Is ride share giant Uber ready to be more flexible in how it does business with cities? If what’s being considered in London at the moment goes through, we may be on the cusp of some rewritten rules on how the people/food delivery service is regulated.
Uber’s been a tricky sport since the City of London declined to renew the company’s licence to operate within the English capital. Speaking with the Sunday Times, Uber’s general manager in London Tom Elvidge indicated that the company would be open to hearing what changes they could make. It’s a tone more cordial than the initial response to London declining to renew Uber’s licence.
“While we haven’t been asked to make any changes, we’d like to know what we can do,” said Elvidge. “But that requires a dialogue we sadly haven’t been able to have recently.”
Quoting sources close to Transportation for London, the Times says the city has been encouraged by Uber being willing to consider concessions to score a licence renewal. These concessions are believed to involve things like passenger safety, driver safety, driver benefits and holiday pay. Transportation for London cited safety issues in their reasons for rejecting Uber’s renewal.
If Uber, which is attempting to recover from a number of public image nightmares, is able to sort out a deal in London with those concessions taken care of it might restore goodwill with their a segment of their app-armed customers. Of course, if London is successful in getting Uber to meet their requirements for a licence it won’t go unnoticed in other cities. How this plays out will have a direct impact on London, but the fallout might trigger change across the globe.