Two different, both contradictory and interesting, new messages related to Uber in London. Both messages reached the news approximately a month ago. In September, London announced that Uber’s request for a new license in the capital city of England has been rejected by The Transport of London because of the following reason: ‘Uber is not a fit and proper private car operator’ (Butler, S. & Topham, G. 2017). Uber currently has 3.5 million users in London and 40.000 licensed drivers. Uber can still continue their services until it has exhausted the appeals process, which could take months. This is case since Uber’s chief executive announced that the company would appeal against this decision of The Transport of London. He stated the following as a reaction on this occurrence: “The truth is that there is a high cost to a bad reputation and thus really matters what people think of us, especially in a global business like ours” (Solon, O. 2017). Uber itself also posted tweets with the request to sign a petition to ensure London with more, not fewer, transportation options (Uber, 2017).
Contradictory to above described rejection is Uber’s own announcement, in September as well. Uber decided that Uber drivers will be banned from using cars that are not hybrid or fully electric in London from 2020 (Vaughan, A. 2017). According to Vaughan, A. (2017) London has been selected for this plan since the dirty air causes almost 9.500 deaths a year there. Uber also announced that this will most likely be mandatory for all Uber drivers in whole England as well before 2025. Uber’s 40,000 licensed drivers in London can receive a financial assistance from Uber to switch to a fully electric or hybrid car of up to £5,000 what in my opinion reflects how important this decision is for Uber.
Shall above two described news messages be pure coincidence or is it possibly related to each it? In my opinion Uber hopes to increase their chance of getting a new license in London by this decision (i.e. goodwill).
- Butler, S. & Topham, G. (2017) ‘Uber stripped of London licence due to lack of corporate responsibility’ Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/22/uber-licence-transport-for-london-tfl
- Solon, O. (2017) ‘New Uber CEO meets staff as emotional Travis Kalanick gets standing ovation’ Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/aug/30/uber-new-ceo-dara-khosrowshahi-all-staff-meeting
- Uber (2017) Uber Twitter account. Retrieved from: https://twitter.com/Uber/status/911366169310896128?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.theguardian.com%2Ftechnology%2F2017%2Fsep%2F22%2Fuber-licence-transport-for-london-tfl
- Vaughan, A. (2017) ‘Uber: London drivers must use hybrid or fully electric cars from 2020’ Retrieved from: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/sep/08/uber-london-hybrid-fully-electric-cars-2020-vehicles