As a former Uber driver from the U.S. and a patron of the app seemingly since its existence, I have often wondered why Uber has had difficulty gaining traction in Belfast. Back home, the company seems to be taking the ‘ridesharing’ industry by storm just about everywhere. In the tech savvy and progressive Austin, Texas I left behind, I didn’t know a single person in my demographic that didn’t use either Lyft or Uber exclusively for taxiing around town. The same is true for most major American cities.

My demography has not changed much since moving to Northern Ireland, yet, I do not know a single person, including myself, that uses Uber in place of either fonaCAB or Value Cabs (though maybe as a last resort outside Lavery’s on a Saturday night). Why is this? Well, I have a few theories.

 

Practicalities

1. Pricing: I typically use public transportation to get to work. However, since I am atypically not a morning person, I occasionally resort to hailing a cab on the roughest of mornings. Check out this table below, using my, on average 6 minute, 1.6 mile commute to work as a point of reference:

Based on the table above, in non-peak times, Uber certainly takes the cake, in terms of pricing. I will attest that my taxi rides to work will range from £5.20 – £5.90. However, I took Uber to work last week for the first time and the journey cost me £4.95. It seems the ‘rule of thumb’ here is that if you are in non-peak hours then use Uber. Any other time (or if you know ‘a guy’), stick to what you know.

2. Reputation: I remember when I moved here in the fall of 2016, shortly after Uber came to Belfast, I took the same journey on two successive days – one with Uber and one with a local cab company. The cab company was significantly cheaper, to my surprise. From then on, I have not looked back and have used cabs ever since (However, I do revert back to Uber the majority of the time while travelling other places).

Additionally, at the beginning, Uber lacked sufficient drivers to accommodate peak times (rather understandably so, since it was only starting up), which was an extreme inconvenience to many attempting to use the app. Though, obviously not a perfect science, it seems Uber’s non-peak hours are now cheaper than their cabbie competitors. Certainly its rough beginnings, surge pricing and poor global publicity have led to some negative perceptions – perceptions that may warrant some re-evaluation, at least in terms of value for money and convenience.

3. Familiarity: There’s something to be said for ‘knowing what you’re getting’ and supporting ‘the locals’. I don’t feel remised to say that Belfast is, rather romantically, filled with wondrous creatures of habit. This study did not evaluate local cab companies operating in the city’s many different estates or the famous Black Taxis, which are the true definition of ‘ridesharing’. These are major factors in Uber’s struggle for dominance in the city.

 

Accessibility to Drivers

Uber’s struggles are not specific to Belfast (struggle is a funny word to use for a multi-billion-dollar international company, but anyways). They are a European-wide phenomenon. The European Court of Justice ruled in 2017 that Uber is a transport services company and must function as a taxi operator, resulting in stricter licencing and regulation within the European Union (cough, cough… ‘Brexit’). This degree of regulation simply does not exist in the US.

When I signed up to drive for Uber in Austin, it was a two week process (according to NIdirect’s website, it takes 12 weeks to acquire a taxi licence alone). I signed up through the app, supplied my licence, registration, insurance, vehicle information and took several pictures of my car. They ran a very basic background check, which, I must say, I passed with flying colours. I was worried about several speeding tickets I had unjustly accrued in California prior to my move to Texas. I am assuming that since I had applied with my new Texas licence, these violations were null and void. They certainly didn’t ruin my chances of approval (as I said, I didn’t deserve them anyways). I never met anyone. I never took a basic driving test. Nobody inspected my vehicle. I didn’t pay a thing! I never had a single interaction with anyone from Uber in my time spent driving for them. I also drove with Lyft (I have no loyalty). They at least had the decency to put me through a five minute driving test with a ‘trainer’.

And that’s just it. Uber’s appeal in the U.S. is that relatively anyone can become a partner, quickly, while meeting minimal criteria. There is no such thing as a ‘professional Uber driver’ in the States. What then is the incentive for the average person in Belfast to endure the taxi licencing process just to be part of the ‘gig economy’? Why should a licenced taxi driver, happy in their work, switch to Uber?

