Corporate leaders often get customer insights through detailed presentations, market research reports, and other tools. Prabhjeet Singh, President, Uber India & South Asia often takes a different route - turning driver for a day and gaining real on-ground insights from riders. Living Uber’s core value of being “trip obsessed”, he served real customers and interacted with them about what works for them and what doesn’t. At the end of the day, the Moneycontrol team caught up with him to learn more about his experience.
Q: Tell us more about your driving experience
To be able to drive myself gives me unfiltered and direct feedback which is priceless. I met a range of riders and had insightful conversations with them. It showed me how integral Uber has become in consumers’ lives and gave me information about challenges that they may come across when they use the service. It also told me that we need to do more to support drivers who have been hit hard during the pandemic.
Q: How has Uber supported riders and drivers during the pandemic?
The pandemic was not just a health crisis but a humanitarian crisis. We had to pivot quickly and lean in with our technology infrastructure to help move what matters. We focused on supporting local authorities, governments, and NGOs in the fight against the pandemic. We gave riders free rides to vaccination centers and provided cash incentives to drivers to get vaccinated.
Q: Tell us about some exciting features of the Uber app.
Some recent ones include providing drivers additional information before they accept rides to reduce cancellations. With this, drivers will not ask the riders ‘Jaana Kahan Hai’. Another one is about giving riders more transparency about their ratings. We have a two-way rating system because we believe that respect is a two-way street. Now, within the app, riders will be able to see a complete breakdown of their ratings.
Q: What is Uber’s stand on sustainability?
As a leading industry player that is shaping the future of mobility, we believe in making the world more sustainable. We’re looking at partnerships to bring more electric vehicles to our platform across two-wheelers, three-wheelers, and four-wheelers. We believe sustainability is a team sport and it will take the coming together of various stakeholders to make it a real success.
Q: Any reflections on today’s experience?
It is a humbling experience to realize that what Uber drivers and other ride-hailing drivers do is a reasonably hard vocation. Some riders told me that Uber has been able to humanize drivers and bring respect to their vocation. We believe that each of us has a role to play and we’re committed to doing our bit.
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Moneycontrol journalists were not involved in the creation of the article
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