SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY DRIVERS

In their minds, the city was letting “ an unfair two-tier system” emerge, allowing Uber to put taxi drivers’ livelihoods at risk. All they wanted was for Uber to play by the rules and for the city to hold Uber to the same standards as taxis. Uber’s aggressive tactics received some negative coverage, but there was a distinctively positive sentiment associated with Uber.Īs we interviewed taxi drivers, it was apparent that they were frustrated.

SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY DRIVERS

Yet taxi drivers were often portrayed as the bad guys losing every battle, as an article in The National Post illustrates: “taxi drivers are losing the PR war: it’s impossible to sympathize with people who are acting like thugs.” When Uber entered Toronto, Uber drivers and taxi drivers were polarized in the mainstream discourse and portrayed as being at war with each other. In Toronto, Ont., Uber drivers and taxi drivers were pitted against each other in the media. Uber’s categorization as a technology company paved the way for them to operate on their own terms and the eventual creation of a new set of favourable bylaws that gave them a competitive advantage over the highly regulated taxi industry. Such portrayed differences had profound effects on the lives of Uber and taxi drivers, serving as foundational building blocks in the construction of a positive image for Uber drivers and a negative image of taxi drivers during Uber’s very public expansion. Meanwhile, although Uber drivers were often portrayed in the media as making more than taxi drivers, the leaked documents show that Uber’s leadership knew that Uber drivers’ earnings sometimes fell below minimum wage.

This is just an income, a different type to substitute whatever… I’ve heard that a lot of people are doing this full-time.

The perception that people have is that the Uber drivers are not really - this is not their job. But many Uber drivers were often driving full-time, as some Uber drivers we interviewed pointed out: For example, Uber drivers were constantly described as working part-time, as opposed to taxi drivers who drive full-time. The differences between Uber and taxi drivers were manufactured and didn’t necessarily reflect reality. We found that Uber spokespeople, public officials and the media created a categorical distinction by pointing to technology to explain why Uber was not a taxi company, and highlighting differences between the perceived identities of Uber drivers and taxi drivers. Our research looked at the dynamics and impact of Uber’s entry into Toronto, including its growing recognition as a tech company and its eventual legalization as a private transportation company. It was the product of an ecosystem of actors - including public officials, media and Uber - that allowed Uber to cast a shadow over the taxi industry. What the Uber Files leak indicates is that the manipulation of Uber’s image at the cost of the taxi industry was due to more than Uber’s lack of decorum and disregard of local laws. Uber portrayed its drivers as part-time workers who made a good income.

Uber’s entry stratified the taxi-driving profession by materially and symbolically elevating Uber drivers over taxi drivers. In our published research on Uber’s entry into Toronto from 2013 to 2016, we explain how Uber and other groups manipulated the public perception of both Uber and the taxi industry. Our team, consisting of researchers at business schools across Canada, has studied Uber’s expansion into cities during the period covered by the leaked documents that have been shared with the International Consortium of Investigative Journalists. It put taxi drivers’ livelihoods at risk and negatively impacted their lives. It’s crucial to recognize that Uber’s controversial behaviour during its aggressive global expansion didn’t just help the company build its global empire. Implicating high-profile government officials, media barons, academics and more, the leak has rightfully triggered outrage and a slew of questions. In early July, the leak of 124,000 confidential files from Uber - known as the “Uber Files” - as part of an investigation by The Guardian revealed how the company knowingly flouted laws, secretly lobbied governments and embraced a long list of “ dark tricks” and ethically questionable practices as it grew into the tech giant we know today. This article from Kam Phung, Luciana Turchick Hakak, Madeline Toubiana, Sean Buchanan and Trish Ruebottom is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license.

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