PARIS – When your reviled competitor is having its worst month ever and even its faithful customers are turning against it, just sit back and enjoy. Don't – it seems obvious – do something that'll make it look good.
Parisian taxis didn't get the memo. At 8 am, many met at Charles de Gaulle airport to proceed down the road to downtown Paris en masse and at maddeningly low speed, right in the middle of rush hour. The tactique has become so frequently used by aggrieved road warriors, usually taxis and truckers, that it has a name: "opération escargot." Operation Snail Speed. It sounds quaint until you're trying to get to work or get home from the airport. Striking taxis also sat at the front of the station queue at Orly airport, barring customers from accessing working cabs. One of the large taxi dispatch numbers stopped taking reservations, warning taxis will work "at random" today (link in French).
Taxi drivers are protesting a court decision on Friday that refused to ban UberPop, Uber's ridesharing service through which anyone can offer their driving services for a fee. "That's piracy," to quote a taxi union official cited by Le Figaro. (To be fair, other unions refused to take part and fewer taxis than usual mobilized today.) The court said UberPop was indeed illegal but it was up to the government, not the court, to ban it. The government did just that this morning, vowing the service would be illegal by January 1st.
Taxis may have a point, but that's beside the point. They may have won today, but their tactics are guaranteeing they'll lose in the court of public opinion. And with the month Uber has just had, that's a feat!
Let's recap Uber's month from hell. An exec was caught threatening to spend a million bucks on opposition research against a contrarian female journalist and her family. He wasn't fired. Three more instances of Uber employees making light of user privacy are being investigated. A woman was reportedly raped by her Uber driver in New Delhi, bringing into question the hiring practices of a company that does half its marketing on a promise of safety. Just this morning, Uber imposed 4x surge pricing with a $100 minimum in Sydney's Central Business District. People were evacuating the neighborhood following a hostage crisis. The company backed out following public outcry and is now offering free rides out of the CBD. And there's continuing outrage from customers, over surge pricing bordering on extortion, and from drivers, over revenues far below Uber's promises.
Somehow that hasn't (yet) deterred investors: Uber just finished a fundraising round of $1.2 billion, and collected another $600 million from Web giant Baidu to help its expansion in China. But customers are taking notice. That's utterly unscientific but in tech and media circles around me, people are starting to look at alternatives. Those were Uber's first customers and most fervent advocates. I was one of them a year ago. But even I am starting to get annoyed with Uber's special brand of brogrammer culture, looking (way) down on its customers and peers from high up on a Silicon Valley perch and treating local laws like a game of coconut shy.
Which brings us back to taxis: now would be the perfect time for them to look like the good guys. Sit back, if you really can't manage it, or better yet: offer your customers free ride, educate the public, improve your service, make sure your apps freakin' work, clean your freakin' cars, accept freakin' credit cards... But no. This morning, Parisian taxis reminded me why, for all its flaws, evil or inept, I'm still glad Uber came along.
David Ashton, founder of Snapcar, another minicab service in Paris and Uber competitor, wrote an open letter to Parisian taxis, explaining the pointlessness of strikes and why competition will win the day in the end. Read it absolutely here.
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