Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi turns driver to understand challenges faced by them

By Divyanshi SharmaUber is one of the most widely-used cab services across the world and has many people counting on it for their regular commuting needs. While we have often come across instances of people being overcharged by the company, facing issues with drivers, and so on, rarely has the Uber driver’s concerns been highlighted. To get to the bottom of the challenges faced by the Uber drivers, the company’s CEO, Dara Khosrowshahi, went undercover and posed as an Uber driver and delivery person.

Uber CEO turns driver

A Wall Street Journal report reveals that in September, Dara Khosrowshahi decided to step in the Uber drivers’ shoes and used the name Dave K to drive people around. This campaign was code-named Project Boomerang. The car being used by him was a grey Tesla Model Y that was a secondhand purchase. The CEO drove riders across San Francisco and shared his experience with the publication.

He revealed that one evening, when he was driving a customer to the airport, he got ‘frantic phone calls from the chief legal officer’ who was trying to tell him about a hacker who had breached Uber’s network. Another trip took him across the Bay Bridge and he got stuck up in traffic on his way back.

During the pandemic, Uber faced an acute shortage of drivers and the campaign was carried out in hopes of understanding the Uber drivers’ problems.

“I think that the industry as a whole, to some extent, has taken drivers for granted,” Mr. Khosrowshahi said in the interview with Wall Street Journal. He further added that the reasonn behind him never taking the wheel was quite simple – there was always an abundance of drivers. However, the labour shortage that was seen due to the pandemic called for a ‘company-wide introspection’ to ‘re-examine every single assumption that they had made’.

Challenges faced by drivers

Talking about the challenges that he observed that Uber drivers faced, Khosrowshahi said that one challenge faced by Uber drivers that came to light was the inability to see drop-off locations as well as the estimated pay for the ride before the drivers accepted a trip.

This made it hard for them to decide if the ride was worth investing their time. Another issue that Khosrowshahi faced was that when he rejected a trip, he was ‘punished’ by the app as it took away his ability to see destinations ahead of time.

The Uber CEO also shared his experience of dealing with rude and tip-baiting customers. Tip-baiting refers to the act of promising a certain tip but paying up lesser amount after the trip got completed.

Another challenge that drivers faced was that the procedure of signing up as an Uber driver was quite complex.