KUALA LUMPUR, July 7 ― Responding to calls for government regulation, Uber said the e-hailing company’s tech innovations has helped increase the income of its drivers.
A local representative of the Silicon Valley-based company also insisted that its contracts are fair and competitive with the commission collected from its drivers reinvested into improving transport technology that benefit them further.
But the Uber spokesman did not state clearly if this meant the company found the complaints from its discontented drivers, whom it also described as its “customers”, to be valid.
“Uber values driver-partners; they play a vital role in the Uber experience and much of what we have achieved in our three years couldn’t be done without them,” the representative said, a day after a survey of 300 Uber and Grab drivers that highlighted discontent with the two popular e-hailing companies’ commission system.
In an emailed statement to Malay Mail Online today, Uber pointed out that its model allows its drivers to “keep the bulk of the trip fare” whenever they pick up a passenger.
It explained that the service fee the company collects is reinvested into the business to develop further technology, citing the improvement it made in its Uber driver app in September 2015 as an example of innovations that has contributed to increased earnings potential for their “driver-partners”.
“The driver app has a Personalised Feed that shows areas of high demand and incentive schemes in real-time, giving drivers both control and transparency on earnings,” it said.
While Uber consistently describes its drivers as “partners”, Western media have highlighted the reason for that nomenclature: it avoids according its drivers’ benefits otherwise required under local and international labour laws.
Uber also said it introduced a “Back to Back Trips” system, a feature that supposedly lets its drivers take their next trip request when they are near completing their current trip.
“This helps reduce idle time for drivers and maximise their earnings,” it said.
Uber maintained that its system has done more good than harm for its drivers, pointing to data from an undisclosed source indicating a double digit growth in driver income.
“For driver-partners ― it means having the choice of earning money at the push of a button; allowing them to decide both where and when they wish to drive… in fact, recent data has shown double-digit growth in earnings for driver-partners,” it said.
However, Uber did not directly address the concerns regarding the commissions it collects from drivers, which is said to go as high as 25 per cent.
Yesterday, federal Opposition party DAP presented a survey that collected response from 300 Uber and Grab ― a Malaysian company headquartered in Singapore ― drivers with most of them expressing discontent against the e-hailing companies' commission system.
The result showed 75 per cent of drivers were keen for the government to regulate the commissions the companies are allowed to collect.
The revelation came just ahead of the government's plan to table amendments to the Land Public Transport Act at this month's parliamentary sitting, Bills that are likely to include provisions to legalise and regulate the e-hailing transport industry.
