The deeply unpopular Uber has managed to make itself even more loathed by the taxi driving community, with the revelation that the US arm of the company has allegedly been involved in a ‘driver poaching’ policy that was so covert they even gave it a codename – ‘Operation Slog’.
Drivers from taxi outfit Lyft have been tempted away by Uber in an operation that wouldn’t seem out of place in a John le Carré spy novel. Burner (disposal) phones and credit cards were used by ‘brand ambassadors’ to recruit drivers. But there have also been some rumours of more sinister and underhanded techniques to quash the competition; rumours that caused the company to pre-empt the bad publicity it knew would be coming and release a denial on their website.
Uber said that claims they had used underhand tactics such as preventing drivers from making a living by intentionally cancelling fares, was completely false. However, documents detailing Uber’s methodology in around 10 US cities has been doing the rounds, and it paints a much darker corporate picture of a company that will stop at almost nothing to dominate the taxi industry.
The most common practice is to employ ‘Sloggers’ who, armed with disposable phones and credit cards supplied by Uber, hail Lyft taxis. Once they’re in the car they then try to persuade the driver to sign up with Uber. And despite Uber’s claim that it doesn’t intentionally cancel rides, records have shown that in the past 10 months more than five and a half thousand rides were cancelled, with one specific user creating as many as 14 accounts and cancelling 680 rides single-handedly.
Taxi Wars
What this demonstrates is a) just how competitive the taxi industry is not just in the US, but worldwide, and b) how determined Uber is to dominate the market. We have yet to see full-blown ‘taxi wars’ on UK streets, but Uber seems to be unbowed by the constant criticism levelled at it for its tactics, which some drivers have described as corporate bullying. To be fair to Uber the chief execs, when challenged strenuously denied any wrongdoing, but the damage to their reputation has been considerable, with accusations of ‘sleazy’ tactics and a (shall we say) ‘robust’ approach to marketing.
In the UK Uber has yet to really have an impact on the industry, and to be honest most drivers would be more interested in more affordable taxi driver insurance or reduced petrol costs than an app that can book or cancel journeys seemingly at will. However, we will be watching developments closely over the next few weeks to see if the UK Uber team adopts some of the less salubrious tactics of their American cousins, or if the ‘fair play’ principle holds firm on this side of the Pond.