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All U.S. Uber employees will need to be vaccinated against the coronavirus before returning to the office later this year, but the company has failed to demand that an integral part of its business, its drivers, be vaccinated.
CEO Dara Khosrowshahi explained his thinking to CNBC on Thursday.
“When you reach hundreds of millions of people, which is what we’re talking about in terms of drivers and drivers, hand that responsibility, that kind of decision-making power, to a business, I don’t think it’s right.” Khosrowshahi said in an interview with “Squawk Box”.
Uber did not release recent figures on the number of drivers it has, but said on Wednesday it facilitated 1.51 billion trips on the platform in its second quarter.
“I think these mandates, if pushed, should be pushed by local or federal governments and that’s really the direction we’re going. And then whatever mandate comes, we do our best to get it. support, ”he said. added.
Uber has invested funds in promoting public immunization measures, including providing free rides to immunization sites. This is an important mission for the company, as increasing vaccination rates would likely result in more frequent travel and, in turn, use of Uber’s services.
It was an “easy call” to demand vaccines for Uber’s thousands of white-collar workers, the CEO said.
“You spend time together in an office, eight hours a day, 10 hours a day.” This means “that it would be fair to require vaccines for bikers and drivers”.
But the company has chosen to impose other safety measures to mitigate the spread of the deadly virus, such as requiring masks and asking customers to leave their windows open to circulate air throughout the car.
“We think the push, which we fully support, should be for the government to vaccinate people as quickly as possible so that we can get back to life,” he said.
Khosrowshahi said it was worth thinking about requiring all runners and drivers to be vaccinated.
“Based on the circumstances that we see now, we think the best way forward is for us and the government, and we have certainly played our part, to push the vaccinations… to really increase the vaccination rates, we think that this is the best way to go. “
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