The municipality of Amsterdam and Uber have made joint agreements about road safety, independent research, sharing data and sustainability. The agreements are laid down in a so-called Social Charter.
This is the outcome of the Uber Taskforce, which was created at the beginning of this year after a series of accidents in the Amsterdam region involving drivers who were driving for Uber at the time.
Alderman Sharon Dijksma (Traffic & Transport):
“With the rise of delivery services such as Uber, the taxi market has changed rapidly in recent years and concerns have arisen about an uneven playing field in the Amsterdam taxi market. The municipality strives for a fair playing field and sees the agreements that have now been made with Uber as an important step on the way there, together with all applicable national and local regulations and the new municipal taxi policy that is under development. I would like to thank the chairman of the task force Rob van Holten and all other participants for all their work, the constructive attitude in the discussions and the result that this has yielded. ”
Road safety
The parties have agreed, among other things, that Uber will join the Road Safety Coalition before the end of the year. All members of this partnership adhere to common agreements about the safe use of smartphones in traffic and are working together on further measures to make traffic safer. It has also been agreed that Uber will take road safety into account when developing financial incentives to reward loyal drivers.
To avoid driver account fraud, Uber plans to deploy a facial verification system it already has in Europe. The company will periodically inform the municipality about the status of the introduction of this technology in the Netherlands. In terms of sustainability, it has been agreed that Uber will have at least 31 emission-free vehicles on the road via its app by December 2020, 750.
Independent investigation
In addition, it has been agreed that Uber, together with an academic institution yet to be determined, will conduct an independent investigation before the end of this year into aspects such as the satisfaction, earnings, flexibility and working hours of drivers using the Uber app. The recent Oxford University study of drivers in London serves as an example. The design and results of this study are discussed by Uber with the municipality and made public.
It has been agreed that Uber will share various aggregated data every quarter from the fourth quarter of 2019, in order to provide the municipality with more insight. This includes the number of drivers and passengers active in Amsterdam via the app and the average journey distances of the journeys via the app. In addition, Uber will share data about where most people get on and are dropped off. The company will also report to the municipality every quarter on the progress of the implementation of the agreements in the charter.
Improve road safety
The Taskforce led by Rob van Holten has been working on the social charter since last February. During that period, constructive and intensive consultation took place with representatives of the municipality of Amsterdam, Uber and the Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management to reach joint agreements. Experts were consulted, including police, enforcement lawyers, privacy lawyers, the marketplace expert of Uber and the chief technology officer of the municipality of Amsterdam.
Thijs Emondts (General Manager Uber Benelux):
“Uber wants to be a good partner for Amsterdam. That is why we are taking concrete steps to jointly improve road safety, for example by sharing data and joining the road safety coalition. We will start immediately with the implementation and look forward to a constructive continuation of the cooperation ”.
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