Uber启动“180天变革”，修补与司机关系

Uber的司机产品总监亚伦·施德科罗特日前接受了我们的采访。当时达拉·科斯罗萨西刚刚被任命为Uber的新任CEO，我们围绕Uber打算如何弥补几个月来一连串的公关丑闻造成的损失进行了坦率的交流。比如前一阵子网上流传的Uber前任CEO特拉维斯·卡拉尼克痛斥一名司机的视频（虽然他后来道歉了），以及前一阵子在社交媒体上炒得甚火的乘客抵制Uber的风波。

为了重新讨好广大Uber司机，Uber公司轰轰烈烈地开展了所谓“180天变革”的活动，期望能给Uber司机的驾驶体验带来“有意义的改变和提升”。最值得注意的改变莫过于Uber放弃了好几年来的坚持，终于在今年七月添加了APP内打赏功能。此外Uber还缩短了免费取消订单的时限，为司机提供了工伤保险，并且提高了司机在Uberpool拼车服务中的提成。

在Uber任职之前，施德科罗特还创办过一个约会应用，并且全身心地“冥想”了两年，还在一所委托办学学校教过书。现在他的时间都用在Uber司机们关于收入、压力、保障和沟通等各种投诉上了。

下文是此次采访的亮点。为简明起见，有删节。

《财富》：跟我们讲讲你个人的职业道路吧，你是怎么来到Uber的？

施德科罗特：我一开始从事的是教育行业，也就是在波士顿地区的一所委托办学学校当高中老师。后来我全身心地进行了整整两年的冥想。然后我转行进入了科技界，创办了一个叫做HowAboutWe的约会应用，运行了五年后，我把它卖给了IAC公司。然后我认真思考了下一步应该做什么。是创办另一家公司，还是加盟一家公司呢？后来我决定了加入Uber。

为什么？

施德科罗特：如果把世界上所有改变了我的日常生活的公司列一张单子，Uber几乎是这张单子上最靠前的一家了。

在经历了十个月的喧嚣后，Uber已经开始整理这些乱象了。今年六月，你发起了“180天变革”活动。你们做的第一件事是什么？

施德科罗特：在岁末年初时，我们已经跟几千名司机通过各种形式交流过了——比如面谈、座谈、调查等等，好进一步了解司机对我们的意见。从调查中发现，坦率地说，我们做得并不好，对变革的需求是深刻的。基于这些调查，我们发起了“180天变革”活动。

你们获得了哪种类型的反馈？能举个例子吗？

施德科罗特：在和司机们交流的过程中，我们发现一些突出问题反复出现。比如司机们觉得我们倾听得不够，觉得公司给予他们的支持不够。司机们对他们收入的几个关键方面也不够满意。在我们的平台上，我们对有的方面给予了一定的灵活性，但是做得并不充分。

根据司机的反馈，你们采取了哪些行动？

施德科罗特：我们做的第一件事就是司机的收入问题。大家要求最多的就是打赏功能，但是我们一直拒绝推出这个功能。在“180天变革”计划中，我们首先做的就是推出了打赏功能。另外我们针对司机的收入问题也推出了一系列其他变革措施，我们认为，这些措施将解决司机们关心的很多基本的收入问题。

在Uber就职期间，你是否有某个产品计划的效果并不像你当初想象的那样？

施德科罗特：我们的UberPool曾一度是拼车服务的象征，它尽量利用了每辆车子的每一个空位以减轻交通拥堵现象，同时也减轻了市内通勤的费用，使得在市内出行变得愈发容易。

但如果你问司机们对UberPool的意见，他们的反应是极为负面的。当然这也是有原因的。在拼车服务上，我们一直对司机们投资得不够。虽然乘客喜欢拼车的低价和高效率，但这给司机们额外带来了很多工作和压力。至于如何解决这个问题并做出改进，我们已经有了一些有益的想法。

