1. What are Uber’s business model and strategy?
The business model of Uber is to offer a convenient, cost-efficient, and safe customer value proposition. First, riders can use the app through their mobile devices and easily ask for a driver to pick them up at their exact locations. Second, apart from the value of convenience, Uber offers safety since riders could also track the car’s location while en route, which was pre-chosen at the time the ride was requested. Third, Uber enhances the cost-efficiency of transportation through providing price transparency and better options as prior to officially requesting a cab, Uber riders could estimate the cost of the ride and reject it if it was too high. Moreover, riders can also choose to split the
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Viewing drivers as contractors decreased Uber’s liability for drivers’ actions and obligations to pay certain taxes as well as the responsibility for a minimum wage. Also, drivers were unable to unionize or receive benefits from Uber. Additionally, since Uber insists that it is a technology and lifestyle company, it avoids paying for the costs associated with the business models of taxis and other public transportation firms.
Uber’s business model and competitive activities indicate that it has a broad differentiation strategy by providing unique service attributes that a wide range of buyers find appealing and worth buying for. Uber, especially at the onset, is unique because it is a technology and lifestyle company that made it "cool" to either drive for riders or share rides with other people. Uber also enhances customer service through an app that provides the cost of the ride early and charges it conveniently on one's credit card.
2. How would you describe competition in the ridesharing
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Does Uber operate as a socially responsible business?
From a business point of view, if Uber is considered as a technology and lifestyle company, then it is operating as a socially responsible business. As a tech firm, it is only obligated to offer an app that works well in getting timely transportation as efficiently as possible. Also, as a lifestyle company, it only needs to satisfy customers; their happiness with the app and services are all that matters. Likewise, Uber is giving extra livelihood opportunities to drivers as a form of social responsibility.
Nevertheless, if there are protests from drivers and customers, then Uber should address them in order to be seen as socially responsible. For instance, if a driver complains that Uber is too harsh in cancelling accounts and focusing too much on customers only, then the company has to understand these concerns and respond positively. After all, it cannot attract more drivers if it is perceived as too customer-centered. Moreover, Uber should apply surge-pricing ethically and reduce it in times of environmental distress, such as during disasters. Customers are already suffering, a condition that Uber should not take advantage of. Also, Uber should perform more rigorous driver background checks and monitor as well as punish illegal or unethical behaviors in order to promote ethical
Many believe that business entities should have an ethical duty to be socially responsible, to work towards increasing its positive effects on society while decreasing its negative effects. Many organizations look for opportunities to be socially responsible while also creating shareholder wealth.
Uber has widely known for its lower transaction costs which is resulted from efficiency in operation cost, or in other word low labor cost. Uber drivers is not the company’s employees but independent contractor. Therefore, Uber has been criticized for their treatment to the individuals who provide the service under their smartphone applications and take benefits from them (Dyal-Chand, 2015). Average hourly wages for drivers is around USD8 – 10, exclude their car depreciation (Weber and Silverman, 2015). Therefore, Uber transfers part of operation cost such as vehicle depreciation cost and employee benefits to the drivers as its independent contractor. In her note, Posen comprehensively describes and analyzes the lawsuits from taxi industry and states where it operate. Unfortunately, she only provide a glimpse about the lawsuits from Uber’s drivers without any solution to be
In modern society’s day and age, we still have many types of transportations that helps us complete some of our daily needs. You can drive, grab a bus, take a train or even get a quick workout and walk. However, as society progressed and wages increased, people start spending money on other ways to get around instead of driving themselves such as Uber: an app that allows other people to drive you places for a small fee depending on its location. Uber may be cheaper than having your own car but it isn’t always very reliable or convenient. Having your own car provides a reliable source of transportation. Although insurance and maintenance can be pricey; Uber is a relatively cheap and easy system of transportation, although it can be unreliable.
The thesis of this article explains that despite surge pricing achieving the goal that it’s supposed to, (bring more drivers online and present available services to consumers who need them the most) most believe Uber is taking advantage of customers by using extreme multiplier prices. While the author states that this issue between price and product/service is giving Uber a relative degree of bad press, he also gives solutions as to how to fix this problem.
