You Heard It From Us

 

Uber’s technology platform provides riders in Joburg, Cape Town, Durban and Pretoria with a safe, reliable and affordable option to move around their city. Since our launch in August 2013, we’ve received tremendous support from both riders and drivers. For drivers, Uber’s lead generation software facilitates a powerful entrepreneurship and empowerment opportunity. Drivers earn far more – and with greater flexibility – than any alternative option available to them.

Regulations that govern transport across South Africa were written before the era of the smartphone. We’re eager to work with regulators so that Uber clearly fits within a licensing category going forward and, to this end, we have engaged with municipal, provincial and national authorities responsible for the enactment of this legislation to provide a solution. In the interim, we’ve chosen to focus our efforts on ensuring customers have access to a reliable, transparently priced and safe transport option in the cities we operate in, in addition to making sure drivers have increased economic opportunity.

Despite our efforts to enable and empower drivers, job creation in South Africa is being severely hampered because drivers wanting to operate on the Uber platform are being hindered from acquiring operating licenses due to a broken system. This has meant that some drivers are being made to work without operating licenses.

 

This has no impact on the safety of your ride and we would like to take this opportunity to give you insight into Uber’s efforts to uphold a High Standard of Safety and to set the record straight.

 

Uber remains a safe way to get around South Africa

 

  • You see the driver’s name, photo and car license plate number the moment you request a ride.
  • You can share your route and estimated time of arrival with friends, who can also follow your ride on a live map.
  • Phone anonymization hides you and your driver’s real cell phone numbers from one another preventing storage of personal numbers.
  • Every Uber ride has insurance coverage in the event of any incident.

Uber goes above and beyond the requirements of traditional operators

 

  • Every driver we partner with has a Professional Driver’s Permit (PDP), as do traditional transport operators.
  • In addition to this PDP, Uber requires all drivers to go through third party criminal background screening, exceeding the requirements of other transport operators.
  • Up to 20% of drivers that applied to partner with Uber, who have passed the PDP check, did not pass our secondary screening.

 

We are committed to working with the city on a clear route to licensing

Our ultimate goal is and has always been to ensure that every driver is both appropriately licensed, and has a viable means of income. We are confident in our safety and screening procedures when it comes to the drivers we partner with, and are working to ensure that our technology has a role in the future of transport and job creation in South Africa.

In the meantime, we will continue to stand by and support our riders and partner drivers across South Africa

Loves of love,

Team Uber SA

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