Uber may have lost its London taxi license with no small amount of drama, but it’s already willing to make concessions. The ridesharing outfit’s city manager Tom Elvidge tells the Sunday Times that he would “like to know what [Uber] can do” to “get this right.” He’s willing to make tradeoffs to get the business back, in other words. That’s a sharp contrast to Elvidge’s tone on Friday when he denounced the move and was promising an immediate legal response. And importantly, it sounds like officials might be willing to give Uber a break.
Times insiders claim that Transportation for London is encouraged by the warmer stance and says that it’s open to talks. It’s not certain how close Uber and TfL are to actually sit down and talking, but this is clearly the first step. There’s no secret as to what changes Uber is likely to make, at least. In Denmark, Uber had talked about guaranteed benefits like paid sick time — it may promise better conditions for drivers.
The conciliatory attitude isn’t completely unheard of, but it does suggest that Uber’s change of leadership might be having an effect on the company’s once antagonistic approach. After all, new CEO Dara Khosrowshahi suggested that Uber was paying the price for its historical behavior — it’s hard to imagine the previous management saying it earned any kind of punishment. While Uber doesn’t have that much of a choice if it wants to return to such an important market (TfL has the upper hand here), it’s notable that Uber is changing its tone more quickly than it has in the past.
