Introduction to Uber Technologies Inc.

Uber Technologies Inc. is a network for transportation. This transport company has its headquarters located in San Francisco, California in the United States of America. It currently operates in over 570 cities worldwide. Its main work is to develop, market, and operate the Uber car transportation and food delivery mobile applications. In some cities, they use their own cars to transport customers; however, in most cases, drivers can own their cars or rent cars from others to drive with Uber. The name Uber is driven from the word ‘top most’ meaning ‘above’. The Uber product is application software that demands that a driver must possess a smartphone, and users or customers should have access to a smartphone or the website. Through the website, and the application installed, the user can interact with the drivers and the company management is able to track and check the operations of the business (George, 1994).

Uber offers to price as follows; the customer quotes the price that he or she would wish to pay before asking for a ride. In some cities, Uber does not give an upfront pay but instead do a calculation of the price in the same way as done by the taximeter. The customer is charged according to the time spent and the amount of distance covered when traveling. At the end of the journey, the payment is done according to the customer’s preference of payment method. The payment method could be by credit, cash, google wallet, or airtel mobile wallet.

Uber is concerned with digitizing the transportation industry by introducing a mobile application to ensure high standards but at low costs. This can be termed as ‘a digital disruption’ of transport industry that allows riders to find taxis at their convenience. The drivers do not need to look for customers; it is just by swiping the application and finding the clients and their locations. The whole process can be briefly described as follows; The Uber management will find drivers who have access to a car and those that would like to earn money. The management then scrutinizes them carefully to ensure that they are people who can offer a highly scaled and well- managed platform.

This is not the end of everything; the management then allows clients who may need to make journeys do an online booking for these drivers on a mobile application that is installed on the smartphone. The management is able to monitor everything as it goes at the control center. This means that they have to create a review system to check and ensure a great service is offered and everything goes on smoothly with minimal hitches. They take 20-30% pay cut on all bookings as part of their revenues and the rest should be for the drivers. The management ensures that they work on the data provided promptly enough to reduce the waiting time by the rider and to maximize the driving time. As has been mentioned, this business model is extremely easy to use, for instance, people simply tap an application on their smartphone and wait for a taxi to find them where they are at the minimum time possible. Currently, Uber technology operates at over $50 billion.

Uber’s Pricing Model

As have been mentioned, Uber uses an application installed on smartphones that track the drivers and the customers can use the same platform to request drivers to offer them transportation. Therefore, it means the users must have access to smartphones with this application for everything to successfully take place. Uber car transportation and food delivery mobile applications. In some cities, they use their own cars to transport customers; however, in most cases, drivers can own their cars or rent cars from others to drive with Uber. The name Uber is driven from the word ‘top most’ meaning ‘above’. The Uber product is application software that demands that a driver must possess a smartphone, and users or customers should have access to a smartphone or the website. Through the website, and the application installed, the user can interact with the drivers and the company management is able to track and check the operations of the business (Aasland, 2004).

Solving issues in this company have never been so easy. Since this is a global company with a big area under which they operate, it is not quite easy to monitor everything perfectly. In addition, the fact that it is a digital platform just like a Facebook application, it possesses some difficulties to control the users. Drivers are located in different cities as well as customers, it is hard to physically to reach them and monitor them as well. The recruitment procedure for the drivers may not be up to date to ensure competent and ethical drivers are employed.

The company relies on the data in the system to try to monitor the whole operation. This data may not be accurate enough to help the top management to deal with some unethical issues (Koh, Scully and Woodliff, 2016). The fact that the headquarters of the company is in U.S.A only and there are no subsidiary offices to be delegated duties in their respective cities complicates issues even further. The only easier thing that the top can do is to suspend the drivers that do not respond to customer’s requests in time. Therefore, the company mainly rely on the data they gather using the digital platform and the customer feedback to discover issues and see how to solve them.

Uber has been alleged to involve in cancellation to disrupt their competitors. In this case, they are able to mislead their competitors to pretend to solve issues of incompetency but though, they are up to maximizing revenues on the other side competition based demand. This company has been observed to hike charges during disasters. Their prices are based on changing pricing model called ‘surge pricing’ whereby prices are raised during the times when people need them the most. For example, during the periods of the hurricane and other natural disasters. They are criticized to have been hiking fares during these periods thereby inconveniencing users who may not be aware of the changes and are in dire need of transportation.

The Digitization of the Transportation Industry

Another problem is a classification of drivers; the drivers are classified as drivers and not employees. This means that they do not have job security at all (Trevino and Weaver, 1994). They can be dismissed from job anytime, even with a flimsy mistake. Moreover, this is the reason behind being suspended if they fail to respond to within the 15- the second allowance. They contract with drivers under the legal agreement as contracts, not employees, so drivers losing their job are rampant, and nothing one can do to reclaim his or her job.

Uber drivers have been criticized for being aggressive towards local officials and journalists in the sense that they harass them and do not allow them to interrogate them. At the same, they evade the laws governing transportation and organizations; so mostly they operate outside the governing laws. User privacy is another big problem seen with this transportation mode (Koh, Scully and Woodliff, 2016).   

