I was looking through the yellow pages last week looking for a local taxi service since my car was in the shop for a few days and I needed to make an appointment. I couldn’t find one that didn’t sound overpriced, I was gonna just suck it up when I saw a friend of mine talking about his experience with Uber on Facebook.
I heard that it was a car service, but instead of cab drivers they use people with their own cars. I asked my friend to call me and explain how he became a customer and how it worked for him. After all the cursing and profanity, he explains how the company grossly overcharged him and he’s disputing it because the driver came 2o minutes late and was not friendly at all.
At this time I wanted to know if my friend’s story was unique, in fact, there are a lot of these stories floating around.
Among the major issues with Uber is sexual harassment by drivers and lack of training. Drivers are recruited through Craigslist and shown a 45 minute video and a phone interview. After that, the drivers are pretty much ready to go on the road. A driver was accused of rape in April of last year, but the charges were dropped. It’s my belief that the improper training along with little to no background checks creates an atmosphere for unprofessional employees who would treat this more like a leisurely activity, not a job they get paid for.
Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission has had enough of Uber. They have been trying to find out how many trips the company has issued since being hit with a cease and desist order last summer. It seems the CEO, Travis Kalanick has been less than cooperative.
As of Oct. 3 Uber faced a 19 million dollar and $1,000 per day penalty for everyday the data is not given to the PUC. It just seems Uber is a headache, soaring unexpected charges, staff that is not properly trained, sexually harassment dangers and a CEO that doesn’t want to come clean on his records.
Well, I’m gonna take a taxi next time and take my chances.
