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The 45,000 Uber drivers in London can breathe a sigh of relief after a judge in London has granted the driving company a 15-month probationary license to continue operating in the city. Dara Khosrowshahi, CEO of the company, could also have reasons to celebrate.
Tuesday's decision was a legal and public relations victory for the new CEO who took over the company last year as he was already reeling from multiple scandals and unflattering headlines. . Within weeks, he was faced with other bad news when the London Transit regulator said he would not renew the start-up's operating license in the city. His flight to London was shortly after a diplomatic mission and the beginning of a test to prove that he was the right person to save the case flooded with scandals.
"Such a young company has suffered from a number of growth difficulties that have not been helped by what appeared to be a rather awkward attitude of those who run the business in the very recent past ", Judge Emma Arbuthnot said in her judgment Tuesday.
It was a nod to Khosrowshahi's progress, in less than a year, to reverse the trend. Former CEO of Expedia Group Inc., this 49-year-old man was named Uber's new boss in August, two months after the resignation of his predecessor, Travis Kalanick. At the time, the company was harassed by scandals related to its male-dominated culture, the use of controversial software to circumvent the regulators, the concealment of a huge data breach and mismanagement of a case of Indian rape in 2014.
In September, Transport for London – the city's transportation authority – concluded that Uber was not "in good shape" to hold a license, and said that the company did not have a "license". had not checked the background of drivers or reported "serious criminal offenses". . He also challenged the software called "Greyball" which was used to thwart the government's infiltration operations to apprehend potentially violent drivers. "Uber's approach and conduct demonstrate a lack of corporate responsibility, "said the regulator in a statement at the time.
The company had 21 days to appeal, which it did, and was able to continue operating as this process unfolded. But the legal battle was only half the battle: Uber was facing a growing malaise due to the frequency of scandals in which the company was mingled, protests from unions and the industry traditional black cabs and unfavorable political winds. London Mayor Sadiq Khan defended TfL's decision, saying "providing innovative service should not be at the expense of customer safety".
What followed was Khosrowshahi's meticulous strategy, involving public mea culpae, government changes, software reworking, reworked security and crime protocols, and political diplomacy.
In January, Uber announced that his drivers would have to shut down after 10 hours of work, in order to rebuff charges that their employees would stay behind the wheel for excessive periods to the detriment of passenger safety. In February, the company announced that it was forming "Driver Advisory Groups", which would see small teams of workers meet once a week to discuss issues they face in order to bring these concerns to the attention of the company. senior staff of Uber.
Larger changes quickly followed. The company has announced that it would open 24-hour helplines for all drivers and passengers, that it would promise better contacts with the police and that it's safe and secure. 39, undertook to report directly any "serious incident" that occurred during the trip of a passenger. Uber said he would also share driver license details with riders.
More recently, Uber announced that a series of financial insurance packages would be made available to drivers in the UK and elsewhere in Europe to cover lost income due to illness, injury or other reasons , provided they made 150 trips weeks before a claim.
Yet, for the tens of thousands of Uber drivers in London, such improvements would be irrelevant if their place in the so-called "concert economy" was disrupted by one of the world's most valuable startups to leave. the city. "It would be devastating," said a Uber driver to Bloomberg.
But in the spring there were signs that Uber's strategy was working: Following an April hearing in London, a company attorney said that TfL's list of concerns had more than halved since its September decision.
On May 24, Tom Elvidge, managing director of Uber in the UK, wrote in London's Evening Standard that "we had to look at ourselves rather than blame others." The initial TfL ban had become "the latest alarm for a company that had grown incredibly quickly but still needed to grow."
It was a carefully crafted marketing, but he pointed to Khosrowshahi's successful strategy to keep Uber away from the scandals that had erupted under the leadership of his predecessor.
That will not do much to appease black London taxi drivers. In a statement made on the day of the regulator's September ruling, the union Unite predicted that "Uber will undoubtedly put all its strength in legal and corporate lobbying to overturn this decision."
The company's vocal opponents also continue to fill Twitter with fierce rhetoric using #WhereToBritain – a hashtag originally used by Uber to promote his British TV series that followed the lives of pilots in various cities and featured Manchester United football stars and burlesque dancers.
While Tuesday's decision will allow the company to remain on its largest European market, it is only the first of two major legal battles that the company faces in London this year . The Uber appeal for a decision granting its drivers benefits including overtime and paid vacation should be heard by another court on October 30.
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