Uber promises 50,000 new European jobs

http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2015/jan/19/uber-new-european-jobs-taxi-app

Version 0 of 1.

Taxi-hire firm Uber is planning rapid expansion in Europe, promising to create 50,000 new jobs in 2015.

Uber’s chief executive, Travis Kalanick, told a conference in Munich: “We want to make 2015 the year where we establish a new partnership with EU cities.”

Kalanick said Uber’s expansion would take 400,000 cars off the road in cities that welcome the company. He added: “Uber is committed to establishing new partnerships with Europe’s cities to ensure innovation, harness powerful economic benefits and promote core city functions.”

The promise is a change of tack from Kalanick, who has become known for striking a hard bargain with cities that attempt to force Uber to comply with what the company sees as outdated or protectionist regulation.

Uber has been hit with court injunctions in Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and Spain for violating taxi licensing rules. The app offers markedly different services in different markets, from minicab-style taxi hire in London to ride-sharing in Paris and carpooling in the San Francisco Bay Area, and is frequently limited in how it can roll out new features based on regulations which vary city by city.

Kalanick also told mayors in Europe that if they relax regulations that prevent the firm operating, over the next four years Uber would create 10,000 jobs in each of their cities.

“At the end of 2015, if we can make these partnerships happen, we create 50,000 new EU jobs,” he said.

Those new jobs would not be Uber employees, by and large. As a leading proponent of the “sharing economy”, the company’s drivers are legally independent contractors in the cities, such as London, where it operates as a minicab firm. In other cases, as with its UberPOP service, the company allows its own customers to become drivers, and its carpooling service links up drivers on commutes with paying riders.

When it comes to taking cars off the road, the company argues that “Uber complements existing public transport options,” citing the example of Paris, where it says that 15% of Uber trips start or end more than 1km away from a metro or train station.

As part of its carrot for city governments, Uber dangles to possibility of increased tax revenue, pointing out that “app-based transportation brings transportation economy ‘on the grid’, where the industry has long been cash-based.

“Uber wants to partner closely with tax authorities to increase transportation providers’ compliance and overall tax revenue for cities and countries across Europe.”

Uber, now the world’s most highly valued venture-backed start-up, worth upwards of $41bn, has faced regulatory scrutiny and court injunctions from its earliest days as a San Francisco start-up.

It has also come under fire for its aggressive response to rivals and critics as well as questions over whether the company has enough safeguards in place to ensure the physical safety and privacy of passengers using its services.

A woman who was allegedly raped by an Uber taxi driver in India’s capital has hired a prominent lawyer to sue the online-hailing taxi service in US courts.

Uber faces mounting complaints about its use of “surge pricing” to attract drivers at peak-demand periods. Some critics go further, arguing that Uber’s system may drive down the prices drivers can charge for their services in the long-run.