Uber, Mears form historic partnership
It seemed like an unimaginable proposition: The county’s ridesharing giant, Uber, and one of the Southeast’s largest taxi companies, Mears Transportation, joining forces to form the first-ever partnership between such direct competitors in the United States.
Yet, over the past several months, the former foes turned friends have managed to do just that.
Uber and Mears, which have done battle from City Hall to the Florida Legislature, announced Monday that they will launch their historic partnership in Central Florida.
Beginning Nov. 26, when Orlando users login to the Uber app they will get a luxury option, called UberBlack, that lets them — for the same price — hail a Mears vehicle or an Uber car. The companies expect to expand the service to include Mears taxis across the Uber platform by the end of the year.
For Uber, the partnership lets it tap into Mears’ established network in the region and grow its supply of vehicles. For Mears, it means getting access to Uber’s established consumer base and technology, while giving riders and drivers alike a more diverse set of options.
“At the end of the day, I believe Mears and Uber are stronger companies together,” said Trey White, executive chairman of Mears.
The Orlando-based taxi mammoth was at the heart of the effort
to crush the growth of Uber in Florida before extending the proverbial olive branch earlier this year.
“I have an outside-ofthe-box idea I’d like you to consider,” began White’s proposal to Uber.
And Uber listened. Uber, the same company whose former CEO Travis Kalanick once said, “We’re in a political campaign, and the candidate is Uber and the opponent is an [expletive] named Taxi.”
Then, an Uber/Mears partnership would’ve been tantamount to the Republicans and the Democrats in Congress getting together for a kumbaya session.
The agreement now comes at a time when Uber and Mears are both going through a transformation — making them more amenable to a different approach. Mears, acquired by Palm Beach Capital in March, has been looking at incorporating ride-sharing services. And Uber has new leadership too, with Kalanick out following revelations of a toxic workplace culture that included sexual harassment. Former Expedia executive Dara Khosrowshahi took over as CEO last year aiming to take the company in a new direction.
“I’m not sure we would have responded this way even a year ago,” to the Mears offer, said Colin Tooze, director of public affairs at Uber. “And that’s because we’ve changed. We are focused on building the world’s first, true multimodal platform and as we do that, building a sustainable and long-term business in the communities that we operate [is key.]
“What might seem at first blush as an odd pairing actually makes a ton of sense to us.”
How it will work
Next week when Central Florida users open their Uber apps, they’ll see another option: UberBlack.
The luxury service, which already exists in other markets in the U.S. and was once available at the Orlando airport, will have the distinction in Central Florida of also utilizing mostly Mears’ fleet of more than 200 luxury SUVs and sedans.
The trips will cost the same for riders, whether a Mears car or an Uber vehicle picks them up. The booking fee for the more premium experience is $2.70, with a base fare of $7, plus $2 per mile and 71 cents per minute. Each trip has a $15 minimum.
On the Uber side, drivers will earn on a per-mile, perminute basis. And on the Mears side, drivers keep all the revenue collected and Uber will collect its $2.70 fee from each trip.
The Mears app, its reservation system and taxi stands will continue to exist, but riders will now have another method of hailing a Mears driver, White said.
Mears drivers also will now go through Uber’s background check system as well as the checks conducted by the taxi industry — ameliorating a point of contention between the two companies. For years, taxi companies have argued that Uber drivers don’t go through the rigorous background checks that taxi drivers are required to do.
“We are not going to change our process,” White said. “Our drivers are going through it twice, with Mears and with Uber.”
The companies are still working on expanding the partnership to include Mears taxicabs by the end of the year, said Kasra Moshkani, Uber’s general manager in the southeast U.S. That, too, will be its own product, UberTaxi.
“The pricing will be consistent with what taxi rates are today and as a rider, you can request the taxi product specifically,” he said. the most recent waving of the white flag. While Uber said it was providing a more seamless consumer experience, Mears argued that Uber was threatening its business — and not adhering to the requirements placed on taxis.
In 2014, the city of Orlando passed some regulations, including rate restrictions and permit requirements for Uber drivers, while also legalizing the ride-sharing practice.
The fight then moved to the Legislature. Uber went after Senate President Andy Gardiner, R-Orlando, saying that because of his friendship with Mears CEO Paul Mears III, he was holding up a bill that would provide legal framework for Uber across the state.
Ultimately, a ride-sharing bill passed last year, giving Uber a crucial win: The company could enter into an agreement with Orlando International Airport to pick up passengers — in addition to dropping them off — intensifying competition for Mears, which owns most of the taxis that pick up passengers at the airport.
Then, with competition at an all-time high in the U.S., Uber began entering into taxi company partnerships on the other side of the globe. Late last year, Uber rolled out partnerships with more than half a dozen Asian taxi companies, including Howa in Thailand, ComfortDelGro in Singapore and a partnership with three taxi companies in Taiwan that embraced the unexpected union with an unambiguous moniker: UberTaxi.
Now it seems Uber has accepted that the best way to grow in that area of the world — and perhaps in the U.S., too — is to join forces with taxis to enhance its fleet and pick up customers.
In the U.S., Lyft, has presented tough competition for Uber, so much so that new CEO Khosrowshahi said last year that he didn’t expect the U.S. to be a “particularly profitable” market for Uber in the first half of 2018 because of Lyft.
It remains to be seen how drivers and users will take to the new Uber/Mears deal, or how the companies will settle into their new roles as partners.
Asked if the partnership means Mears will now adhere the Uber sticker to its vehicles, White laughed.
“We haven’t had a branding conversation,” he said.