It’s clear that, on one hand, many European nations’ value for just workplace rights and rigorous licencing practises (not to mention well-seasoned protesting skills) may come across as unnecessarily bureaucratic to some. On the other hand, they have helped preserve the taxi industry much more successfully than their ‘New World’ counterparts across the Atlantic. I believe this bureaucracy, once probably the bane of the taxi person’s existence in this part of the world, has probably aided in keeping this industry afloat.

Having spoken to several taxi drivers around town, two things seem to be the case: 1) Uber, while part of the general landscape of taxiing in Belfast, has not threatened the two major companies as of yet and 2) there is an abundant number of drivers who drive for both a cab company and for Uber. This will be evaluated more in the next section, but it would be interesting to see the amount of first time drivers who have gone through the full process of signing up and are driving solely for Uber.

 

Belfast Ingenuity: Keeping up with the Jones’

It was true in Belfast’s industrial past and the city’s ingenuity is still present today. This may be the shortest section, but probably the most important. Both Value Cabs and fonaCAB have created apps that rival, if not surpass, Uber in many ways. Both companies’ drivers have the same, flexible schedules that Uber offers and can drive as little or as much as they like throughout the week. The process of becoming an Uber driver is little different than driving a cab, so, from the employee/contractors perspective, Uber does not have as much to offer drivers here in Northern Ireland as it might for U.S. college students seeking some extra cash. The flexible working hours and driver bonus/incentive programmes that Uber and Lyft offer in the States, combined with the ease of employment, simply can’t be matched by the average American cab company, but are rivalled here.

I can’t speak to whether Uber’s market presence, and the major cab companies’ adjustment to them, have improved the working conditions or wages of taxi drivers around Belfast, but the companies’ ability to adapt have certainly preserved the taxi industry, for the time being.

 

The ‘S’ Word

Well, you probably knew it had to come to this. You would be hard-pressed to find an article concerned with Belfast’s geography without broaching the city’s divided past.

But, it is a factor…

Sectarianism, or maybe a better word, ‘estate-ism’, is certainly at play in Uber’s demise. While Belfast’s giants, Value Cabs, fonaCAB and now Uber, dominate the City Centre, it is Belfast’s outlying estates where Uber will have the most difficulty penetrating. This is probably the most interesting factor for me and the dullest for natives, but it is simply a feature of this city that is not present in 99% of cities in the developed world.

Many estates have their own, local cab companies where people are more than familiar with each other. They know where they’re coming from – they feel safe. They know if they ring that company, they will get someone they know, or someone who knows someone they know, and they are assured they will not succumb to prejudice, intimidation or violence. I don’t know how you replace that and I don’t know that you need to.

Imagine having to draw up a marketing plan for that – NO THANK YOU!

This is something none of the major companies can offer. And the thing is, it isn’t just passengers that are concerned with this. Having been an Uber driver, I have considered taking it up again as a means of additional income (funny enough, until I read through the taxi licencing process – at the end of the day, you are a product of your environment!) and I have asked many friends and acquaintances whether they would like to do the same. More often than not, I get an answer along these lines of, “I would be happy to do the job, but if I were to drive someone home to an estate I am unfamiliar with, I would fear that I would be identified, and that’s something I just can’t risk.” I am not sure how you solve that problem.

Clearly, no matter what format or company is used, there are drivers and passengers taking these risks nearly 21 years since the Good Friday Agreement. In what manner one gets from A to B is left to the individual. But, it is truly a rarity that a political reality can have an impact on something as simple as becoming an Uber driver or rider.

 

The Future

If Uber is finding itself in relative market equilibrium in places like Vienna and Bordeaux, I predict the same will reign true in Belfast for the immediate future. Perhaps we will have a Walmart-type scenario, where Uber will simply out-price everyone. But, like the many intricacies of Belfast, familiarity matters and, for better or worse, I don’t see this changing any time soon.