Ride sharing regulations

Transcript

STEVE CANNANE, PRESENTER: The rise of the sharing economy is creating the promise of thousands of new jobs in Australia with Uber leading the charge. The company is lobbying governments in Australia to introduce laws which would legalise and regulate ride sharing. Now that’s already happened in dozens of other jurisdictions around the world, but in the United States, taxi driver unions are pushing for tougher rules on the way that Uber operates. North America correspondent Ben Knight reports from Washington, D.C.

BEN KNIGHT, REPORTER: If ever a city was a prime target for Uber to move into, it was Washington D.C.

For years, the taxi industry here stagnated. Old cabs, grumpy drivers, who until last year mostly only took cash. Even trying to call one was a nightmare.

JON LISS, TENANTS AND WORKERS UNITED: Spending 20 minutes on the phone, holding, spelling out your address, putting the phone down, praying that the cab shows up. Sometimes it does and sometimes it doesn’t.

BEN KNIGHT: John Liss used to drive cabs, so he knows why consumers are flocking to Uber. But these days, he represents the taxi drivers, who he says are caught in the middle as the cab companies scramble to catch up.

JON LISS: Now most of the cab companies are moving to have an app sort of like Uber where you can hit a button and sorta know who’s coming and have a credit card on file.

BEN KNIGHT: But they’ve been dragged into it?

JON LISS: Yeah, kicking and screaming, yeah.

BEN KNIGHT: Uber is the leviathan of the sharing economy. The sharing is between drivers in their private cars and passengers who want a lift. They connect using Uber’s mobile phone app. The drivers don’t actually work for Uber; they pay the company a percentage for the privilege of connecting with the app. It’s the same principle other companies use to connect people with something to sell and those who want to buy, whether it’s holiday apartments or dog-walking services. Uber calls its business ride sharing.

DAVID ROHRSHEIM, GM, UBER AUSTRALIA: Ride sharing is not new. People have been sharing rides in cars and car pooling. They’ve been encouraged to do that by the governments for decades. It’s not new; we’ve just made it easier than ever before.

BEN KNIGHT: But whatever you call it, Uber looks a lot like a taxi service, just without any of the taxi regulations. And not surprisingly, taxi drivers like Daniel Berhane aren’t impressed.

DANIEL BERHANE, CAB DRIVER: For taxi, we have heavy regulated industry where we need to have a commercial licence, commercial insurance, where Uber doesn’t have to do that. They pick up their personal car and start driving at any time.

BEN KNIGHT: But what really annoys them is that Uber doesn’t wait for the rules to be decided before putting its drivers out on the road, even paying their fines if they get caught, just as they’re doing in Australia right now.

JOHN LISS: That’s how they do business. So they come into an area, they ignore the rules, they write off the fines as a cost of doing business, they sort of go with this sort of outlaw image and build up a little reputation.

BEN KNIGHT: John Liss says Uber’s arrival means neither their drivers nor taxi drivers can make a decent living anymore and he’s lobbying for stricter rules on Uber and against its aggressive strategy.

JOHN LISS: They sort of goad the local or state government to shut them down and then they launch rolling thunder, which is get all their members on social media and so elected officials start shaking in their boots and at least almost universally you have sorta backed off. And within six to eight months, they get some kind of regulation allowing Uber to operate.

BEN KNIGHT: Uber is unapologetic about its strategy.

DAVID ROHRSHEIM: We think it is not a good use of the Transport Department’s time to be going out conducting sting operations and fining people for driving people from A to B. We think that time would be better spent on a review of some sensible ride-sharing regulations.

BEN KNIGHT: But the strategy doesn’t work everywhere. In Germany, Spain, France and the Netherlands, taxi drivers have succeeded in keeping Uber off the roads unless their drivers are fully licensed and insured. Uber is hoping the Australian Government and courts will see it differently.

DAVID ROHRSHEIM: We’re just looking for the governments to work with us and say, “Look, ride sharing has a right to operate in our cities. These are the rules and regulations that it should follow. And let’s help people who are looking to make some extra money to be able to do so.”

BEN KNIGHT: People like Gladys Blango. She started driving for Uber last year to add to her income at a department store.

GLADYS BLANGO, UBER DRIVER: It’s very convenient. It’s on my own time. You can come and become an Uber driver within a month and start driving and start making your own money. So as a woman, it’s a way to be independent, you know, and I kinda like that.

BEN KNIGHT: Recruiting women is a significant part of Uber’s marketing strategy. In March this year, it announced a campaign to create a million jobs for women around the world, but especially in developing countries.

But the backlash was swift in the wake of the rape of a female passenger by an Uber driver in Mumbai.

Then, two senior executives damaged Uber’s image further with some offensive and sexist remarks in the media.

Within days of announcing the deal, UN Women said it was pulling out.

PHUMZILE MLAMBO-NGCUKA, UN WOMEN EXEC. DIR.: UN Women will not accept an offer to collaborate on job creation with Uber, so you can rest assured about that.

BEN KNIGHT: Uber argues that the protection is in its system, where both riders and drivers rate each other after the trip, making it safer than a taxi ride.

DAVID ROHRSHEIM: Which is a stranger anonymously hopping into a cab with a driver they don’t know. We’ve removed all that anonymity and both the driver and the rider now must register, pre-book and they’re now accountable nor that ride from A to B. So we’ve fundamentally changed the – how safe that ride can be.

GLADYS BLANGO: When somebody requests a ride, I like the fact that it shows me not only where I’m picking you up at, but it gives me your rating. So if you’re below 4.5, I’m not picking up anybody that’s below 4.5.

BEN KNIGHT: Uber says that rating system is also what weeds out the bad drivers, or partners, as the company calls them.

But Uber partners, like these drivers protesting outside the company’s head office in San Francisco, say they’re at the mercy of Uber, which can raise and lower the fares they charge on a whim and fires drivers without due process.

JOHN LISS: You can invest $50,000, buy a brand new SUV, be out there working, someone gets drunk in the bar, comes out, hits the wrong button, or you don’t do an illegal U-turn ’cause they want to get somewhere in a hurry, and they give you a bad evaluation, you can literally be fired overnight despite all your investment.

BEN KNIGHT: Uber says it wants to create 20,000 new jobs in Australia within a year. But it’s Uber’s expansion strategy that begs the question: if it’s prepared to flout the law to establish itself, how can it be trusted to follow employment laws once it has?

DAVID ROHRSHEIM: We are keen to be regulated. We’ve been regulated in more than 20 markets around the world and we’ve been bringing examples of that legislation to Australian governments, demonstrating to them how ride sharing can fit into their economy, how it can fit into their city and make it work better.

GLADYS BLANGO: I think some of the negativity comes from the taxi drivers is that it’s taking away their jobs or whatever and I totally understand that. But, if somebody thinks of something better to make somebody else’s life better, why wouldn’t we want it to?

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