Uber comes to Sri Lanka

Yes, the Uber facility is now available in Sri Lanka, at least for a start in Colombo. Google had a short account of it being launched on December 9 with a picture of Kumar Sangakkara posing with a Uber owner-driver and his car.

A similar photograph was published in another newspaper on Thursday, this time with Mahela Jayawardena. Endorsement of the facility is propitious. This cat is sure it will catch on. Bring a mod fad to SL and it will definitely net clients. And this fad is full of charms to our rich women who want to go places but sometimes find husbands uncooperative.

They’d prefer a Uber to the taxis that were and are available, since Uber employs a more technology- rich call system. Menika can almost hear a heavily dolled up woman announce when she descends to meet her friends at an up-market restaurant: “Oh, I came in a Uber car. My-ee, lovely and so convenient. Remember how long we had to wait for a Kangaroo and other fellows, especially during rush hour and rainy times. And the driver of this car was posh, aney! Loverly man!”

Menika, old fashioned conservative cat that she is, will hardly ever use a Uber. She’ll stick with her faithful three-wheeler drivers – three of them whom she summons – all so obliging and even accommodating her marketing.

Welawa ganna, they say generously allowing her to complete more than one errand on a single trip. When she wants to descend with hair in place and not windblown nor face dust laden, she hires a minicab.

The only trouble with these taxis is that the drivers invariably don’t know Colombo roads. Menika is clueless, so how to guide a chap who says he does not know how to get to her designated destination. This is really annoying. The taxi companies should not allow rapid turnover of their drivers, and also when recruiting raw-to-Colombo men, (at cheaper salaries, this feline presumes) give them training in direction finding and at least arm them with a big city map.

What is Uber?

Uber is a global ride sharing company with an on-demand technology platform and app that connects commuters who need a ride and a licensed driver. Based in San Francisco and launched by two young entrepreneurs –Travis Kalanick and Garret Camp - in 2009, the ‘taxi’ system has caught on very rapidly.

We are the second nation in South Asia to join Uber, India being the first. A blurb of theirs reads thus: “Uber Technologies Inc is an American international transport network company.

Our experience globally gives us the confidence that ride-sharing and technological innovative transportation can make cities safe, easier to get around, less congested and more livable”.

Sri Lanka Uber’s pronouncement: “With over one million credit cards, 11 million debit cards, over 20 percent of the population on smart phones, Sri Lanka is poised for Uber.”

In Sri Lanka, the service is ‘Secret Ubers’ as mentioned in a newspaper. What’s so secret about it?

Uber Inc has collaborated since February 2015 with Carnegie Melon, Pittsburgh, setting up an Advanced Technology Centre to research on the development of self-driving vehicles. This cautious cat is glad she’ll be in another birth when such vehicles are on the streets. Imagine being knocked down by an unmanned car! Carnegie Melon caught Menika’s eye as she has a close relative in that university doing excellently well.

Court cases

It has not been plain sailing for Uber. There have been court cases brought against it by taxi companies in a number of countries. It was banned in Berlin. Menika wonders how the local taxi companies will react to this different concept of paid transportation. Uber is almost like a technological, paid-for version of thumbing a lift, with a company contact sending the vehicle.

On December 31, last year, Uber driver Sayed Muzaffer ran over a child of six years in San Francisco. The company was sued. In Delhi, on January 29, a 25-year-old woman took a Uber ride and then claimed the driver Shiv Kumar Yadav raped her. I remember reading about this and being shocked. She filed a lawsuit against the company for negligence in a US court. The surprise is further compounded because the plaintiff filed for voluntary dismissal of the case on September 1 and it was granted the very next day.

This feline may not ride a Uber gentleman-driven car but she certainly welcomes change, the appearance of innovations, particularly conveniences. The Uber cars are most often owner-driven, with the owner wanting to make some money in his or her spare time or probably thinking it’s a good way of meeting people. Remember some in developed countries are lonely, more by circumstance than choice. We are sure to have Uber women drivers soon and that would be such a mercy for women in our society who are extra conservative.

And then this picture of inundated Colombo just after one heavy shower came to mind. Uberites, (meaning owner-drivers), being local will be used to it, else the same problem with no available taxis when it rains heavy, may prevail with the new system too.

We are developing the tourism industry, since that is one good source of income to the country which is so very cash-strapped with a huge deficit yawning in front of it.

Uber may be a very timely and useful service when foreigners are expected in large numbers during the tourist season that will soon be upon us.

They would be familiar with Uber and would like to hire a gentleman or a woman-driven vehicle, the driver fluent, in at least, English and hopefully well read on our history and culture and all that.

So welcome Uber to this paradise island! You will see that this cat unlike many in the Shadow Opposition – a very apt term coined by Prime Minster Ranil W – is not against anything new, any fresh undertaking under the present regime and one that surely had no commissions going to someone’s large pocket. Hopefully!

- Menika