Uber is ridesharing smart phone application that connects drivers to passages and is an alternative option to the taxi industry. The core of the company’s business model revolves around lawbreaking, which enables it to have a competitive advantage in this industry through the use of noncommercial cars with drivers who lack the special driver’s licenses and/ or permits required by regulators. Both Uber’s upper management and lawyers are responsible for building a culture of illegality.
As a shopper, they would similar interest as potential customers, tourist, or pedestrians. Where Uber could provide them a more convenient way for them to travel to their next destination. Presenting the confirmation bias, if the shoppers shopped a lot, it would be irritating to use public transportation where they need to watch out from crowds or carry the merchants around. With Uber, shoppers can be driven to their destination without any difficulties.
In every city Uber cabs have flooded, there have been numerous occasions where this ride sharing mogul has been taken to court. Whether by its own ‘independent contracted’ drivers or by disgruntled customers, to say the least Uber’s penetration into new cities is never easy. Taking the landmark California court case as an example of legal expenses endured by Uber, the firm was challenged in court which later ruled that Uber drivers were indeed employees of the company ("California Says Uber Driver Is Employee, Not a Contractor"). This momentous court case is just one example of legal fees Uber has had to pay, which resulted in the deterioration of the firm’s available
Since operating 7 years ago, Uber has seen a great business as alternative for taxi. In 2016, Uber service is accessible in 66 countries and more than 507 cities internationally. The rise of Uber become people favorite choice especially the one living in the urban center. Besides, the low rate charge for Uber also become one of the main reasons why people prefer to use its service rather than the traditional taxis. In some cases, taxi charges are quite high even though the distance is short but due to traffic jam, the duration waiting in a taxi to arrive may feel longer. Even so, some taxi drivers also have the tendency forgotten to switch on the distance meter on their taxi thus charged the passenger for an unreasonable price. Moreover, it
“It’s a simple experience and a much more pleasant way to get a ride than stepping onto a busy street and waving at oncoming traffic” (Stone, 2014, p. 53). It is convenient for both the employee and customer to arrange a ride, which makes Uber preferable. Additionally, the employees of Uber are given more benefits than the employees of taxi companies. For example, Uber issues an iPhone with the Uber software, free gear to secure it to their windshield and an hour of orientation (Stone, 2014, p. 52). It is this simplicity that appeals to people seeking employment. They are also using a platform that is accessible to many of their customers, because, as of 2015, “64% of American adults now own a smartphone of some kind” (Smith, 2015). Since their focus is on luxury, innovation, and results, they have transformed the public transportation system in their favor.
Social responsibility makes a company more competitive and reduces the risk of sudden damage to the company’s reputation and sales.
The use of ride-sharing applications has become a popular choice to travel from one destination to another. In the past, cities were dominated by the use of taxis as a means of ride choice. As technology and society has evolved, ride-share applications such as Lyft have become a dominating choice for travel. After completing a PEST and SWOT analysis, Lyft can analyze how to proceed going forward to continue its growth and success.
Taxi industries have employees that work for the industry. Uber can have anyone working for them. Taxi employees get paid for driving people around and as uber was introduced, the popularity of taxis dropped so, employees are getting paid less.
Cab aggregators have been a boon to the society. They ensure that one reaches their destination on time and without any hassles.
Uber is an innovative company that operates as a transportation company and a food delivery service around the globe. In addition, Uber is a company that was invented five years ago. Furthermore, during Uber’s early stages of development, the servicing company was referred to as “UberCAb”. Then an individual in San Francisco had decided to try out their service. From the individual’s first experience, the individual was very impressed. In addition, from that point, the company referred to as “UberCab” became commonly known as Uber. Also, Uber operates their service business in fifty eight different countries and have allocated over $60 billion in revenue. Uber faces many issues in their human resources operations implementation regarding drivers and internal employees.
Why Uber is so successful with stiff competition from other taxis is because of its mode of operation. Uber has developed an app which is available in Google play stores and Apple stores, by downloading this app to smart phones turning on GPS would show nearest Uber cabs locations there by selecting customer gets the cab in time. The charges are similar to other cabs and are calculated in two ways distance and time. If the car travels with a speed more than 18kms/h then charges are calculated on distance traveled if