The Role of Driver in Digital Economy Era
The Role of Driver in Digital Economy Era
In my very first blog, I will be examining how the concepts of ‘The Internet of Things (IoT)’ and ‘Collaborative Economy’ in digital economy have impacted and changed job roles. I will also examine how these roles will change in the future, using the example of drivers and the well-known ride hailing company, Uber.
To begin with a brief introduction, Uber is an American multinational ride-hailing firm providing services that include ride service hailing, peer-to-peer ridesharing, food delivery (Uber Eats), and micro-mobility system with electric bikes and scooter, and its main platform is mobile apps (Uber: Cities, 2020). Uber can be seen as a typical ‘IoT’, as Viswanathan’s (2011) argument may inspire us, that the purpose of ‘IoT’ is to enrich life by creating more intelligent connections between devices and people. Through its digital mobile platform (sensor device), Uber has managed to connect passengers with drivers by broadcasting their locations to a ‘back end’ system operated by Uber in its cloud. The cloud service then uses data analysis to determine which combinations of driver/car and passenger are most relevant to each other for the service request (Smart Industry, 2016). Such disruptive change has brought about a positive change for drivers, as the traditional taxi drivers would spend a significant proportion of each hour waiting their next passenger. However, Uber has changed the game through an algorithm offering its drivers much less time waiting each hour and more flexibility on their life-work balance. Moreover, it is very interesting to see that because of such innovative and disruptive change, the role of a driver is no longer merely someone who gives rides for the passengers, meanwhile, they can also be a deliveryman. Uber Eats has allowed to merge the two identities within the industry of taxi and logistics, if we think broadly.
Uber is also a representation of the collaborative economy. Martijin argues that the collaborative economy encompasses things such as ‘sharing economy’ (the sharing of things), gig economy (the sharing of labour), and crowdfunding (the sharing of money) (Razavi, 2018). Unlike the traditional taxi business model, where the taxi companies have the ownership of enormous amounts of cars as the assets, which were once considered essential and required large amount investment within the industry, Uber has allowed drivers all over the world to earn money by giving passengers rides in their own cars rather than the taxis allocated and owned by the taxi companies. Through sharing individual cars, the ‘driver’ has no longer been seen as a job role for a specific group, but that everyone can have the identify of being a driver. When each one who owns a car can be a driver, their cars as the assets can be utilized not only for themselves, but also for others, and thereby reducing the needs for people to buy their own, which will be greatly beneficial to the environment. Under such implication, through changing the role of the driver, the digital economy will bring positive influences on the highly salient topics such as climate change, environmental protection, and sustainability development.
Now that we’ve discussed the huge changes and benefits that Uber as one of the representations of digital economy has brought to both the role of driver and to the world, what will Uber be in the future, and how is the role of driver likely to be changed as a result? IoTHome has analysed that Uber will be an embracive ‘IoT’ that contains Cloud Storage, Artificial Intelligence, Digital Money, Audiovisual function and Internet of Vehicles (IoV) (IoTHome, 2016). Under such assumptions, the functions of the role of driver will be tremendously decreased, because technologies can do almost everything instead. I, once, had a discussion with a driver while I was taking the taxi here in Exeter, the U.K., of what he considered if in the future technologies would cope with everything and people would all take ‘the sharing cars’? He said, ‘I don’t think people will not take taxi any more in the future, because there’s one thing that technology cannot do but we can, which is creating an enjoyable conversation with the passenger, like what we are having right now.’ This taxi driver’s mind inspired me that the role of driver as a job in the future would need to be more caring and connecting with their passengers, as these attributes involve human and emotional input, which technology cannot offer. Ernest Wilson also suggested that companies are seeking employees that excel in soft skills in the digital economy era. He listed 5 skills according to his research as can be viewed from the below video. (HBS Online, 2017)
By the above arguments, we may conclude that Uber as a representation of ‘IoT’ and ‘Collaborative Economy’ has disruptively changed the traditional role of driver whilst also bringing about remarkable benefits to the drivers, the world economy, and the environment. However, resulting from the continuous evolvement and development of technology, drivers may need to have more emotional and humanistic input, as well as soft skills, to adapt to the professional needs in the future of digital economy era.
References List:
Business Insider. (2019) ‘How to check your Uber passenger rating, and improve it if it’s low’. Retrieved 11, 02, 2020 from https://www.businessinsider.com/how-to-check-uber-rating?r=US&IR=T
HBS Online. (2017) ‘The 5 Skills Employers Seek in Today’s Digital Economy’. Retrieved 11, 02, 2020 from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYsWo4nO4GE&feature=youtu.be
IoTHome. (2016) ‘Uber, a ubiquitous digital mobile IoT’. Retrieved 11, 02, 2020 from https://www.iothome.com/tech/platforms
Institute of Entrepreneurship Development. (2018) ‘Collaborative economy and its impact on social inclusion’. Retrieved 11, 02, 2011 from https://ied.eu/project-updates/collaborative-economy-and-its-impact
Lauren Razavi. (2018) ‘How digital platforms are creating an economy built on collaboration’. Retrieved 11, 02, 2020 from https://eureka.eu.com/innovation/sharing-economy
Smart Industry. (2016) ‘IoT Car: The Internet of Things is Already Here and its called Uber’. Retrieved 11, 02, 2020 from https://www.smart-industry.net/iot-car-the-internet-of-things-is-already-here-and-its-called-uber
Towards Data Science. (2019) ‘IoT in action’. Retrieved 11, 02, 2020, from Uber: Cities. Retrieved 11, 02, 2020 from https://www.uber.com/global/en/cities
Uber: Cities. Retrieved 11, 02, 2020 from https://www.uber.com/global/en/cities
Business & Digital Life 