UBER and the COVID crisis: business model, state regulation and social impact

During the past few years UBER and the ride hailing services have gained increasing terrain, significantly re-shaping mobility patterns and urban transport landscapes, all around the world. They have been extensively questioned as a business model – seen through the exploitative mechanisms of the platform economy yet not fully financially profitable; they have been marked by several attempts to define legal boundaries, sometimes involving state regulatory interventions (see disputes around the drivers’ employment status and attempts to regulate the distribution of licences, like in the US); they have been investigated as an employment model, pointing at both opportunities and risks generated and at the harsh working conditions in the sector. This seminar discusses how the COVID crisis has affected UBER as a company and the car hailing sector, focusing on the sustainability and future perspective of UBER as a business model, on examples of possible regulation and at the social impact of the crisis, with particular emphasis on the drivers.

The session will build on presentations by Dr Hannah Johnston (PhD Queen’s University Ontario, CA and former ILO) and Dr Jamie Woodcock (Senior Lecturer at the Open University, UK).