We recently asked every single person that chooses to earn using our platform in Australia and New Zealand to tell us what’s working, what’s not, and how we can improve the Uber experience.

The Uber ANZ Voice survey received a phenomenal 19,213 responses from across Australia and New Zealand between December 2020 and January 2021. Here are the highlights, the areas we are working to improve, and the changes we’re implementing from today as a result. 

What’s working well

  1. Flexibility and independence when driving/delivering (i.e. working when and where you want)
  2. The steps Uber to took to help protect health and wellbeing during COVID-19
  3. The information we provide to support physical safety on the platform (i.e. unrelated to COVID-19) 

Respondents were asked to rate areas as good, okay or poor. It’s clear that driver partners and delivery people value being their own boss with the flexibility and independence offered by the Uber app coming in as the top area of satisfaction, with 94% of respondents rating it good or okay. The survey also demonstrated the valuable role the Uber platform provided to people who needed to access work quickly or were looking for flexible work as a result of COVID-19.

We noted positive responses on health, safety and wellbeing, especially on our COVID-specific safety measures with around 90% of respondents rating both categories as good or okay. Safety of course remains a major focus and we are continually striving to improve the support for driver partners and delivery people. 

Where we can improve

  1. Customer support for driver partners and delivery people 
  2. Dependability of earnings 
  3. Responsiveness to feedback 

What we’re changing – starting with support

Driver partners made it clear they wanted more customer support, with 29% rating it as poor. In particular, many wanted the reintroduction of the phone support that was in place prior to COVID. So over the coming two months, phone support will be re-introduced for driver partners across Australia. We’ll also go further, with enhanced chat support for delivery people to address their most common pain points. 

We are also committing to providing greater transparency on Uber policies and processes. From today, the Uber Australia website will provide more transparent information on how and why drivers and delivery people may lose access to the app, either temporarily or permanently, along with common mistakes that can result in this and how to prevent it. We’ve also set up an enhanced review process to make sure anyone can raise a concern if they believe they incorrectly lost access to their account, and that we’ll review and resolve those requests within 48-72 hours. 

Dependability of earnings was another area of focus with partners, particularly when it came to shorter trips. While around 70% of drivers rated the dependability of earnings as good or okay, 28% rated this as poor. While this may have been expected with the survey in field against a backdrop of rolling COVID restrictions, it’s an area we’re committed to making improvements in. 

Introducing Uber Driver Partner and Delivery Person Advisory Forums

Responsiveness to feedback ranked similarly, with around 70% saying it was good or okay, while 24% rated it as poor. Respondents said they wanted to be able to provide meaningful feedback to Uber beyond our current customer support avenues, and for Uber to be more responsive on actions taken. 

That’s one of the reasons why today we are committing to establishing two Uber Australia Earner Advisory Forums: one for driver partners and one for delivery people. These will bring together earners on the platform and Uber company leaders to discuss areas of concern and practical ways to address them. 

We’ve already spoken with driver partners and delivery people across the country about how they think these forums should be set up, how often they should meet, and what they  expect to see from them. We will hold the first forums by mid year, and use these first meetings to inform an ongoing model. 

We are committed to continuing to provide an open, accessible and rewarding platform for people to earn flexibly. Some changes may be big, some may be small — but drivers and delivery people will be at the heart of all of them.