Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi has driven a delivery car to find out why the company is having trouble attracting more drivers. He was surprised to discover the scale of the problems facing drivers and customers.
According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, Khosrowshahi secretly registered as an Uber driver in September last year to better understand the experience of drivers collaborating with the company amid slowdown in driver hiring.
Although Uber focuses on the rider experience, not the driver, Khosrowshahi said the company also needs to win the "hearts and minds" of drivers to maintain its lead over competitors such as Lyft.
Khosrowshahi bought a used Tesla Model Y to transport passengers and deliver goods around San Francisco using the pseudonym Dave K.
Although there were many operational issues in the application that made it difficult to use, the behavior of some customers was a great surprise to Khosrowshahi, who considered the process of subscribing to the application "useless" and did not like that he as a driver could not see the destination and the expected payment amount before accepting flights.
When Khosrowshahi delivered food using an electric bike, he encountered a common problem among some customers called "tipping catch", where customers tempt the delivery man with a large tip when placing an order, before reducing it upon delivery.
One passenger met the CEO on one of his trips and asked him for advice on his startup.
Khosrowshahi told the newspaper that he received a 5-star rating for nearly 100 delivery trips he completed across the city.
However, he said he was going to bed worried about maintaining his ideal assessment the next day.
Khosrowshahi said he tried to keep customers happy by providing them with charging cables and creating playlists on Spotify.
Khosrowshahi told the newspaper that he had received a 5-star rating for nearly 100 deliveries (Reuters)
The results of the Khosrowshahi experiment prompted Uber to develop delivery orders, to allow drivers to see drop-off locations before pickup, and to give drivers rewards.
Khosrowshahi's experience was part of a larger operation called Project Boomerang aimed at attracting more drivers to the app.
Economic adviser Robert Mullins said having loyal drivers makes Uber more competitive and prepares it to expand into new categories and generate better returns for investors, adding, "I think they've woken up now to the fact that everything good for Uber starts with drivers."