Prabhjeet Singh: In the driver’s seat

Every six months, Prabhjeet Singh, president, Uber India & South Asia, gets into an Uber vehicle, fires up the Uber app and hits the road as a driver for a day. With 800,000 individual drivers, how do we help them appreciate the dynamics of the business?” Increasing transparency is Singh’s solution—about a year ago, he implemented a change on the platform that allows drivers across India to see the drop location and the mode of payment; an information gap that was leading to an enormous number of cancellations and friction between drivers and customers. I used to record a podcast that would go out to 600,000 drivers, dubbed in multiple languages,” he says, adding: “But then we realised that it was still one-way communication, so we have steadily built a more consultative process with drivers.” This includes creating a Driver Advisory Council in partnership with the Bengaluru-based think tank Aapti Institute, which allows the company to hear directly from driver-partners on issues like earnings, social security, app experience and safety. “Historically, Uber was positioned as everyone’s private driver—the core thesis was that you could treat it like your own car and just step out,” Singh recalls. “Nowadays I just tell friends, ‘let’s start this party with a 10-minute download of all complaints.’” Responding to real-time changes in the way the business operates—and everything from rains and road conditions to global events like the pandemic and fuel price hikes impacts it—takes a lot of agility.