The Uber Files: the drivers (part 3)

Today in Focus

The Guardian

Daily News, News

4.6 • 5.7K Ratings

🗓️ 13 July 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Uber launched itself into cities across the world, selling a dream in which drivers could earn more than elsewhere – and customers could pay much less. But it wasn’t a model that was built to last, as one London driver, Abdurzak Hadi, tells us. Help support our independent journalism at theguardian.com/infocus

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	This is the Guardian.
0:07.2	Today, the final part of the Uber Files.
0:09.9	We meet one of the London drivers who took on Uber and forced to change.
0:14.5	The Sunday.
0:15.5	The All Friday of a Good Friday.
0:24.5	The Friday.
0:25.5	It's a Friday night and again, I'm in a car, but not in France this time.
0:34.1	I'm in London.
0:36.1	Over the past couple of days, we've been reporting on how in just a few years, a tech company
0:40.9	in San Francisco helped to create a whole new industry and a whole new kind of worker.
0:47.0	Uber had billions of dollars at its disposal and used that money to ram itself into one
0:51.7	city after another, selling drivers a dream.
0:55.8	One where they were earning much more and customers paying much less than would ever be sustainable.
1:02.0	Uber knew it couldn't last, but the point was just to grow whatever it took was quickly
1:06.1	as possible.
1:08.2	But the heart of this model was this premise that drivers didn't work for Uber.
1:13.8	They were independent contractors.
1:15.8	People the company didn't have to pay pension, sickly for holidays.
1:20.0	For Uber, billions of dollars depended on this way of doing things.
1:27.0	There was just one hitch in the plan.
1:30.6	The drivers.
1:36.3	In many countries, they fought back.
	...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from The Guardian, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of The Guardian and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.