does not know how to do the same. Uber's poor treatment of its customers as fungible is one thing, but treating drivers like second class citizens is an abomination to the for-hire vehicle industry. Drivers who work for Uber are being scammed (yes I say work for because they are employees of Uber, contrary to what Uber claims). Its time for the Uber drivers of the world to rise up and demand more. The time has obviously come for the internal implosion at Uber, via the recent mass Executive exit. The external explosion for Uber will likely be either when a court declares Uber Drivers to be what they actually are, which is employees and not independent contractors, and/or when Uber tries to go public and their IPO results in their paper valuation (or shall I say, hyper-valuation) go out the proverbial window.