TVDE drivers complain Uber’s tariffs are ‘prohibitive’
Fresh from a driver boycott, UBER has announced that it is launching a “Women Drivers” service from next Monday.
The idea is that people in Lisbon will be able “to choose between travelling only with female drivers or transporting exclusively female passengers”, the company says in a statement.
The move comes as TVDE drivers (those working for ride-hailing apps UBER and BOLT) have been boycotting Uber over the high tariffs they impose on drivers – and it follows the failed launch of a company that attempted to provide exactly the same service, and was told that it was discriminatory.
Presumably, Uber is getting around the discriminatory issue by being a platform that offers all types of service. As the texts being written in the Portuguese media explain, Uber also offers other options, like “Uber Senior” and “Uber for Teens”, described as “giving older people and teenagers more autonomy and freedom so that they can get around easily and safely, with complete confidence and support from their families”.
Uber’s general manager in Portugal, Francisco Vilaça, says of the “Women Drivers” service: “We want Uber to be the most convenient and personalised platform for all women. This new feature responds to a clear desire of many female drivers and users and also represents an opportunity for more women to feel motivated to drive with Uber, reinforcing their autonomy and freedom of choice. By allowing them to choose who transports them or who they transport, we are making the sector more inclusive, representative of the population and attractive to women.”
Monday will see the start of what is being billed as “the pilot phase” – and availability of the service “may be limited vary depending on the number of drivers available”, says Uber’s statement
What this shows, says SIC Notícias, is that “Uber is bargaining on increasing female presence among TVDE drivers” (the majority male drivers who have been protesting against what they call the company’s ‘abusive practices’).
To be blunt, women drivers may be the only option in a developing situation in which male counterparts are turning off their Uber apps. CNN Portugal, for example, reports that the price for an Uber in Lisbon tripled this week, precisely because of TVDE drivers’ boycott.
Uber puts the situation a slightly different way. It is responding, says today’s statement, “to a structural challenge in the mobility sector, given that currently only 9% of TVDE drivers in Portugal are women”.
The launch in Portugal follows the implementation of “Women Drivers” in European markets (France, Germany and Poland), as well as in South Africa, Argentina and Australia. ND
