Perth Update

All,

A few of you may have heard about the anti-Uber meeting in Perth organised by the Industry bodies. With a lot of regulatory heat in Australia at the moment I thought I’d give a quick update on we handled the situation in Perth and we turned it into a positive outcome for drivers and us.

What

Industry Meeting to discuss Uber and regulations surrounding (SCV and Omnibus) licenses in Perth on Monday 06/23

TL;DR

We crushed this meeting and won the hearts and minds of the drivers!

Recap

We were informed by a number of Uber drivers an industry meeting was taking place (23/06) pertaining to the introduction of Uber in Perth and it’s operation under W.A. law, specifically charging below the $60 minimum fare for trips. This invitation was sent via email, with an Uber driver responding to the notice highlighting that Uber was not invited for comment. A response was later received that outlined Uber was uninvited due to not owning any assets (vehicles and/or licences) in W.A. 200 drivers were expected to attend.

Our goal was to view this as an opportunity to meet and greet drivers and recruit them to Uber. Simple.

Situation to date

Uber looked to launch in Perth, Australia in May 2013 however due to a regulation governing the minimum charge of “for hire” vehicles of $60 a decision was made to not enter the market. Instead, the play was to have Uber Public Policy:

1. Utilise a local lobbyist to engage and setup meetings with MP’s and the persons involved in the economic development of the city

2. Build a relationship with local government with the intention of reform or ‘permission’ to launch.

Twelve months later Ubers risk appetite has changed and on the back of TK’s statement “Each market is green unless proven otherwise”, we launched Perth in May 2014, with a minimum fare of $20. Response initially from drivers has been mixed.

About two weeks after soft launch some Uber drivers started receiving notices directly front the Department of Transport regulators (DOT) advising them they were breaching operating conditions on their license and to thus provide trip log details (since Ubers launch date) with fare information including charge. We believe this was a tactic employed by the DOT to scare drivers and hurt our supply.

In the lead up to the industry meeting (06/23) more drivers were sent notices, and from what we understand, non-Uber drivers were also sent these as a reminder. Again a tactic to hurt our new driver signup growth.

Whilst we lost some some supply initially the focus was driver signups to ensure on-boarded drivers > driver churn

The message continues to be (verbally and not written) “Uber will support the driver 100%” and we’re strict on remaining ambiguous on whether we’ll pay fines (which we will) so the regulators don’t start a spree.

Strategy

Given that Uber was not formally invited to the industry meeting we used this as an opportunity to:

1. Hold an Uber Information Session straight after the meeting to inform drivers of the benefits of Uber

2. Onboard drivers!

Preparation

Looking back at this event we won because we were extremely prepared, and drivers noticed.

We received many compliments from drivers saying “I expected nothing less from Uber!”, “I have to hand it to you, you’re very ballsy”, “Wow, did you prepare these flyers just for todays (Industry) meeting?”.

What we did:

1. Introduced a $500 cash driver signup/referral incentive for the week of the meeting

2. Printed collateral to slang drivers with information specific to the meeting

3. Made the most of a brand ambassador who helped hand slanging cards pre-meeting and snuck into the meeting

4. Wore our Uber swag

5. Found a coffee shop close by to meet drivers post-meeting

6. Took Uber collateral with us; pull up banners etc.

7. Organised a LED billboard at short notice to place outside the meeting for presence

8. Spoke to comms (Evelyn) and Policy (Jordan) day prior to ensure our message was tight and to prepare for Press (if any)

9. Ensured our evangelical drivers attended the meeting to advocate and have a voice for Uber (if needed)

10. Sent texts/emails to Uber drivers regarding $500 incentive during meeting to have them refer drivers for us

11. We scoped out the location two days before to understand where to position the billboard and realise that we’d need stand on the perimeter (public property) of the premise to ensure we would not be asked to move on

How it played and intel

1. We received some hostile reception at the start whilst handing out slanging cards, and we managed to hand out 50

2. About 90 drivers attended the meeting with only a handful of existing Uber drivers attending. Hello new supply

3. Our brand ambassador managed to sneak inside the meeting

4. Regulators introduced themselves to us pre-meeting at the gates and they were surprised to see us there

5. Regulators declared “UberBLACK is here to stay so get used to it”

6. Our understanding is the regulators are unsure how to enforce.They mentioned our playbook and strategy was to wait for fines to be sent before contacting the press. They made it clear they did not want to fine to avoid press and public involvement.

7. Meeting turned into a Q&A forum for drivers and it’s still very grey as to whether they’ll be issued with fines or loss of license

8. Main concerns of drivers and regulators was uberX and they outlined they would be aggressive in their approach to prevent us launching and growing this.

8. Post-meeting we escorted about 30+ drivers to the coffee shop for Q&A and on-boarding

9. Drivers weren’t prepared with documentation therefore we invited them for on-boarding later in the week

10. Overall very positive response and we were able to address a lot the mis-information floating amongst the driver community

Do’s and Don’ts

Do prepare for any anti-Uber event e.g. Industry meeting, Taxi protest.

Do turn the anti-Uber meeting/event into a pro-Uber meeting by meeting drivers/protesters by hosting an information session at a nearby venue

Do be generous and aggressive with signup incentives, it’s the perfect opportunity to slang and recruit drivers

Do kill the drivers and regulators (if possible) with kindness. Our business model is fool proof so it’s laws that need to be addressed.

Do be aggressive. Billboards give us a presence without even being invited.

Do follow up post-meeting during the week with inbound driver signups etc.

Don’t agitate the regulators. Stick to peaceful and witty campaigns to win the hearts and minds of drivers. It’s about sportsmanship.

Don’t say anything you shouldn’t. Check with Comms and Policy with the approach.

Don’t be afraid when chatting to hostile drivers, they will signup to Uber eventually