An open letter to Uber

Ridesharing service Uber today sent a letter to Australia's Transport Ministers ahead of their annual meeting today. The full letter can be read here, but these are a few highlights:

The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily represent the views of, and should not be attributed to CyberShack as a publication.

Ridesharing service Uber today sent a letter to Australia's Transport Ministers ahead of their annual meeting today. The full letter can be read here, but these are a few highlights:

Thousands of new jobs have been created in the past two years, with 1100 new ridesharing partner drivers joining the Uber platform every month across Australia

All Uber partner drivers must pass a rigorous criminal background and driving history review process to be able to use the platform – and we’re setting industry leading standards in the process.

Every uberX trip is covered by our US$5m contingency liability cover, in addition to each partner driver’s own full insurance policies.

Both riders and drivers must also provide feedback after each journey, which is reviewed on a continual basis by our local teams.

I thought I'd add a few of my own thoughts to the mix:

 

Dear Uber,

We already know a lot of this already.
Taxis are over-priced and under deliver.
Hire Cars are nice and make you feel like you are wealthy, even though you aren’t.

Ride sharing is nothing new (it was once called hitch hiking), you guys just formalised it and added a business model.

Your issue is that you are trying to convince a dinosaur that a meteorite is entering the earth’s atmosphere, ‘look – you can see it beginning to block out the sun!’ But alas, the dinosaur is only interested in making sure they can keep chomping on the grass that currently sways in the breeze on the field where they are standing.

I love the idea of a shakeup, but I continue to wonder the answer to this question: do you pay income tax in Australia?

I know this letter to the minsters is not meant for our audience, but until I can see you definitively answer the above question I feel beholden to keep providing income to a prehistoric system, where the drivers are under paid and the customer is over-charged – even though there is something better out there.

Best Regards,
Charlie