Starting April 30, Londoners will be able to view public transport information and wait times on the Uber program, to determine if taking the tube is cheaper or faster than waiting.
The first, and perhaps only, think you’d think after hearing that news is’Wouldn’t that result in fewer people getting Uber rides?’ Public transport is often a great deal less expensive than hailing an Uber, even in an expensive city like London, and if the Uber app presents its customers with they an option ’ll choose the option.
Uber’s pitching the function for a way to decrease car ownership, as well as clean up London’s atmosphere, but as with any corporate effort at philanthropy, you have to take those claims with a huge pinch of salt. Instead, Uber could be playing the game that is to maintain its ride-hailing dominance for good.
What’s altered with Uber?
When the London Public Transport upgrade rolls out to Uber users across London, a new option will be available once you pick a destination, which will use information from Transport for London (TfL) to inform you the very best public transport route to get to where you want to be.
The program will aggregate information from buses, trains, trams, shuttles, the London underground, rail lines and even boats on the river Thames to tell you the fastest, or cheapest, way of getting to your destination. The program will also provide walking directions between channels if you will need to move at any point.
Cars are not the only way to get around London, and the congested roads mean they may be slow (Image credit: Uber)
The purpose of this all is to replace your car if Uber can’t get you hailing cabs, it at least wants you to use its program. The company is also presenting it as an ‘eco-initiative’, so prospective Uber clients could find the bus or tube rather than getting a driver to ferry them about the city.
Of course, getting your clients to use a service isn’t a excellent business plan, but the London Public Transport attribute is probably the first step in a plan by Uber.
This kind of service is already offered by Uber in Denver, in the US, but London has a population over 11 times higher, so it’s a whole new ball game when it comes to the amount of information the program is required to process.
Patching up a relationship
Over the past few years, Uber has been fighting to continue operations in London. It’s had to defend itself against a tide of accusations of unlawful behavior in working environments for its drivers , dangerous environments for passengers in vehicles, and the way it manages and pays its own staff.
Sometimes it’s looked like Uber drivers wouldn’t be able to operate in London, and while the company has managed to overturn any ban presented so far, it’s still on rocky grounds with the Mayor of London’s office and TfL.
However by encouraging users to take public transport when possible, Uber is extending an olive branch to those parties, and showing them that it’s happy to work with town ’s entities to perform what’s best for the customers.
Taking the Tube might sometimes be a cheaper or quicker option (Image credit: TfL)
If TfL and the Mayor’s office take this olive branch, and tensions between the parties relax, it could be hugely beneficial for Uber – an end to, or relaxing of, the hostilities and legal proceedings could save it a lot of hassle and money.
Uber is using TfL’s live travel information but over 675 apps do too, so that doesn’t point to a relationship in any way.
While it’s a valuable gesture on Uber’s part, it’s not necessarily one that could cause the business much difficulty. If you’re seeing the program it’s because you already know you want to get a lift to your destination, and you’d see others like Google Maps or CityMapper if you wanted to know which tube line for. The possible number of lost customers is likely, in reality, pretty small.
Becoming the travel program
As well as relaxing hostilities, Uber’s inclusion of public transport information to its program may be a part of a long game the company has started – you to transform the Uber program from a simple ride-hailing program, in the go-to service for intra-city travel.
If Uber can get people to use its program for a means to find any kind of transport, and draw users away from Google Maps and CityMapper for these functions, it can slowly begin to increase its market share, and open itself to a new audience, who typically wouldn’t hail an Uber.
Goodbye Google Maps? (Image credit: Google)
This could increase Uber’s user base significantly, and a fair chunk of this audience would probably begin using the ride-sharing area of the program if the a variety of taxi options were presented alongside public transport choices, especially for journeys with many transfers or for clients in a rush.
Apps work #x2013 & similar; Google Maps, for example, lets you explore different modes of transport for a journey including driving, walking, public transport, or hailing a cab using an app. Presumably Uber’s program will operate similarly in the future, but unlike Google, Uber will earn money .
Needless to say, this is all speculation and guesswork – but it makes no business sense for Uber to intentionally attempt to decrease its consumer base, so the upgrade is part of a bigger plan the company has.
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