It has been noted that the Uber drivers are using the application while driving, something that violates the traffic rules of any country and poses a great danger to himself and the passengers on board. There have been concerns about this issue whereby the driver is notified about the new requests received from customers and they have to confirm to them within the 15-second window. If no response received from the driver, he or she may be suspended on this ground. An Uber driver has reported that many drivers have been sacked because of ignoring and failing to respond to requests from customers within a window period of 15-seconds. The United States National Transport Safety board has expressed dissatisfaction with this issue claiming that it makes the drivers to be distracted as the drivers only think about responding to financial requests rather than concentrating on driving.

In February 2016, the vetting method of Uber came under stern criticism and scrutiny following shootings that were alleged to have been carried out by one Uber driver, Jason Dalton (Mosola, 1995). He is accused of involving in a shooting spree that resulted in the death of six people and others injured. A search operation was carried out after the shooting to apprehend him, but the vetting procedure of Uber was most criticized to have so many lapses. The drivers’ conducts cannot be investigated properly if these holes in the recruitment procedures are not sealed. It is an itching and demanding act that must be checked and actions should be taken immediately a complaint is received from customers and the public about particular drivers (Parsons, 2008). 

Uber’s Review System

The rising safety issues with Uber are extremely counterproductive and can easily affect its operations, if not to ground the efforts of the founders (Filatov, 1994). It has been seen as one of the best technology that has been developed in the transport industry and could leverage most transport problems that have been with us year in year out. Concerns about its operations and the safety of the passengers continue to arise on a daily basis. To just mention, the recent claim by an Indian woman of being raped by Uber driver. This made the Indian authorities to ban the operations and the entire taxi-booking services and resulting to the company suspending its operations in New Delhi. This is not the only problem with Uber currently, there are a number of cases, reported and unreported. Several accusations have emerged on the nature of Uber operations, for example, sexual assaults, kidnapping, and sexual harassment (Hancock, 2005).

Uber has faced several criticisms about a number of unethical behaviors and statements made by the executive. This being private company, it may not easy to hold the executive culpable of the statements they make as far as their business is concerned. In his blog, Diane Brown states that if the management of Uber does not take their opportunity to come up with a strong culture, it will be on the verge of losing important partnerships, employees, and its drivers and consequently collapse (Palmer, 2013).  This report will look at the current unethical issues present in Uber as an organization.

These issues have painted the image of this great idea with negative thoughts and it is a drawback to the efforts that have been laid down by the founders of this great platform. Through this report, we are also going to find ways that these issues would have been minimized if not prevented or handled in a better way that leaves everyone satisfied and a streamlined organizational behavior is realized  (O’Fallon and Butterfield, 2011). 

The first unethical concern took place in 2014. This happened in a restaurant where a dinner was organized. This dinner was attended by a Buzz feed reporter. The senior vice president, Emil Michael says that it would cost them millions of money trying to investigate and find the information about the reporter (Conn, 2015).

It was later discovered that the measures taken by the CEO was quite weak and did not uncover either did it address the causes of the problem adequately. This brings a conclusion that this type of unethical conduct is encouraged and bred by the top management of Uber-Company. These scandals indicate the way a corporate relationship can derail the image of a company and even push it to a closedown. According to Diane, for a business to have successful and ethical compliant program, there must be a solid foundation of business ethics that are fully backed and proposed by the top management (Mellahi, Morrell and Wood, 2010). The manner in which the management handles issues unethically damages the image of this company. Consequently, it is extremely hard to deal with unethical drivers that are committing unlawful acts on the innocent clients they are serving (Hoffman, 1991).

Issues Faced by Uber

Uber is facing a number of lawsuits against their unethical acts from individuals, clients, human rights organizations, and governments. The most rampant unethical behaviors are the rape cases, sexual assaults, dynamism in prices, among others. In Chicago, a passenger alleged that an Uber driver sexually assaulted her, while early this year, a driver was expounded on the allegation that he kidnapped a drunk passenger and took her to a restaurant with an intention to sexually harass her (Mosola, 1995). A similar incident took place in London where a woman alleged that an Uber driver sexually molested her and forced her to do oral sex. It is true that many of these drivers have participated in criminal doings directly or indirectly against their clients. However, the high-profile problems faced by Uber arise at a time when it is fighting the critics from the individuals, public, and governments that claim it has not put enough efforts to deal with issues of unethical behavior (Singh and Twalo, 2015).

In Portland, Oregon, an individual has also sued Uber for not stopping it operations after a public protest that they are operating under illegal procedures and failure to meet requirements for the protection of the consumer and safety procedures as well. In March 2016, two of the Uber drivers in Lansing, Michigan were alleged to have sexually assaulted a woman and they were arrested and charged after sources revealed that they molested a University student (De George, 1986). The rape cases began early in 2015 in New Delhi, India where a 25-year old Delhi woman also claimed to have been raped by one Uber driver. Shiv Kumar Yadav filed a lawsuit against the company for neglecting important customer issues in the U.S. This becomes too much when another incident occurred in February 2017, a former Uber employee claimed that she was sexually harassed by a manager and consequently told that she may be terminated if she reports the issue. It was later discovered that the CTO had learned about Susan Fowler’s sexual harassment allegation and the threats but he did not do any substantial thing to avert such behavior in future (Velasquez, 1996).

