Uber has completely lost it with the
new petition. as much of a fan as I am - I realized this petition is a whole load of crap and corporate PR talk but zero substance. They are making it sound like they have just invented the wheel - sorry but they really need to get off their high horse here and not assume everyone in India is a fool. Somehow their every communication seems to indicate that everyone else has a problem or is imperfect except Uber. That's not a healthy premise.
Let's cut out the crap from the petition:
A. Facts about Uber India's core safety features:
Built in transparency (access to driver and vehicle information and real-time GPS tracking through ‘Share my ETA’ feature) that promotes accountability.
-> Good idea but this again shares the information that they already have through a visible URL. Meru has long been one step ahead with the panic button "In case of emergency" which allows you to contact a preset list of upto 3 people.
Partnering exclusively with commercially licensed and insured driver-partners who are required to be police verified as part of the licensing process by state transport authorities and are eligible to provide transportation for a fee.
-> Does that mean earlier they partnered non licensed drivers? What's the USP here?
Mandatory rating system that maintains high quality drivers on the system.
-> Safety feature? What are they smoking! It sure didn't result in Shiv Yadav being kicked off the system on Dec 2 when a serious complaint was made. Unless a woman can review the safety record and past complaints about a driver, and then choose whether to go ahead - this whole rating system is bollocks. Its like eBay ratings where the numbers only vary between 4.5-5.0 making it meaningless. Uber further doesn't let you rate the jerk drivers who cancel trips (i've had one such instance - the app didn't give me an option to give that man negative feedback!)
Hassle-free payments means not having to worry about carrying any cash.
-> Safety feature? LOL
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What we are introducing:
Police Verification: Ensuring all Uber driver-partners across India have an authentic and valid police verification
-> Again, excuse me?! Were they using unverified drivers earlier.
Document Verification: A local team of specially-trained safety experts to detect fraud, verify and authenticate driver/ vehicle documents and test the validity of our screening.
-> Again, excuse me?! Were they not verifying the documents earlier? This raises more questions about the "chalta hai" attitude they have operated within, in the past.
Background Checks: Going above and beyond required government verification, we’re engaging local and global experts to evaluate the most effective background screening solution across India; pilot programs are already running in select cities, including Delhi.
-> Here is where they are beginning to talk sense. Except the commitment is to evaluate background checks but not rolling it out just yet.
Incident Response Team: A local and dedicated customer support center that will specialize on resolving critical issues for our rider and driver community in India.
-> What exactly is this? Is this a panic button in the app? Is this just a helpline number? It could be game changing or it could be PR talk.
In-app safety features: An enhanced ShareMyETA button is the first of a whole set of new integrated Uber safety features coming to India. ShareMyETA allows you to send your complete trip details (including live GPS tracking, driver photo, name and vehicle license no.) to your loved ones.
-> Nice but this is just about sharing the GPS coordinates online. You can already do this in a way - book the uber for someone else with your ID, and as they ride, you can track them!
What were the problems with Uber and let's see whether they have been resolved?
-> Driver verification - Uber operates in economies where the police verification is good enough and they can "just" be a marketplace. In India, where it is bought easily, they need to roll out better background checks (or hope that the police does a better job!!). They seem to be attacking it but are woefully short on details.
->
Ongoing check of driver info -The mobile number listed with the company for Shiv Yadav was registered to a different person, indicating further negligence by the company while taking the details of the driver. They seem to be attacking this in part, but not on an ongoing basis.
-> Drivers' ability to override the GPS tracking - In the recent case, the driver indicated that the trip had been completed, and then proceeded to switch off the phone. Unattended.
-> Operating intra-city routes by drivers who hold only
all india permits: This had become an issue in BLR in July, but it died down then. Unattended.
-> Developing a robust system to respond to critical feedback in a time-bound manner: This whole incident response center sounds nice but sidesteps the basic question. Even in Shiv Yadav's case, they got a strong negative feedback on Dec 2 and
promised to solve it but did nothing for five days. They have got similar complaints which
they didn't respond to, before the case. How can Uber be trusted on this account again? Their internal processes were broken. They have not acknowledged this grave error till date and what you don't acknowledge, you don't solve. Have they published a SLA for such complaints, or any other standards? Nothing till date. I hope they do since I love them as a service otherwise.
To my mind, all this din sidesteps the core issue of ensuring trustworthiness of marketplace participants (in this case drivers), which thankfully Gadkari alluded to -
transparent driver history to be made available online.