I’m still not convinced that Travis Kalanick, CEO, of Uber, truly understands why a growing number of his customers switched to Lyft. It’s not only that he was on President Donald Trump’s business advisory group, but that he lowered Uber’s prices in an effort to gain new customers when the yellow taxis went on strike for a few hours to protest the administration’s immigration policies.
Kalanick probably thought it was a cool PR move. Several hundred thousand Americans plus Uber drivers, many of whom are immigrants themselves, did not. They were horrified. Everyone was spreading his or her dismay by posting #DeleteUber on of their social media accounts. Uber has been emailing customers who deleted their accounts to say “the company shares their concerns and will compensate drivers affected by the ban.”
In other words. it was an apology. Read about it in Reuters. Here is an excerpt. “Joining the group was not meant to be an endorsement of the president or his agenda but unfortunately it has been misinterpreted to be exactly that,” Kalanick said he told the president he would not join the economic council.
There is no question about it, Kalanick is running scared. One wrong move may have distroyed the genius of a company he worked so brilliantly to build. I loved Uber. I used it several times a day whether I’m in Miami, New York, or Los Angeles. Many of the drivers know me.
I can’t help it. I switched to Lyft. I may never go back to Uber. There is very little difference between the two. Many of the drivers are the same. Kalanick opened the way for me to try Lyft. He may regret that for the rest of his life.
