Uber: disrupting the transport market, but for good or ill?

Uber has transformed urban mobility for millions of people but some of its business practices have come in for fierce criticism and its future in London is in doubt. Geoff Dudley spoke to James Farrar, one of the drivers who brought a successful employment tribunal case against the company, about Uber’s business model

Geoff Dudley

08 December 2017

James Farrar (left) with co-claimant Yaseen Aslam

Such has been the rapid and pervasive growth of the ride-hailing app Uber that the word ‘Uberisation’ has entered the language as a shorthand expression for a distinctive mix of operational and working practices. Although the Uber smartphone app forms the technological basis for the company’s business, it is its ambitious and relentless worldwide growth, driven by its co-founder and former chief executive Travis Kalanick, which is the trademark feature of this Silicon Valley...