As we discussed recently in How to Beat Uber – Uber is a serious threat with its fast, flexible service and its crazy deals to tempt new customers.

But it’s not just your customers that Uber is trying to tempt away from you, it’s also your drivers.

Your drivers see it as a way to make some extra cash, but if they are operating ‘off the clock’ it can impact on the service your business is able to offer and they are competing for your customers.

The good news is that there are some great ways to help your drivers resist temptation.

Here are our top tips for keeping your drivers off Uber…

Have your drivers done the MATHS?

Uber take 25% of the driver’s earnings and it is well-known that driver earnings are automatically provided by Uber to HMRC.

But do your drivers know that? And have you helped them do the maths?

Let’s look at some examples that you can share with your drivers to show how much they stand to lose working with Uber compared to working with you…

Obviously, we don’t know your radio rent/circuit fee (it may be more or less than the £100 shown above) but none-the-less you can quickly see that a driver is much worse off working for Uber.

And remember that in the above examples Uber is declaring the driver’s earnings to the tax man. The driver declares their own earnings when they work for you.

Communication is everything!

Don’t assume that your drivers have done the maths. Use the ‘maths’ to show them how much they stand to lose if they work for Uber.

Price Surcharges – Making it Work for Your Drivers

One other way that drivers who work for Uber lose out is with Price Surcharging – where Uber increase the fare dependent upon availability and demand and don’t pass any benefit on to the driver.

We also know that passengers hate it (for obvious reasons).

But did you know that the ability to introduce a modest surcharge that you can share with your drivers is easy in a modern booking and dispatch system such as iCabbi?

Naturally, we would just suggest you do this in a much more passenger friendly way than trebling the fare as Uber sometimes do!

For example, have you considered simply adding a small surcharge (even as low as a £1) to your bookings on a Saturday night between 6pm and 2am?

Assuming a driver works these 8 hours and does 3 jobs per hour that’s £24 extra for them and research shows that passengers don’t complain about small amounts on a Saturday.

That could be an extra £100 per month for your drivers!

We suggest that you experiment with this idea to delight your drivers without losing customers.

Reduce the Uber Temptation with Technology

The good news for you is that utilising ‘Uber-like’ technology such as iCabbi helps keep your drivers busy and happy.

With your drivers benefiting from the extra work that flows from your iCabbi customer app, your IVR (Interactive Voice Response) phone booking system and your web booker – they will be less likely to be tempted to try Uber.

Busy drivers, with a ‘fair share’ of the work are happy drivers.

All you need to do is to make sure you use all of the iCabbi tools at your disposal to maximise work for your drivers and to ‘communicate’ with drivers so that they know how much it will cost them to work with Uber.

Doing this means that they stay with you, and that they talk to other drivers who will then be attracted to your thriving business.

That’s good news for you, and your customers!

To discover how you can recruit and retain more high quality drivers, request our free guide – “How to Recruit and Retain More Drivers – The Top 10 Things You Need to Know” by clicking here.

If you have any questions or need more information you can speak to one of the iCabbi UK team based in our Mansfield office. You can call us on 01623 44 22 11 or email enquiries@icabbi.etgl.co.uk. Our friendly team are here to help and support you.