Daily Times

The ride-sharing business is being taken for a ride. The yellow/black cab business had become almost as obsolete as black and white movies. From the fast lane came the likes of Uber to outpace and outsmart the century-old industry of rent a car and hail a taxi. No calls to a number required that respond whimsically. No standing on the streetneeded to hitch a cab. No sitting in a car required with human/food/sweat odours making the journey an ordeal for you. No overcharging in the bill. No taking on the wrong routes, and most of all no insolent and rude drivers who treat you as if they have done a big favour to you. That was why the ride-sharing business took off and literally drove the traditional taxi ride business off the road. The World over, the rise of Uber became a phenomenon that created innovation disruption and paved the way for new ways of connecting, travelling, paying, staying and experiencing service.

The knowledge era economy has made the impossible possible. Technology has become the buzzword to make fantasy a reality. What started as a friend’s hang out in the form of Facebook became an information highway where virtual reality became physical reality. From Facebook, we transcended to Twitter, YouTube, Instagram and Snapchat and much more. They have now not just become a source of social networking but business networking and in fact, political networking. Thus the two operators in Karachi and Lahore, i.e. Uber and Careem (Dubai based company),utilized this opportunity and sailed past the ride-hailing market by introducing a ride-sharing model where existing car owners whose cars are not being utilized for personal purposes are willing to make extra money by offering them for ride to people in the vicinity.

Pakistan is a ripe market for this service due to a terrible taxi/cab industry and an exorbitant rent a car industry. There are approximately 40 million smartphones in Pakistan that are required for installing and operating the application of ride sharing. Women are a big part of the segment as they have huge concerns about the safety of standing on stops or sitting in dubious cars with unsavoury drivers. The fact that you can trace where the car is on the route adds to the comfort level of the family. The problem these operators were facing was not of customers but of cars and drivers to fill in the demandtill the Punjab government woke up one day and decided to clamp on their services. The notification issued by the Punjab government stated that the two companies had been offering transport services “without registering the private cars with any regulatory body.” The announcement also stated that the utilisation of private vehicles by Uber and Careem for commercial purposes is a violation of the city’s local laws. The provincial government also said that the failure of Uber and Careem to obtain required fitness certificates and route permits for their fleets had resulted in “great loss to the government.”

This is a bit perplexing considering that Careem has been operating since 2015 and Uber 2016 in Pakistan. The same police who are now apprehending these vehicles were participating in their events including Capital City Police Officer (CCPO) Lahore Captain Amin Wains, DIG Operations Haider Ashraf, Chief Traffic Officer Lahore Tayyab Cheema and Chairman Punjab Information Technology Board (PITB) Umar Saif. Uber in 2016 had also signed an agreement with the Bank of Punjab, a state-owned concern, to “work together for over 50,000 green cab and yellow cab customers, to bring them on to the Uber platform.” In a macro environment where foreign direct investment is at the lowest in decades and in a job-starved market such ventures should be a big relief and whatever regulation needs to take place should be done at the earliest. Some analysts fear that with the elections approaching the government does not want its green and yellow cab schemes and its red metro and orange trains to be overshadowed by these fast spreading modes of transport.

Sometimes it is not abiding by the government, and sometimes it is by abiding by the government that can create bumpy rides for organisations. Uber had become an organisation which had the potential of competing with Facebook as a revolutionary leader in the ride-hailing business. Uber was valued at almost $70 billion a few weeks earlier, and its young owner Travis Kalanick had become a role model for budding entrepreneurs. Enter Mr Trump in the White House, and as is customary, invites top leaders to be part of the business advisory council. Kalanick was also part of this exclusive club. When President Trump banned visas to seven Muslim countries, the traditional yellow cab riders went on strike in protest since most of the cab industry drivers are immigrants. As customers were stranded, Uber stepped in and picked up customers thinking it is a normal competitive practice. However, this made the taxi cab protest less effective. This set off a huge public reaction via social media. Thousands of petitions and messages went viral saying, “Uber is ruthless, and its owner is Trump’s advisor and so delete its application from the phone.” The reaction was so sudden and in such a big scale that the CEO resigned from the Advisory Council of Trump and started issuing statements against Trump’s immigration ban. How far that will make up for its repute lost and recover its market value is anybody’s guess.

Change is the only constant in life and never will this be truer than in the technological revolution that we are witnessing. Those who anticipate and adapt will survive, and those who avoid and suppress will miss the boat. Governments all over the world need to facilitate and regulate the changes through proper laws and timely enforcement. By banning the ride-sharingindustry, the government will deprive people of an excellent service and also encourage more law evasion and corruption. The country has been a victim of the knee-jerk banning management style. When dengue went out of control schools were closed; when there was a stampede in a concert, they were banned; when kite flying became dangerous, basantwas banned. The art of government is not to open and shut activities rather than to create an enabling environment that facilitates public service and eliminates public disservice.

The writer is a columnist and analyst and can be reached at andleeb.abbas1@gmail.com