Uber about more than cheap rides, adviser says

David Plouffe, former campaign manager for Barack Obama, argues company helps ease traffic, offers economic opportunity

Although Uber is a company that wants to make money, its strategic adviser David Plouffe argues its mission is bigger and broader: bringing economic opportunity and easing traffic congestion worldwide.

“This is really about helping the economy,” Plouffe said during a speech to the Empire Club in Toronto during a three-city swing through Canada, with speeches planned in Montreal and Vancouver this week.

He noted that Uber’s founders set out to improve transportation in San Francisco for their friends, but it has evolved into much more.

“It’s grown into something that shows there is a huge unmet need on the transportation side, but there is also a huge need to make more income,” he said.

“Time is almost as big a pressure as money. Transportation is too expensive and takes too long for too many people.”

Plouffe, who is credited with propelling Barack Obama to the White House in 2008 as his campaign manager, was in Toronto just a week before a critical city council meeting that could legalize Uber’s operations here.

Plouffe urged those in the audience to lend their voices to a city hall proposal to regulate Uber that the licensing committee refused to endorse.

The debate over Uber’s presence in Toronto has been heated, but Plouffe said he expects Uber’s market could grow as much as five times in the next four to five years.

He estimates that there are now 16,000 drivers in the Toronto area. Some drive 40 hours a week and Uber is their main source of income. But half of Uber drivers in Toronto drive fewer than 10 hours a week.

“It’s not really even a part-time job,” Plouffe said. “It’s something people are doing around the rest of their lives to make a little bit of income.”

He cites the example of a family with an annual income of $40,000 to $42,000; if one member drives for Uber 10 or 12 hours a week, then the household income jumps to $60,000.

“To them, that’s a small miracle,” Plouffe said. “You still have your job or your school, kids or aging parents and your social obligations.”

The San Francisco-based company, valued at as much as $50 billion (U.S.), is now operating in 61 countries and 335 cities, with many more new markets to come including smaller communities.

“It’s not Uber versus taxi. It’s not Uber versus public transportation,” Plouffe said, arguing people will still use taxis and public transit as well as bikes.

“There is still going to be a place for taxis, but it won’t be a monopoly.

“Every city in the world is dealing with too much congestion,” he said. “People are coming into cities with a velocity that has never happened in the history of humankind.”

That means reducing personal car use, he said, noting Uber has just launched UberCommute in Chengdu, China, a city with a population of 14 million in its metropolitan area.

UberCommute is similar to UberPool, which was tested in Toronto during the Pan Am Games, when UberX drivers could make two stops to pick up individual passengers during a single ride. UberCommute would match a driver with a passenger on their daily commutes.

Sam Moini, a spokesman for the Toronto Taxi Association, scoffed at Uber’s suggestion that the company is offering more economic opportunity in Toronto.

“They are replacing full-time work with part-time work,” he said.

“Taxi drivers are losing their jobs and their income.

“They have lost 50 per cent of their income. They can’t make ends meet,” Moini said, arguing Uber has saturated the Toronto market with more drivers and vehicles.