Uber’s exit leaves drivers wondering what to do next

Applicants stand inside an Uber office during a 2015 driver recruitment event in Hong Kong

Ride-sharing app Uber announced its withdrawal from Macau last week for the second time. The suspension, which took effect late on Friday night, leaves many of its approximately 3,000 full-time and part-time drivers out of work.

Demand for resident employees remains high in Macau. As the unemployment rate has not edged more than 10 basis points either side of 2 percent since 2012, as many as 3,000 new labor applicants can be comfortably absorbed by the city’s industries.

The problem concerns the illegality of working as a driver for an unregulated taxi service, punishable in the city by a fine.

While there is no evidence to suggest employers might be discriminatory in reviewing applicants that were former drivers, the possibility remains that some may view a stint at Uber as a stain on a resume. Alternatively, leaving a two-year gap on a resident’s resume, given the scarcity of unemployment, might be seen as a red flag by prospective employers.

The Times spoke with two Uber drivers to understand their perspective on the company’s second withdrawal from Macau and what they plan to do next.

One part-time driver in his late-
20s, “Red Mercedes”, said that he expects Uber to return in the future. Citing Uber Macau’s withdrawal statement, Red Mercedes said he was confident that “the suspension is only a temporary measure.”

Being a part-time driver, Red Mercedes was not concerned about losing one of his sources of income.

However, full-time driver “Blue Nissan” was slightly more concerned about what he would do this week, now that Uber’s Macau service has been deactivated.

The 23-year-old local driver started with Uber in December 2015, just a few months after the service launched in the territory.

Less than a year later, in August 2016, Uber announced that they would halt their operations in Macau due to hefty driver fines that, according to the company, amounted to more than MOP10 million.

An online petition demanding that the government enter into a dialogue with the company over its legalization and regulation collected more than 20,000 signatures. Although the government refused to back down, Uber nevertheless agreed to reinstate the service.

“The closure of Uber was inevitable,” Blue Nissan told the Times on Thursday night, reflecting on its most recent announcement and adding that most of his Uber driver associates share the same opinion. These drivers do not think that the service will return, but admit that the company’s suspension has been a long time coming.

“I guess we will pick up the newspaper on Saturday morning and start looking for jobs,” said the driver on the penultimate day of the company’s operations.

Blue Nissan claimed that he used to work in the junket industry, where he earned commission from high-rollers engaging in rogue side-betting at the casinos.

For this reason, he said he was unconcerned about being stopped by the police as  a driver; shrugging when asked about it and implying that it was not a big deal.

The young driver was stopped three times by the police and each time he had to change his car because the authorities took note of his license plate number. He was fined in each case and confirmed to the Times that Uber settled the fines on his behalf.

According to several reports, although the police crackdown in the territory likely led to Uber’s latest decision to withdraw from Macau, it had little impact in deterring the drivers themselves. One reason it was considered ineffective was because of the company’s policy to cover driver fines.

Several customers of the service told the Times last week that their drivers were unafraid to pick up and drop off passengers in view of law enforcement officers. One user reported to the Times that after she pointed out a police officer stationed near her arranged drop-off point, the driver told her that the officer “was not that sort of police.”

Meanwhile, Red Mercedes expressed his dissatisfaction that local authorities did not do more to accommodate ride-sharing services. He said that it was “pathetic” that Macau could not – or would not – regulate such services, especially given Beijing’s decision in July last year to greenlight Uber rival, Didi Chuxing.

He said that his impression is that mainland China is usually “more conservative and controlling [of industry],” and if any country would refuse to give in to ride-sharing apps, it would be China.

“This sort of [regulation] can happen in China, but it can’t happen here?” the young driver exclaimed.

Asked about the potential for Didi Chuxing to step in now that Uber has given way, Blue Nissan said that it was unlikely as Macau authorities want to protect the local taxi industry. “It is a completely different case than that of China,” he said.

Even so, locals will miss Uber, the 23-year-old predicted.

“People [in Macau] might be a little upset [by Uber’s closure] because there are no [comparable] alternative means of transportation,” he said. “The taxi service is not good and the buses are overcrowded. So, people will probably miss Uber.”