Is there life after Uber? What Montreal could learn from Austin, Texas
If ride-hailing hulk Uber carries by with a hazard to container adult and leave Montreal subsequent month, a city competence wish to demeanour to a instance of Austin, Texas, about how to fill a void.
Austin is mostly cited as an instance of a city that stood adult to Uber’s viewed corporate bullying and won, refusing to blink in a regulatory showdown with a multinational hulk with low pockets.
Uber left town, though ride-hailing in Austin survived and thrived with new models.
For a tiny while, during least.
Parallels with Quebec
Uber arrived in Austin in 2014 and quick became renouned in a city famous for universities, song festivals, and tech companies.
But like Quebec, as Uber’s recognition grew, internal governments attempted to deliver regulations and Uber chafed.
Jean-Nicolas Guillemette, Uber Quebec’s ubiquitous manager, speaks during a news discussion in Montreal on Tuesday. Ride-hailing association Uber says it will stop handling in Quebec subsequent month if a range doesn’t revoke new manners introduced final week. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)
The categorical adhering indicate came when a City of Austin wanted to need all Uber drivers to get a fingerprint credentials check administered by a city.
Uber argued that requirement was too strenuous and wouldn’t work with a business model.
Uber collected signatures from a members to put a new manners to a opinion as a list initiative, and spent millions perplexing to remonstrate people to side with them.
The pierce backfired. Voters sided with a city. Â
The day after a outcome was announced in May 2016, Uber left town.
Non-profit stairs up
That’s when a organisation of tech entrepreneurs in Austin motionless to do something to fill a void.
They invested income and imagination to rise their possess ride-hailing service, called Ride Austin.
Ride Austin started as a non-profit ride-hailing use in Austin after Uber left city 2016. (Ride Austin)
“There is life though Uber, and we can really set adult your possess successful ride-share organization,”  Bobbi Kommineni, vice-president of vital programs and operations for Ride Austin, told CBC.
“The pivotal disproportion is that we’re non-profit. We didn’t build Ride Austin to make money. We built Ride Austin as a use to a community,” Kommineni said.
Kommineni pronounced it took about a month to rise a app. Ride Austin hired many ex-Uber drivers who’d been left in a surge when a association left town. Â And since it was set adult as a non-profit, it was means to compensate drivers a lot more.
While Uber takes a cut of about 20 per cent of any fare, Ride Austin takes usually dual per cent.
‘We grew really really fast’
Kommineni pronounced they started off delayed in Jun 2016.
Bobbi Kommineni with Ride Austin pronounced a company’s strength is that it’s non-profit.
“I consider on a initial day we did 116 rides and we suspicion ‘oh wow, that’s great’. We were handling in one zip formula of Austin downtown,” she said.
“We grew very, really fast. Once people knew we were available, they were regulating us opposite a city,” Kommineni said.
She pronounced by final spring, Ride Austin was averaging about 60,000 rides a week.
Other tiny startups and ride-hailing services changed into Austin as good and flourished.
Uber was gone, though life went on. Some pronounced for a better.
Then Uber came back.
Uber tough to contest with
From a time it left Austin, Uber began lobbying politicians during a state turn in Texas.
The association eventually assured them to adopt a new law radically official Austin’s internal law requiring drivers to get fingerprint credentials checks.
Last May, Uber returned to Austin. Some of a smaller ride-sharing services left town.
Kommeneni certified that Uber’s lapse roughly now cut Ride Austin’s marketplace share in half.
Susan Shaheen, co-director of a Transportation Sustainability Research Center during a University of California during Berkeley, pronounced a Uber indication is formidable for business to resist, even when they have a viable internal alternative.
“Uber has that scale and that distribution, so people maybe wait reduction time to make that float match. We know that wait times are partial of a success factors of these companies,” Shaheen said.
“Another vital cause is that incomparable companies such as Uber finance rides, so they’re cheaper,” she said.
Alternatives still possible
Kemmoneni pronounced Ride Austin will infantryman on, focusing on a advantages it has over Uber.
“We’re local. We’re a non-profit, and people know the drivers are improved taken caring of,” Kemmoneni said.
As many Montrealers lamentation Uber’s probable departure, Shaheen pronounced Austin’s year though Uber showed that life can go on.
“I don’t indispensably see that as a extensive barrier to cities, as prolonged as they have a colourful choice to on-demand mobility,” Shaheen said.
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Article source: http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/montreal/is-there-life-after-uber-what-montreal-could-learn-from-austin-texas-1.4308098?cmp=rss