A Look into the Importance of Drivers at Uber:
Ride sharing is becoming increasingly popular with Uber leading the way—achieving a potential valuation as high as $120 billion. In this context there has been a lot of buzz and research on Uber’s corporate culture and its overhaul of top management including CEO Travis Kalanick. In addition, there are plenty of analyses researching Uber’s customer satisfaction, and comparing Uber with its competitors including Lyft.
But perhaps even more important than corporate culture, is the satisfaction of the drivers, which Uber identifies as “independent contractors.” These drivers are critical to Uber’s success, as without them, Uber would presently have no value proposition or offering for its customers. Further, these drivers are practically the only touch points that Uber has with its end-users. To this end, Uber must ensure that they have a sufficient “supply” of drivers, and that their drivers are satisfied, and not leaving to work instead for other platforms such as Lyft.
Uber must ensure that their drivers are satisfied and staying on their platform, but the trend seems to be the opposite. There have been a growing number of issues with drivers including the fact that only 4% of drivers remain with Uber after a year (CNBC), many of which are going to drive for Lyft instead. Beyond this, Uber drivers are becoming increasingly discontent with the company, leading to strikes against the company, including a strike that is planned during the launch of its IPO.
In this context, it is increasingly important for Uber to understand the satisfaction / dissatisfaction of its drivers to make sure that it has a sustainable supply of drivers going forward. This project therefore aims to take a deep dive into exploring the historical and present satisfaction of Uber drivers in order to look at trends and drive relevant insights regarding its essential collaborators, critical to its supply network. Analysis will begin by looking into driver sentiment over time, including to see if the overhaul of the executive management had any tangible impact on driver sentiment.
Beyond this, one would assume that Uber operates differently in different states, and it would therefore be useful to see which states create the most satisfied / dissatisfied drivers. Looking at where Uber drivers are most happy and trying to uncover reasons for these discrepancies might provide useful insight into creating a more satisfied network of drivers.
In discussing Uber, it is critical to analyze Lyft, which has not only been stealing customer market share, but has also been stealing collaborator / driver market share. It is critical that Uber sustain a competitive advantage in terms of driving higher satisfaction amongst drivers, and to do this, Uber must understand the competition. Taking a deep dive, the analysis will explore whether driving for Uber is actually better than driving for Lyft? Is there a trend that might be showing diverging patterns? Are there places where drivers are systematically happier driving for Lyft compared to Uber?
Going Forward:
Ultimately, some conclusions derived from the analysis throughout this site show that driver satisfaction has been declining, and is actually significantly lower after the CEO overhaul than before. Things are only getting worse for drivers, which does not bode well for Uber. Luckily, Uber driver sentiment is still higher than Lyft driver sentiment, which provides Uber with an opportunity to gain competitive advantage in this realm.
To this end, an analysis of reviews using language processing sheds light on what the major positives and negatives of driving for Uber are. Utilizing these insights, Uber could try to increase the pleasure points and decrease the pain points identified through the analysis, in order to reverse the downward trend and increase satisfaction among its drivers.
Ride sharing is becoming increasingly popular with Uber leading the way—achieving a potential valuation as high as $120 billion. In this context there has been a lot of buzz and research on Uber’s corporate culture and its overhaul of top management including CEO Travis Kalanick. In addition, there are plenty of analyses researching Uber’s customer satisfaction, and comparing Uber with its competitors including Lyft.
But perhaps even more important than corporate culture, is the satisfaction of the drivers, which Uber identifies as “independent contractors.” These drivers are critical to Uber’s success, as without them, Uber would presently have no value proposition or offering for its customers. Further, these drivers are practically the only touch points that Uber has with its end-users. To this end, Uber must ensure that they have a sufficient “supply” of drivers, and that their drivers are satisfied, and not leaving to work instead for other platforms such as Lyft.
Uber must ensure that their drivers are satisfied and staying on their platform, but the trend seems to be the opposite. There have been a growing number of issues with drivers including the fact that only 4% of drivers remain with Uber after a year (CNBC), many of which are going to drive for Lyft instead. Beyond this, Uber drivers are becoming increasingly discontent with the company, leading to strikes against the company, including a strike that is planned during the launch of its IPO.
In this context, it is increasingly important for Uber to understand the satisfaction / dissatisfaction of its drivers to make sure that it has a sustainable supply of drivers going forward. This project therefore aims to take a deep dive into exploring the historical and present satisfaction of Uber drivers in order to look at trends and drive relevant insights regarding its essential collaborators, critical to its supply network. Analysis will begin by looking into driver sentiment over time, including to see if the overhaul of the executive management had any tangible impact on driver sentiment.
Beyond this, one would assume that Uber operates differently in different states, and it would therefore be useful to see which states create the most satisfied / dissatisfied drivers. Looking at where Uber drivers are most happy and trying to uncover reasons for these discrepancies might provide useful insight into creating a more satisfied network of drivers.
In discussing Uber, it is critical to analyze Lyft, which has not only been stealing customer market share, but has also been stealing collaborator / driver market share. It is critical that Uber sustain a competitive advantage in terms of driving higher satisfaction amongst drivers, and to do this, Uber must understand the competition. Taking a deep dive, the analysis will explore whether driving for Uber is actually better than driving for Lyft? Is there a trend that might be showing diverging patterns? Are there places where drivers are systematically happier driving for Lyft compared to Uber?
Going Forward:
Ultimately, some conclusions derived from the analysis throughout this site show that driver satisfaction has been declining, and is actually significantly lower after the CEO overhaul than before. Things are only getting worse for drivers, which does not bode well for Uber. Luckily, Uber driver sentiment is still higher than Lyft driver sentiment, which provides Uber with an opportunity to gain competitive advantage in this realm.
To this end, an analysis of reviews using language processing sheds light on what the major positives and negatives of driving for Uber are. Utilizing these insights, Uber could try to increase the pleasure points and decrease the pain points identified through the analysis, in order to reverse the downward trend and increase satisfaction among its drivers.
Data Used
The objective of this project was to use digital exhaust--or data on human behavior. To this end, much of the data used in this project is taken from Indeed.com, a website that allows company employees to rate and review the company. Taking data directly from Indeed allows us to get a raw sense of exactly how the drivers and employees feel about their experience working for the companies
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