the knowledge
I
A Dystopian Utopia
am sure I am not alone in allowing What areas are the most lucrative and how a wry smile to cross my face when I I can turn a short job into a long one. This heard this supremely ironic piece of news. industry was built on those aspirations. it Britain’s largest ride-hailing company became successful on those aspirations and spent its time at the Tory Party Conference it ain’t going to change anytime soon! last week, telling anyone who would listen how SILICON VALLEY IS NOT virtuous they were, paying £25 per hour to THE FONT OF ALL WISDOM drivers and offering pensions and other benefits as their standard fayre. The big mistake people always make when Dr Michael Galvin they come into this industry is to assume Meanwhile said company’s drivers were planning a strike on October 7. Uber has also after two days that they know it all. I don’t https://mobility taken to repeatedly urging others through the know how many billions venture capital serviceslimited broadsheet press to follow their model of worker companies have collectively poured down .com status and union recognition. Frankly I don’t the drain (the last estimate I saw was give two figs what they do, say or urge people to do but £50bn), clapped and applauded by well paid consultants I do wish to look at why worker status and benefits are who marvelled at these “new business models”. never going to fly in this industry. Well, guess what? They were never “business models”. They were nonsensical. Meanwhile the bright young SQUARE PEGS AND ROUND HOLES things with their appreciative consultants lost licences, A leader of one of the biggest trade associations once said lost fortunes, put the public at risk and on the way to to me: “This trade is full of square pegs.” It was not meant court scoffed at people running responsible businesses as an insult, just an accurate description of why many that actually made money. Now they want to lecture the people end up in this industry. The more I have thought rest of us about how we should manage drivers. It seems about this statement over the years, the more I agree. to me that some of these people need to change their If people in the industry wanted jobs they would have medication. gone and got one. The decision is not about intelligence, The luck of the draw, swings and roundabouts and most it is about aptitude, fulfilment, personal choice and important of all being able to suit yourself is why people aspiration. Being at a particular place at a particular time came into this industry, why it ran so well and why it will is not for everyone. continue to run when this pantomime has moved on to Knowing what you will earn each month has its benefits food deliveries, groceries and whatever comes next. but without fear where is the fun? Working hard when Balancing the needs of customers who want ad hoc you want/need to and relaxing, following a hobby or just services with drivers who want to provide services on slobbing out when you don’t appeals to many. Then there an ad hoc basis is the secret of this industry. Trying are those that fit caring, education, religion, studying and to straight-jacket free spirits into becoming pseudo a million and one other things around work. Fitting life employees may look good on white boards in swanky around work isn’t everyone’s desired state. No one (a few offices; it might make shareholders feel like their PAYE drivers aside) I would suggest joined this industry management are in charge; but it won’t fly. expecting to be treated like an employee and if they did, This industry is about balancing, operational stretch, they were mistaken. probability and seeing what happens. It’s a complex world that doesn’t want to be organised and constrained. Apart BUT IS IT RIGHT? from a tiny minority, customers don’t provide jobs every The tub-thumpers, rabble-rousers and idealists may day on a regular basis and drivers don’t provide their believe that everyone should be treated ‘fairly’, but that is services on that basis either. where the wheels come off. Many, perhaps most, drivers What management theory describes how two chaotic expect fairness; a straight box/plot, decent rates, being inputs (customers and drivers) operating in a city that paid on time and being safe on the is increasingly congested streets. But they don’t expect that and difficult to get around each of the drivers in their firm transforms into a super service gets the same. I don’t know. But it does, and it No, this is a grittier profession has done so for years and if left than that – I want more than the alone without government or rest not the same! I want to see anyone else’s interference myself as luckier, smarter and it will continue to do so. a whole lot more streetwise and reap the rewards. I want to work n www.mobilityservices out which hours are best for me. limited.com
“Balancing the needs of customers who want ad hoc services with drivers who want to provide services on an ad hoc basis is the secret of this industry...”
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OCTOBER 2021
