AMMAN — The days of hailing a cab in the middle of the
street as seen in old movies are almost gone.
The banality of raising one's arm
to signal for a commute has been replaced by the click of a button on any one
of the many ride-share apps that are used around the world today.
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Ordering an
Uber around the teeming streets of the Kingdom is relatively easy, but if you
regularly face cancellations from drivers on your app, using apps like Uber
becomes an arduous setback.
Uber is one of the most recognized ride-sharing
applications globally, and according to BusinessWire, by the end of 2020, it amassed a
global net revenue of $11.1bn, carrying out more than 500 billion rides.
The
corporation has a strict cancellation policy for both riders and drivers, but
according to the experiences of several customers, the policy is tipped in
favor of the driver.
If a rider cancels a trip after they have been matched
with a driver, they are charged a cancellation fee for the inconvenience.
However, the same fee is not imposed on the driver if they decide to cancel.
On Uber's website, some cancellation behaviors by
drivers are considered to be in breach of the Services Agreement, including "refusing
to complete a trip for a rider based on their intended destination," and
"refusing to complete a trip for your rider for any reason that would be
in breach of relevant discrimination laws and the conditions set out in your
Private Hire Driver license."
Additionally, evasion of certain neighborhoods and peak
hours violates Uber's rules. Nevertheless, it continues to happen.
A common issue with Uber, according to complaints from
some users, has been the cancellation of rides by drivers.
This normally
happens when a driver picks up a trip on the application, gets close to the
pickup spot, and then suddenly, and without warning, cancels.
"When you wait 10 minutes for an Uber, then he
cancels, then it happens three more times, that's a half-hour you waited,"
said Ali Ali, a channel sales software manager from New York, in an interview
with Jordan News.
This daily obstacle has become part of Ali's hackneyed
morning routine.
The ex-pat has been living in Amman on and off for roughly six
years and depending on the day, he is forced to "wake up and leave earlier
for work just in case I have to deal with this in the morning," said Ali.
Ali presumes that the method of payment has something
to do with the constant cancellations and the drivers' unpredictability.
He
believes drivers prefer cash because it's easier and upfront compared to the complicated
nature of visa cards, particularly because only half of Jordan's households
hold bank accounts, according to numbers from the Department of Statistics from
a 2017/2018 survey.
The retrieval of payments by card could prove to be an
additional hassle for drivers without bank accounts, which Ali believes is the
reason why most drivers avoid the inconvenience.
"Sometimes I get three or five cancellations
before a driver finally picks me up," said Ali Ali.
Jade Lauren Beakhouse, another foreigner living in the
Kingdom, shares Ali’s sentiment. "They always say I wasn't wearing a face
mask, which has never been the case," said Beakhouse in an interview with Jordan
News.
She describes how drivers cancel moments before arriving without a
pretense of an apology.
"It's a manipulation from drivers," said
Jordanian business owner Abdallah M. Adwan in an interview with Jordan News.
Abdullah used Uber for a short period after he sold his car and was looking for
a new one.
"Once when I ordered an Uber, the driver showed up at the
pickup point but without waiting a single minute. He just left and I had to pay
a fee."
Uber holds a monopoly on ride-share applications in the
region.
In early 2020 , the ride-hail giant acquired
Careem, a
company like Uber that originated and predominantly operates in the MENA
region, for $3.1Bn. The acquisition has created a platform conglomerate of
super apps that can service anything from a ride to a courier to food delivery.
An employee at Layaali Amman hotel disclosed to
Jordan
News under condition of anonymity that they waited "20 minutes, and
when I entered the car, he told me ‘Credit card no.
I am not going. Go out of
the car.' Then he reported me that I was not wearing a mask.”
Jordan News attempted to look further into how
likely it would be to order a ride with a card and have it canceled.
At 6:38pm on the August 10, a car was ordered. The
method: Card. At some point between the acceptance of a trip and meeting the
rider at their intended pickup point, the driver receives details of the trip.
The arrival time is estimated at five minutes. At 6:44, the car shows. It is
490m from the pickup point, and by 6:45 the ride was canceled.
Shortly after, a
second driver picks up the run. By 6:48, when the car is a mere 80m away and
seen to be approaching, a message pops up reading, "Your driver canceled,
but you'll be connected with another one shortly."
Two cancellations later, a car accepts and sees out the
ride to its end for the intended destination.
A few minutes later, Uber
messages to say that the reason for the cancellations was solely due to the
rider not wearing a mask.
We received the same justification as Beakhouse did,
but the question lingers as to how the drivers could have known whether the
riders are wearing masks if they cancel before stopping.
With all these similar individual accounts of
cancellations, an attempt to reach out to Uber was made, which proved to be yet
another challenge to add to the list.
Any initial complaints to or about Uber
must be made through the application itself. The phone number listed online for
the Amman office has an automated message that reads, "Upon the customer's
request, all calls to the mobile number you dialed are currently barred."
An additional attempt to contact the London office was
made with the representative referring us to the app for complaints.
The
complaints were directed to the app. After explaining the nature of the issue,
a representative responded with a message reading, "Rest assured that we
take this matter seriously, and we'll follow up appropriately.
" A final
attempt for accountability was made with a call to the Ministry of Transport,
which subsequently had no affiliation with Uber or their regulations and
referred us to The Road Transport Regulatory Authority. The authority disclosed
to
Jordan News that they have been receiving complaints about Uber and
that they were looking into the issues.
While Uber and Careem are the more popular methods of
transportation around congested roads, the fault in the system and the loophole
for the drivers means lower quality for Uber users in Jordan and an almost
anticipated inconvenience.
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