UBER: RIDE SHARING ECO-WARRIOR OR TAXI INDUSTRY KILLER?

Travis Kalanick speaks at TED Vancouver

Preface article from Vancouver Sun.

Uber is a ride sharing service that is experiencing rapid growth amongst users and expanding into multiple cities internationally. Despite this success, there has been negative media and protests regarding the company’s operations. Most of the negative press surrounds the idea that Uber is taking away jobs from an existing industry – taxis. However, based on thorough reading and forming some of my own opinions and reasons for them, I believe that Uber is a ride-sharing service that has the right to operate within the confines of the law and is benefits both the economy and the environment.

My opinion that Uber can be considered a ride-sharing eco warrior must be prefaced that I do not believe the ride-sharing service’s main goals are to fight environmental issues, but it is instead a positive and measurable effect of its services. It is truthful that Uber is an eco-warrior, though it does not claim to focus on that.

Let’s take a look at the talk Travis Kalanick – UBER’s CEO made at the recent TED Talk in Vancouver. Travis claims that 1.4 thousand metric tonnes of C02 was prevented from Los Angeles within the 8-month test of UberPool, and 7.9 million miles were taken off the roads I that city. Those are in fact impressive and unexpected number that I believe regulators should consider when fighting Uber on it’s position. (Globe and Mail).

It is not easy to argue with the facts that Travis Kalanick has presented during his Ted. However, the argument that Uber is a taxi-industry killer is also considered. There is no existing proof presented that the taxi industry will completely die due to Uber’s presence. In fact, there are still individuals who find taxi’s more convenient such as an airport pickup. I believe that a level of weak reasoning and wrong area of focus is part of the issue with people protesting against Uber, where most of these people are taxi drivers. To clarify my assertion that there is a wrong area of focus, I mean to say that taxi drivers should not focus on Uber being the problem, but that taxi drivers should be the solution. Taxi drivers and companies have the advantage of having an existing network of drivers, policies, procedures, and legal compliance benefits over Uber for many decades. Therefore, they should focus on how they can enhance their service to compete against Uber since the customer is the person to make a decision. If a taxi service is better than Uber, then taxi drivers won’t lose their customers. In addition, with these enhancements and with the number of taxis on the road internationally, they can make a significant impact in address environmental issues caused by motor vehicles.

In the event that the taxi industry does die, it would be similar to how the video store industry died as well. Technological advancements and streaming services such as Netflix were offering more value to customers than a physical video store. That could be the same case here with Uber and the taxi industry. That does not mean that Uber is a taxi-industry killer. It simply means that the taxi industry is not remaining competitive. However, in my opinion, Uber remains a ride sharing service that happens to include the benefit of being an eco-warrior.