Urban Company announces 12-point program to improve partner income

Representative image (Twitter/Urban Company)

Urban Company has decided to reduce commissions it charges and increase prices of some of the high-demand services in order to improve the take-home earnings of its partners.

It announced the program on October 14 under which it has claimed it will simplify its processes and make them more transparent.

"For better take-home earnings for our partners, we are marginally increasing prices of several high demand services across categories," it said in a statement.

Giving details of commissions across categories, it said for the beauty segment it will reduce the highest commission slab from 30-25 percent.

Earlier, commissions ranged from 8.5 percent for small orders to 30 percent for high-ticket orders. Commissions will now range from 8.5-25 percent.

The highest slab currently applies to high-value orders and this change will now help partners earn more on these high-value orders.

Average commissions after this change come out in the range of 20-22 percent.

It has also decided to reduce monetary penalties it charges the partners in case of any issue.

"Earlier, there was no cap on penalties charged per month per partner, which was recently changed to put a maximum cap of Rs 3,000 on monthly penalties charged per partner. We are further reducing the maximum cap on monthly penalties per partner per month to Rs 1,500," it said.

In order to ensure the safety of women partners, it plans to carve out a dedicated SOS helpline.

It is also publishing the UC Earnings Index which will transparently show how much Urban Company partners earn, net of commissions, fees, and other associated costs.

"We will also show how average utilization on the platform has trended, for both beauty and home service categories," it said in a statement.

"The urgency with which we are moving is because it is the right thing to do and not under business pressure," it added.

The development happens following days of protests where women partners came on the streets trying to negotiate their demands-better wages, lowering of commissions rates, and safe working conditions.

Indian Federation of App-based Transport workers (IFAT) had also extended its support to the workers.

The company on the other hand, however, claimed that during the last week of protest there was no impact on the business of Urban Company.

"In the last 7 days, the platform has done more business and delivered more orders than in any 7 day period in its history," it said.

It will also be working on providing insurance and training to partners.

"We are committed to working hard over the next months to actualise the above and make our times ahead significantly better for everyone in the UC Family," it said.