Feedback from Partner-Driver Engagements

 

Hi Partner

 

Firstly, a big thank you to all Partners and Drivers who attended last week’s information sessions. It was an extremely insightful and interesting week with a lot of information shared between Uber and Partner-Drivers.

Key areas discussed were:

• Partner & Driver Support
• Winter Price Promotion
• Ratings & Quality
• Dispatch Distance & Cancellations
• Anonymous Calling
• Hiring & Releasing Drivers

Carry on reading for more information on this.

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Partner & Driver Support

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In our pre-meeting survey, we asked Partners how they feel about the service levels received from Uber? The response received, below, indicated most Partners are happy, however we have a long way to go to make all Partners satisfied with the service.

Good	68.00%
Average	27.37%
Bad	4.63%

Key feedback provided was the slow speed of support during office hours and over email.

We have heard you and our initiatives to improve our support we feel are already having a positive impact. Key initiatives are:

• Office Hours: We have extended office hours from 9:30am to 4:30pm Mon, Tues, Wed and Friday. On Thursday we have Office Hours from 9:30am to 1:00pm.

• Space: A new and improved  Partner Support Centre is being built alongside our existing structure and will hopefully be ready in August 2015. This will provide for more space and comfort, and allow for a bigger support team to assist.

• Virtual Support (Emails): We have increased the size of the team and have a new support team coming online. Our goal is to provide answers/feedback in 4-6 hours and not 24 hours.

• Emergency Communication: Uber is in the process of developing a 24 hour mechanism for escalating critical incidents. Once this is ready we will communicate this.

• Sourcing new drivers: We are engaging  a number of companies to help you source high quality drivers more easily. If you have a vehicle that is idle and need a driver to be go through Interviews and Background Checks, please email us and mark it “ATT: Existing Partner New Driver.”

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Winter Price Promotion

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Another key topic from last week’s information sessions involved the June Winter Price Promotion. Some of the key points discussed were as follows:

• Reasons for the Price Promotion: The main reasons for the price promotion have been to increase the number of riders using Uber, and to encourage current riders to increase the number of trips they take. There has been a large marketing campaign around this to increase the awareness and talkability of Uber around Gauteng and South Africa in general. The objective of this is to increase the number of trips that Drivers on UBER do and to reduce the time spent waiting for requests. By increasing trip numbers and reducing wait times, this allows for increased earnings for drivers and partners.

• Advertising around the Price Promotion: Tune into 5FM to hear the new Radio Ad that was recently launched.

• Price Promotion Incentives: A trip incentive of R10 per UberX trip (Capped at 50 trips) and R25 per UberBLACK trip (Capped at 20 trips) is available during the month of June. This allows Partner-Drivers to earn up to an additional R500 extra per week. This incentive has been implemented to ensure that drivers and partners are placed in the same, or better, position that they would be without the price promotion. How to handle the payment is between partners and drivers, however Uber advises that this payment is treated as ordinary fares earned.

• Period of the Price Promotion: The intended time period for the price promotion is from the 4th of June until the 30th June.

• New UberX price: The current price is not permanent and will be adjusted from 1 July. This new price will be communicated on the 30th June.

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Ratings & Quality

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Quality of service is very important at Uber. By ensuring great service, it increases the likelihood of Riders using the product again and also recommending it to friends and family. Our responsibility is to ensure that the quality of the Uber marketplace remains high for all partners.

• Report a serious rider concern: We are aware that not all riders are as friendly or fair as others. We request you to “Report a serious rider concern” when you feel you will be unfairly rated or a Rider has not behaved appropriately to you or in your vehicle.

• Rider Education: A Rider “Driver education communication” is being prepared and will be sent out to all Riders on how to rate Drivers correctly.

• More feedback on ratings: A key concern from drivers and partners is that we are not providing enough information on where they can improve.  We are working on a new method of communicating this and will begin sampling this from next week.

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Dispatch Distance & Cancellations

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• Cancellations: Where requests result in a cancellations, a Rider is unable to rate you and this does not affect your overall ratings. If you need to cancel a trip, do so by pressing “Info” and cancel according to the reason. Do not start and end the trip as this will need to be refunded. If there is no cancellation fee, please submit a query to the office and we will refund this if the travel time is over 5 minutes. If you have travelled too far for the equivalent fee, notify the agent in the email you send.

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Demand Patterns

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• High demand areas: We are working on new ways of communicating hot spots, areas and times to drivers and having this available real-time through the app. We will continue to provide SMS updates on this until the new mechanism is launched.

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Value Added Services for Partners & Drivers

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• Value added services and partnerships: We are excited to announce new value added service partnership. See: https://newsroom.uber.com/johannesburg/vehicle-services/

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Phones/Anonymous Calling

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• High costs versus text messages: Since implementing anonymous call functions we have seen a great improvement in operations and safety, however we have also seen an impact on costs. We are working on a new call and message feature which will hopefully be ready later this year. Until then please bear with us and move your calling function to per second billing. We will communicate an update once this is ready.
• Phones: Uber will be moving away from providing devices in the coming month. We are in discussions with a number of providers on affordable data and phone packages and will communicate this to you once finalised.

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Hiring & Releasing Drivers

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• Application process: There is currently a high demand to partner with Uber with a lengthy process to train new drivers. If you are an existing Partner and a vehicle idle, please email us and mark it “ATT: Existing Partner New Driver” so that we can try move you through the process quicker.
• Hiring existing drivers: For more information on the updated process, see: https://newsroom.uber.com/johannesburg/gp_apply/

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Regular Meetings & Feedback

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• Regular meetings: The feedback following the Partner-Driver meetings has been positive and we look forward to hosting this again later this year. Until then, please visit us during office hours or request a meeting and we look forward to sitting down with you.
• Improved Feedback and Comms: We have started to communicate business development success and as well as other updates. If you would like any further/specific information please let us know.

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We value our partnership and welcome any feedback or suggestions. Please email partnersjoburg@uber.com with any further queries or pop-into the office during office hours.

 

Regards,

UBER Team