Interview with Fred Jones, Head of Cities at Uber

 

 

Like all great companies it started with a problem, our co-founders Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp were in Paris at Le Web Conference in 2008. When they left it was cold, dark and snowing and they could not find a taxi to get back to the hotel. They saw a line of limousines waiting empty and unaware of them needing a ride. They thought “wouldn’t it be cool if you could just take out your phone, push a button and get a ride”. The rest as they say, is history… 

 

It was. We knew Uber would be extremely popular in the city and wanted to launch here for a long time but wanted to get a Brighton & Hove operator license and find strong local team first. Brighton & Hove is a great city for Uber in so many ways: the city's large student and young professional population love the service, there is a vibrant tech scene, proximity to London and Gatwick, tourist attractions and surprisingly small private hire industry for a city of its size made us confident that there would be huge demand for Uber.

 

Uber has three customers, riders, partner-drivers and cities. We want riders to have a safe, reliable and affordable way of getting from A to B; for partner-drivers we want them to enjoy being their own boss and offer a flexible way of making great money, and; for the city we want to complement public transport and help them tackle congestion, air pollution and parking issues by making car ownership unnecessary. 

 

There are some really exciting things happening at Uber in the short and long term. This year our focus is on growth, including areas such as Electric Vehicles where we are emerging as a leader in making this technology work at scale as well as our EATS business which delivers food from your favourite local restaurants. Longer term there are exciting innovations happening with autonomous and even flying (!) cars

 

What I hear when I chat to Uber partner-drivers is that they love being their own boss and the flexibility the App provides. This was backed up by a recent opinion poll by ORB International of 1000 people who drive with Uber in the UK which found that by a margin of almost five to one (76% to 16%) drivers say that being self-employed and being able to choose their own hours is preferable to having things like holiday pay which come with being employed. It might not be right for everyone, but this way of making money is extremely popular.  

 

For a start I love the city and I can’t wait for summer to arrive. I have really enjoyed meeting members from the Chamber and also new Uber partner-drivers. I’ve been struck by how positive everyone is and that is really motivating. 

 

Be prepared to stand up for your principles and what is right even if others want to protect the status quo. Sometimes growing Uber’s business can be tough and new competition to taxi and private hire is hard for some to accept. However, when you seen first hand the positive impact you can have on riders, drivers and cities it makes you more determined to succeed. 

 

Be optimistic. Negative people are never fun to be around and problems were not solved with a glass half full attitude! 

 

Be comfortable making mistakes. It’s a bit of a cliche but if you don’t have a few failures you really are not pushing yourself enough

 

I am not sure that I am the best person to offer advice on this one! My only tip would be to try and ask questions to really understand the people and businesses you meet. This way, if there is an opportunity to work together it can be really productive for both parties. 

 

In Brighton & Hove its got to be the summer social - I’ll see you there.