Johannesburg Driver-partner Protest: An Update

As you may be aware, there was a legal protest at our office in Kramerville on 3/07/2018 by a small group of driver-partners. We respect everyone’s right to a legal protest and are committed to doing as much as possible to ensure that Uber is and remains a meaningful earning opportunity for our partners.

Understandably, partners are concerned about their earnings given the consecutive petrol price increases which have increased their cost of doing business. The impact of these increased costs has been compounded by slower seasonal demand during the winter period.

As a result, we introduced a fuel top up to drivers (2 weeks ago) to cover the cost of the most recent petrol price increases (June and now July). Furthermore, hourly guarantees was instituted to increase partner earnings given lower demand during the winter period. We’re also conducting a full review of all variables which impact partner earnings. We will use all this information to make the right long-term decision together with our partners. We will continue to offer incentives until this review is complete.

Our team also held a small roundtable session on Monday in Johannesburg and Cape Town so that we could dig deeper into these concerns with our partners. Our team provided this same undertaking to our partners in person and this undertaking has been shared with all partners directly.

These roundtables are one of the many channels that partners have available to raise concerns with Uber and we have invited over 3500 partners in South Africa to similar roundtables this year. We also offer office hours 5 days a week and offer partners with 24/7 virtual support. We remain committed to continuing to improve upon the support channels that we have available.

Uber succeeds when our partners succeed and our teams are working hard to ensure that we address all concerns raised.

Alon Lits,

GM – Sub-Saharan Africa