Poor Behavior: When Will The Uber Brand Reach Breaking Point?

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By: Forbes

The Uber brand is at an inflection point. Sure, the company has a projected current gob smacking valuation of $68 billion. However, in the past year, Uber has been playing fast and loose with not only their drivers but their customers as well, and their very high profile, seemingly Teflon brand, may be set to unravel.

Evidence is building.

In January, Uber implemented a bold 15% reduction in fares, purportedly to boost their user base. Their drivers, especially those with five stars, were less than thrilled that they bore the entire reduction in the form of a 15% pay cut. As a business owner, I cannot imagine walking into our office and announcing a 15% pay cut across the office. The Uber corporate spin was that their 1.1 million drivers would make more due to increased ridership and offered hourly minimum guarantees. Did any of them really buy this? Driver message boards suggested otherwise. Then, in April, came news that Uber is uniting with Google and Ford to get driverless cars onto roads. It won’t happen overnight, but it sends a not-so-subtle message to drivers.

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