Uber employees attempt to lure drivers from competing app
Taxi start-up app GetTaxi has accused Uber of requesting and canceling over 200 rides in New York City over the span of three days.
The company, which launched as ‘Gett’ in New York City this past August, became aware of the problem after several complaints from their drivers.
« We quickly blocked the attack and the Gett system was not compromised, » said Gett US CEO, Jing Herman. « Gett is determined to become the go-to app for New Yorkers and we’re focused on winning one user at a time. »
Robert Werth, President of the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association (TLPA) is encouraging the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission to investigate the alleged acts.
« If these acts against the public interest can be verified, then the TLC should revoke Uber’s base licenses and its ability to operate in New York City, » said Werth.
Gett identified many of the profile names that cancelled rides as New York Uber employees though Linkedin, a social networking site for professionals.
Uber employees allegedly ordered Gett rides and immediately cancelled them, some right before the driver arrived at the pick up location.
« We couldn’t serve real calls during that time, » said Gett US COO, Adi Vaxman. »It wasted our drivers’ time. »
Josh Mohrer, Uber NYC’s general manager told Entrepreneur.com, « We collected info and canceled within seconds. This had nothing to do with sabotage. »
However after numbers were collected from Gett drivers, Uber employees contacted the drivers directly offering incentives to switch services, according to Vaxman.
Gett’s system allows passengers to see their driver’s real number.
« We believe it is part of the user experience to contact the driver directly, » said Vaxman.
Vaxman also added that they are looking into different ideas and solutions with their engineering team to possibly prevent actions like the ones caused by Uber.
A few months before the incident, said Vaxman, Uber blocked many of Gett’s staff accounts from using the Uber app. « This was the first sign, » she said. « We tried to log in. We contacted support and they confirmed that we had been blocked. »
Uber released a statement about their recent recruiting tactics on its blog on January 24.
« Our local teams can be pretty determined when spreading the word about Uber and how our platform opens up new economic opportunities for drivers. Members of our New York team made requests to generate leads of independent contractors but then immediately canceled seconds later. The sales tactics were too aggressive and we apologize for our outreach approach to these drivers. But to be clear there was no time spent by the providers, as the requests were canceled immediately and Uber did pay cancellation fees for these requests. We have messaged city teams to curtail activities that seek lead generation in this manner. »
This isn’t the first time that Uber has tried to lure drivers away from their competition.
TechCrunch reported this past December that Uber had offered several perks to Lyft drivers to switch services, including a $50 gas card to just stop by Uber’s offices in San Francisco.
A flyer was discovered in a Lyft by passenger Misha Chellam, detailing what Uber was offering Lyft drivers for switching services.
Chellam tweeted on December 11, « Corporate espionage Pat 1: Saw this in my @lyft driver’s car, asked him what it was… » with an attached picture of the front of the flyer.
The flyer was good for one free $50 gas card to be redeemed by December 13.
Chellam also tweeted the reverse side of the flyer which told the recipient to go to Uber headquarters. The flyer also detailed signup perks which included allowing drivers to keep 100 percent of their fares received through the end of the year and a $500 bonus if the driver picked up 20 riders before January 1, 2014.
Chellam’s second tweet stated, « Part II: Said someone from @uber took a 3-block ride, handed them this. Wow »
Chellam tagged both Lyft Co-Founder John Zimmer and Lyft Director of Growth Adam Fishman.
Fishman commented back saying, « We’re aware and flattered by the interest in our awesome community of drivers. »
Gett is still evaluating with their attorneys whether or not to take action against Uber.
Source : Taxicab Times