Uber shifts Dublin focus from hackneys to taxis

Uber, the mobile app that connects passengers with private cars for hire, says it has doubled the size of its business in Dublin since it launched its low-cost UberX service in June.

It is considering launching Uber in other Irish cities, such as Cork. Licensing rules introduced following the deregulation of the taxi industry here in 2000, however, are forcing it to tailor its approach to the Irish market.

Licensed hackneys

In other markets, Uber generally signs up thousands of drivers of licensed private hire limousines and hackney vehicles to operate its service, usually to the chagrin of taxi drivers who have demonstrated in droves against its alleged bypassing of the taxi regulation system in cities including Barcelona and London.

But in Ireland, most of these type of licences were cheaply swapped for full taxi licences after deregulation, cutting off Uber’s usual driver supply route for its high-end Uber Black limousine service, which it launched in Ireland in January.

Instead, Uber Dublin has recently switched its attention to signing up fully-licensed taxi drivers for UberX, which uses lower-end vehicles typical of traditional taxis but at rates “10 to 30 per cent” less than metered fares.

Jo Bertram, the general manager of Uber for the UK and Ireland, was in Dublin yesterday to promote the service. She declined to say how many users it has signed here, suggesting only that the number is in the "tens of thousands" and that it has "hundreds of Dublin drivers" on its books. She agreed that the market is "very different" in Dublin, compared to the UK: "I believe there's [only a few hundred] licences left here, although it is still possible to get new ones. So we are still very small in Dublin, but I think UberX will change that."

Incentives

Uber is reportedly offering existing taxi drivers hourly rates of up to €18 to make themselves available for its service, and Bertram confirmed yesterday that it pays its drivers “incentives” in start-up markets like Dublin.

“Uber is a marketplace and we need to keep that market in balance. If you log on to the service and there are no cars available, you’re unlikely to use it again. So we pay drivers incentives, although we usually structure it as a guaranteed level of income,” she said.

Bertram also conceded that there are already too many taxis on the roads in Dublin. “Adding more won’t help. We believe we need to be using the cars that are already on the road more efficiently.”

Uber X is currently “about 30 per cent” of its Dublin business, and Bertram says she expects this to rise to 75 per cent.

“We’re shaking up an industry that hasn’t been shaken up in ages,” she said.