Ex-Uber executive reveals how driver earnings were slashed in Kenya

The subject-matter of a civil suit filed by drivers against the local subsidiary of the ride-sharing company is related to the reduction of commuter charges by the company.

After a period of contesting the additional price cuts that the company's management was pushing for, she left the company in February of last year. As the operations manager in Kenya, he was in charge of launching new products across East Africa and negotiating partnerships with third-party companies.

In an affidavit that supports the drivers' case against the company, the driver said that the minimum fare was going to be pushed down after a 35% price cut.

The plan by the company to reduce the prices while retaining its 25% commission was done without consulting the drivers.

She left the company in protest.

Due to the arbitrary nature of decision-making in matters involving drivers, I decided to leave my position as Operations Manager.

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In January of last year, it introduced a lower-priced service called "Chap Chap", which became the default ride-sharing service in the capital of the country, Nairobi, with a minimum fare of $1.

The company reduced the trips per hour target from 1.3 to 0.9 as it increased the number of cars and drivers on its platform.

The average trip was about 20 minutes. I analyzed and found that people were working 80 hours a week to take home $20 after expenses.

Incentives were introduced to make up for the reduced earnings.

There was a narrative among the team and the company that earnings would increase even though we were cutting prices. The drivers worked harder because of this, and they ignored the fact that it was for the same amount of money. She said that they came up with cash incentives to backfill earnings.

The drivers stayed on the platform after the price reduction.

There were fixed debt investments that were made into operating on the platform, the most obvious being a vehicle. You agreed to pay off the vehicle over a period of five years. You make a monthly payment. When the price is slashed, what do you do? No one wants to buy your asset, or buy it at a loss.

You are stuck between a rock and a hard place. This is the reason I am so vocal against the vehicle solutions program. They were trying to get people into expensive cars. You can't pay back a vehicle that is working at a low price.

In order to increase car ownership among drivers, the company collaborated with banks to offer financing.

The service most customers wanted due to its affordability, and which, unlike UberX, had many cars, was demoted to the Chap Chap service.

She said that after the price reduction in Africa, the same happened in other international markets. In New York, it faced resistance as the city set minimum rates for ride-Hailing companies.

The affidavit was signed in November of last year and came to light a fortnight ago after it was discovered that the company wanted to force its drivers to solve their issues through internal channels. It was improper for its partners to seek legal recourse without going through the established dispute-resolution mechanisms.

The drivers went to court, claiming that the ride-sharing company violated its terms by instituting price changes without consulting them. The company said it had the authority to act independently.

The court in The Netherlands confirmed a relationship between the company and its partners in The Netherlands, paving the way for a suit against the company in the country. The company wanted to distance itself from the parent company because of their actions in the country.

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