前几个月Uber一度处于没有CEO的状态。当科斯罗萨西被选为新任CEO后，员工们是什么反应？

施德科罗特：我之前就注意到，他是一个非常注重团队的人。他懂得竞争，懂得经营企业，也懂得如何思考未来。这种雄心，以及这种想做出伟大的东西的想法，令人感到很兴奋，也非常契合Uber的基因。我想对于他的加入，大家普遍是高兴的。对于他能将公司带往哪里，大家也抱有很强的期望。（财富中文网）

译者：贾政景

Aaron Schildkrout, Uber’s head of driver product, came to the office a few weeks ago for a Q&A. It was right after Dara Khosrowshahi had been appointed CEO, and we had a pretty frank conversation about a company trying to undo months of damage from PR missteps including a video of its former chief, Travis Kalanick, berating a driver (he later apologized) and a passenger boycott promoted on social media.

In an effort to woo drivers, Uber launched an initiative called, 180 Days of Change — a campaign that aims to make “meaningful changes and improvements” to the driving experience. The most notable change came when Uber released its in-app tipping option in July after resisting it for a number of years. Other changes include a shorter cancellation window, driver injury protection insurance, and increasing driver’s takehome pay for UberPool trips.

Previously, Schildkrout founded a dating app, meditated “full time” for two years, and taught at a charter school. Now he spends his time addressing driver complaints around earnings, stress, support, and communications.

Below are the highlights of our conversation. Note that answers have been edited for clarity and length.

FORTUNE: Tell us a little bit about your career path. How did you end up at Uber?

SCHILDKROUT: I spent the first part of my career in education, mostly as a high school teacher at a charter school in the Boston area. I spent two years meditating full-time totally off the grid. And then I shifted careers into tech and started a [dating app company] called HowAboutWe. I ran that for about 5 years before selling it to IAC. I thought deeply about what I wanted to do next — should I start another company? Should I join a company? I decided to join Uber.

Why?

SCHILDKROUT: It really felt like of all the companies in the world that had transformed my daily life, Uber was very close to the top of the list.

Uber is left picking up the pieces after a tumultuous 10 months. In June, you launched 180 Days of Change. What was the genesis of this campaign?

SCHILDKROUT: Around the turn of the year, we talked to thousands of drivers in various forms — one on one, in groups, through surveys — to get a deeper understanding of how we were doing. What we found was, frankly, we weren’t doing that well. There was a deep need for change. Based on that research, we kicked off 180 Days of Change.

Can you give me an example of the type of feedback you received?

SCHILDKROUT: When we talked to drivers, we found again and again some very clear themes. Drivers didn’t feel like we were listening enough. Drivers didn’t feel like the support was there. Drivers weren’t satisfied with a number of key aspects to their earnings. There were parts of our platform where we offered flexibility, but we weren’t fully delivering on that promise.

Walk me through the things that you have implemented thanks to driver feedback.

SCHILDKROUT: The first thing we did was work on earnings. The No. 1 most requested feature that has ever existed at Uber was tipping. And we had long-resisted launching it. In our first chapter of 180 Days of Change, we launched tipping. But we also launched a series of other changes to the earnings experience that we felt like would address a lot of the fundamental questions drivers had about earnings.

In your time at Uber, what is one product initiative that you worked on that didn’t pan out as planned?

SCHILDKROUT: UberPool has always been in some ways an emblem of what ridesharing is all about. Using every single available seat in every car in order to reduce congestion, reduce the prices of moving around a city, really make transportation in a city as smooth as possible.

But when you ask drivers about UberPool, you get a very consistent extremely negative response, and there are reasons for that. We really hadn’t invested in the driver side of the Pool experience. Passengers love the low price, they love the efficiency, but for drivers, it’s actually a lot of work and often quite stressful. So we’ve got some interesting ideas of how we can fix that and improve in that area.

Uber operated without a CEO for several months. What was the staff’s reaction when it was announced that Khosrowshahi was selected for the role?

SCHILDKROUT: Some things I’ve noticed early on is that this is a person who seems to be truly about team. This is a person who knows how to compete, how to run a business, and how to think about the future. That ambition and that sense of wanting to build something great is exciting and very much in line with Uber’s DNA. I think after he joined there was pretty universal excitement and a strong hope of where we’re headed as a company.