Informative Speech about Uber Technologies

Student’s name

Institutional affiliation

Topic: Uber Technologies

General purpose: To inform

Specific purpose: To inform my audience about one of the most successful and globally renowned black-car service company, Uber technologies.

Thesis statement: This speech highlights the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies. It further proposes innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges as well as strategies that can be employed in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.

Introduction

Attention Getter: Although Uber came into existence in 2009 and started as a black-car hire, it has expanded widely across many continents and countries. What makes the Uber industry stand out is the fact as opposed to traditional car hire services, it employs a digital approach to ensure a win-win situation for the client, the driver, and the company. In short, Uber Technologies runs all its services on an application that connects riders to clients. The most intriguing part of the business is the simplicity of the business. The Uber services took the ridesharing services to the next level because it capitalized on convenience. Think of it this way, people are always on the move, traveling to a different destination, the store, to work, and even tending to emergencies. Uber Technologies stands out as it was the first company to develop an application that uses GPS to link a client to a driver. The fact that one can log in into an application request for a ride and have the rider pick them from their location is very attractive to my clients.

Reason to listen: Over the years, Uber has faced many disruptive challenges and fought many rivals transforming the company from a black-car service to an empire for self-driving cars and food delivery.

Thesis statement: This speech highlights the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies. It further proposes innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges as well as strategies that can be employed in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.

Credibility statement:

I have always been interested in matters pertaining to how technology has revolutionized the transportation industry over the years.

At every opportunity I get, I try to learn as much as possible about the million dollar black-car services in the world.

Preview of main points:

First, I will discuss the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies.

Second I will discuss innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges.

Finally, I will discuss strategies that Uber can employ in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.

Although both the Uber drivers and clients face challenges, there are hardly any downsides for customers.

One of the greatest challenges facing the industry is safety concerns

In many states and cities that have lax transport industry regulations, average citizens can easily infiltrate the system as service providers.

Although it has a positive impact on the number of drivers, there is no way to guarantee that the drivers will maintain professionalism and safety.

Another issue is surge pricing, which controls free markets by lowering and increasing pricing based on demand

This hurts customers as sometimes the fare could triple or double during peak hours.

Low fares also impact negatively on drivers due to low earnings.

According to Kovoor-Misaram in cities like New York, drivers are encouraged to get luxury cars and the latest models to keep with their customers’ needs.

Price competition has had a negative impact on the transport industry. This has to do with the fact that Uber and other e-hail taxi services are always competing to provide the cheapest service. Further, they are also in competition with traditional taxi- services.

Another challenge facing the Uber business is the lack of accessibility features for people with disabilities

In some countries, car hire companies are mandated by the law to have a given number of wheelchair accessible vans for use.

This is not always the case as most drivers don’t have access to the resources making it difficult to comply with the law.

Maheshwari notes that over the past few years, Uber has found itself at the center of unethical scandals ranging from sexual assault, sabotage, the issue of multi-tasking, and privacy.

There have been cases of customers raising sexual assault accusations against Uber drivers. This is because the process of bringing drivers on has been negligent. Word is, Uber does not meet with drivers before approving their applications. It is expected that such a multi-billion company can afford to run background checks on their drivers as it is the only way to ensure clients’ safety.

Furthermore, Uber has been found to employ techniques of sabotage against their competitors to ensure they remain in business.

Several Uber drivers were found to request rides from Lyft, their main competitor, only to cancel them.

This causes the Lyft drivers to waste gas and have low availability leading customers to request Uber rides instead.

The fact that Uber bases its operations on using GPS to reach potential clients presents a drawback from a safety perspective.

This is because drivers have to keep checking their mobile drivers while driving, increasing the chances of causing accidents.

Uber has also been accused of disregarding its clients’ privacy as it has an application used in tracking their customers’ location.

Transition: Now that I have discussed the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies, I will now address the innovative policies and strategies that can be used to resolve them.

B. One of the strategies Uber can employ to avoid scandals is putting safeguards in place.

Putting sufficient safeguards provides a way of nullifying the negative publicity that faces them.

Uber has been accused of sexual violations and drivers cheating their clients. While some of the allegations were true they lead to negative implications on the company’s brand.

Another strategy would be to offer its employees more flexible schedules to attract more people in need of additional income streams

Another strategy is adjusting its income claims by reducing commission.

Currently, Uber collects commissions ranging from 20%-28% of earnings.

According to Wong, Uber should develop a grievance handling and sexual harassment policy in its company to help address cases of sexual harassment against its customers.

Implementation of such a policy can help address the issue and improve their brand image.

To maximize profits, Uber must recognize the changing nature of its business by diversifying its services. Recently, Uber has started leveraging technology for optimal driver allocation and cab bookings.

Moreover, with the current situation, Uber should continue to scale up alternative businesses, including Uber Eats and Uber Freight.

Transition: Now that I have discussed about the innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges, I will touch on the strategies that Uber can employ in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.

C. A multi-cultural environment must consider not only race and gender but also sexual orientation

1. Uber Technologies recognizes that having inclusive and diverse teams is their greatest asset.

a. It drives innovation which provides them with a competitive advantage.

b. Uber technologies have doubled its commitment to create a work environment where people from all backgrounds can thrive and function.

c. increasing the representation of underrepresented groups, including women by increasing women workforce to 50%, increasing women’s representation in technology and leadership positions.

d. This means including people who identify as LGBTI in the workforce to ensure a diverse and equitable workforce.

Conclusion:

Review of main points:

First, I discussed the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies.

Second I discussed innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges.

Finally, I discussed strategies that Uber can employ in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment

Restate Thesis: This speech highlights the challenges and ethical issues experienced by Uber Technologies. It further proposes innovative policies and strategies to address the challenges as well as strategies that can be employed in achieving an equitable, cross-cultural, and multicultural work environment.

Closure: To address these problems, Uber Technologies must realize the need to keep their employees happy, reduce commissions, run background checks on drivers, and have safeguards.

References

Kovoor-Misra, S. (2019). Crisis management: Resilience and change. SAGE Publications.

Maheshwari, N. (2017). Uber taxi cab-handling crisis communication. Emerald Emerging Markets Case Studies.

Wong, J. C. (2017). Uber concealed massive hack that exposed data of 57m users and drivers. The Guardian, 22.