Old news or not, this will affect urban mobility for years to come.
SOPA ImagesGetty Images- The report says Uber and an advisory firm compiled lists of more than 1,850 ‘stakeholders’—sitting and former public officials, etc.—it had hoped to influence in 29 countries and the EU.
- The documents show then-CEO Travis Kalanick messaging Uber executives in Europe to take advantage of a violent strike by French taxi drivers protesting competition from Uber in January 2016.
- Kalanick also ordered “kill-switches” for company servers in each local headquarters to prevent authorities from seizing evidence from the offices.
Leaked Uber documents show how the company used political influence to expand its business worldwide in the last decade. But Uber blames its co-founder and sacked CEO Travis Kalanick, while Kalanick blames it on his underlings from that time.
Old news or not, the political tactics will affect the future of urban mobility as Uber continues to crush traditional taxicab businesses in major cities around the world. Whether you continue to drive your own car or not, you will likely have to choose between a cab and a ride-sharing service as congestion pricing and traffic limits soon expand beyond London, Singapore, Rome, and Stockholm, to New York, Paris, and other cities.
Michael McCann, Uber’s lobbyist in Europe, the Middle East and Africa from 2013-17, leaked more than 124,000 Uber documents to the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists (ICIJ), and they were published this month. The documents show “attempts to lobby [then-Vice President] Joe Biden, [future German Chancellor] Olaf Sholz and [former British member of parliament] George Osborne,” according to The Guardian.
“To spread its message, Uber and an advisory firm compiled lists of more than 1,850 ‘stakeholders’—sitting and former public officials, think tanks and citizen groups—it had hoped to influence in 29 countries and the EU,” the ICIJ report says.
The documents show then-CEO Travis Kalanick messaging Uber executives in Europe to take advantage of a violent strike by French taxi drivers protesting competition from Uber in January 2016.
“If we have 50,000 riders they can’t and won’t do anything,” Kalanick wrote of the cab drivers. “I think it’s worth it. Violence guarantee(s) success. And these guys must be resisted, no?”
Kalanick also ordered “kill-switches” for company servers in each local headquarters to prevent authorities from seizing evidence from the offices.
For example, as police were descending on its Amsterdam office, Kalanick messaged; “Please hit the kill switch ASAP. … Access must be shut down in AMS.” Local office workers were often told to act confused about how to re-activate servers.
French President Emmanuel Macron, who was economy minister from 2014-16, reportedly “had brokered a secret ‘deal’ with its opponents in the French cabinet,” to open the country to the taxicab competition.
Uber’s then-CEO Travis Kalanick in 2018.
Justin SullivanGetty Images
Uber essentially calls this “old news.” Jill Hazelbaker, senior vice president for marketing and public affairs, said in a written statement: “There has been no shortage of reporting on Uber’s mistakes prior to 2017. Five years ago, those mistakes culminated in one of the most infamous reckonings in the history of corporate America,” the sacking of co-founder Kalanick.
His replacement, CEO Dara Khosrowshahi, “was tasked with transforming every aspect of how Uber operates,” Hazelbaker wrote.
Kalanick’s own statement issued last week says he never authorized actions that would obstruct justice in any new markets and never sought to take advantage of anti-Uber violence at the expense of its drivers’ safety, according to The Guardian.
“The reality was that Uber’s expansion initiations were led by over a hundred leaders in dozens of countries around the world and at all times under the direct oversight and with the full approval of Uber’s robust legal, policy, and compliance groups,” Kalanick’s statement said.
In 2009, Uber was founded in San Francisco as “Ubercab,” using contractors driving their own sedans and crossovers to compete with taxicabs. In France, site of the biggest demonstrations against Uber, Paris cab drivers must train for more than 300 hours before they get a license. In London, where Uber has also faced resistance, drivers of black cabs must study 320 routes, 25,000 streets and 20,000 landmarks and places of public interest according to The Sunnewspaper. “The Knowledge” usually takes two to four years to complete.
In New York City, the effect has been financial.
The average market price of a single medallion, required to operate a cab in New York City, fell 17% from $1.05 million in spring 2013 to $872,000 in Spring 2014, The New York Times reported in fall 2014. This month’s home page of nycyellowcabtaxi.com has offers to sell a medallion for as little as $120,000.
After Kalanick left Uber, the company (along with Lyft and DoorDash) fought California’s AB 5, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September 2019, which classified their drivers as “employees” rather than “contractors.” A year later, the state legislature’s AB 225 exempted a long list of job categories from AB 5, including Uber, Lyft, and DoorDash drivers. In November 2020, California voters passed Proposition 22, an initiative backed by the three services designating their drivers as independent contractors.
Keyword: Uber Used Political Influence to Go Global, Leaked Documents Say