These scandals indicate the way a corporate relationship can derail the image of a company and even push it to a closedown. According to Diane, for a business to have successful and ethical compliant program, there must be a solid foundation of business ethics that are fully backed and proposed by the top management. The manner in which the management handles issues unethically damages the image of this company. Consequently, it is extremely hard to deal with unethical drivers that are committing unlawful acts on the innocent clients they are serving (Babalola, 2009).

Classification of Drivers

Uber has been described as a company that has extremely poor corporate culture. Its relationship with the outside world has not been so good because many serious allegations and complaints arise from the public. The employees have also cried for the way the management deals with issues and the manner in which the members of the top management itself can be involved in unethical issues. These incidents beginning from sexual harassment all the way to recklessness of the drivers pose a serious challenge to the management and many clients fear away using Uber (Trevino, 1992). 

Although Uber has huge followers around the globe, its operations are coming under strict supervision and scrutiny for the many procedures they do not adhere to and follow them at the same time. The type of insurance coverage has also been alleged to be so weak. It only provides protection that is seen in traditional taxi cover. Another complaint is the access of information by many people (Cragg, 2002). The access to information can make others tamper with the data and security as well. In addition, some people are criticizing what they term as the company’s sluggishness in dealing with issues including their response time to issues that are unethical in the eyes of the public (Gill, 2012). 

Therefore, the question arises how Uber manages its operations with no same safety requirements that any taxi company should have. Even though Uber is not a taxi company, it is still a company that deals with transportation services and should have the insurance coverage given to any taxi company. Although Uber is not a taxi company but it is a technology that uses a mobile app to connect customers with drivers. The application gives the customers opportunity to track the locations of the drivers as they wait to be picked up. However, the problem is that the insurance coverage and policy for this kind of technology is quite unclear. The company requires that the drivers buy their own insurance cover in which it gives $1 million for the liability coverage for the incident (Moore, 2006).

These problems indicate the way a corporate relationship can derail the image of a company and even push it to a closedown. According to Diane, for a business to have successful and ethical compliant program, there must be a solid foundation of business ethics that are fully backed and proposed by the top management (Moore, 2005). The manner in which the management handles issues unethically damages the image of this company. Consequently, it is extremely hard to deal with unethical drivers that are committing unlawful acts on the innocent clients they are serving.

Criticism of Uber Drivers’ Behavior

 It has been described as a company that has extremely poor corporate culture. Its relationship with the outside world has not been so good because many serious allegations and complaints arise from the public (Kramer, 2015). The employees have also cried for the way the management deals with issues and the manner in which the members of the top management itself can be involved in unethical issues. These incidents beginning from sexual harassment all the way to recklessness of the drivers pose a serious challenge to the management and many clients fear away using Uber (Babalola, 2009). 

The rising safety issues with Uber are extremely counterproductive and can easily affect its operations, if not to ground the efforts of the founders. It has been seen as one of the best technology that has been developed in the transport industry and could leverage most transport problems that have been with us year in year out. Concerns about its operations and the safety of the passengers continue to arise on a daily basis. Further to these, several questions have also been raised about Uber’s procedure of recruiting drivers.

 The District Attorneys from San Francisco, as well as those from Los Angeles, filed a case against the management of Uber purporting that they are misleading the public about the safety of the people they drive around. It is noted that the Uber executive considers taking neither fingerprints nor any other documented security step to ensure that drivers do not exploit the consumers. The strategies put in place seem to be worthless in the sense that they are weak in dealing with some unethical behaviors being experienced along with the business operations (Mellahi, Morrell and Wood, 2010). 

It is an itching and demanding acts that must be looked at and actions should be taken immediately a complaint is received from customers and the public about particular drivers.

The rising safety issues with Uber are extremely counterproductive and can easily affect its operations, if not to ground the efforts of the founders (Singh and Twalo, 2015). It has been seen as one of the best technology that has been developed in the transport industry and could leverage most transport problems that have been with us year in year out. Concerns about its operations and the safety of the passengers continue to arise on a daily basis. Many passengers fear away from using Uber services due to the fact that these incidences are growing day by day and no proper action is taken to prevent them  (Arvinen-Muondo and Perkins, 2013). I propose that the company should have very elaborate strategies and procedures of recruiting their drivers. There should be constant checks on the behavior of the drivers to ensure that they operate within the laws and create a culture that everyone is happy about.

Safety Concerns with Uber

Conclusions

The rising safety issues with Uber have negative impacts on the operations and achievements of the business (Filatov, 1994). It has been seen as one of the best technology that has been developed in the transport industry and could leverage most transport problems that have been with us for many decades. These unethical issues are things that can be minimized if the top management is careful about doing better to win back the trust of consumers and the public. Improvements ought to be made all around the foundation of the business to enable its objectives to be achieved properly.

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