San Francisco Black Car Service Chauffeurs Protest Outside Uber’s Offices

By San Francisco Limousine Specialist on March 26, 2013

A group of disgruntled current and former San Francisco black car service chauffeurs for Uber gathered recently outside the company’s headquarters in San Francisco to protest unfair treatment from their employer. Regular readers of this blog know that Uber, which started right here in San Francisco, allows users to arrange town car service with a smartphone or internet connection 24/7/365. The company has had to navigate a myriad of legal problems in the Bay Area and other cities across the country as taxi companies, black car services and other luxury transportation providers claim the internet startup has an unfair advantage in their markets.

The group of at least 30 drivers chanted, “No respect, no Uber!” each time someone left Uber’s headquarters.

One driver, who acted as the group’s spokesman, listed some of the group’s demands, which included the following:

• Lowering Uber’s cut of each fare from 20 percent to 10 percent
• The designation of a specific portion of each fare as a tip that would be paid directly to town car service drivers
• Paid health insurance, which had allegedly been promised to the chauffeurs
• The designation of chauffeurs as official employees instead of contract employees, complete with W2 paperwork
• To stop bringing on “unlicensed, illegal, unsafe operators” who don’t have TCP certificates and permits, as required from the State of California for all limousine services, black car services and other types of passenger carriers (this has also been the chief complaint against Uber by town car services in San Francisco and other markets across the country)

The chauffeurs also complained that Uber routinely dismisses them for low ratings from customers and arbitrarily takes customers’ sides in disputes regardless of mitigating circumstances such as inebriated customers who become belligerent or otherwise violate the terms of the service.

Uber may be a good idea in theory, but we feel that it is a poor substitute for building a relationship with customers. There’s a transience about how Uber matches customers with different transportation providers that runs counter to our business model, which is building our business by establishing relationships with our guests. We accomplish this by providing outstanding customer service and giving guests the best value for their investment. We may not have a fancy smartphone app, but you don’t need a smartphone to reserve our Bay Area black car service. All you need is a telephone to dial 1-800-339-8936! The next time you want to reserve town car service to make a special occasion even more special, just give us a call, and let us take care of all the details. Great town car service, superb customer service and affordable rates. Now, that’s what we call uber!