LOW ACCEPTANCE RATES: FREENOW responds to taxi driver app suspension concerns

FREENOW has attempted to ease taxi driver concerns following fierce criticism from cabbies and trade unions around its announcement to enforce temporary suspensions on drivers with low job acceptance rates.

Since the announcement, the black cab ride-hailing app has responded positively to alleviate some of the drivers’ concerns by providing more detail on what is considered a low acceptance rate, issues with hotels cancelling on drivers and adapting ‘Priority’ based on driver feedback.

According to an email sent to drivers by FREENOW, the initiative sought to maintain high service standards by ensuring drivers consistently accept pickup requests. The email detailed that drivers with a persistently low acceptance rate would face temporary blocks from the service, with notifications provided through the app to warn and subsequently inform them of any suspension period.

This announcement comes on the heels of several changes introduced by FREENOW this year, including commission increases and alterations to the job allocation system through a 'Priority Drivers' scheme, stirring growing discontent among some of the driving community.

The GMB Union voiced its disapproval, labelling the action to block drivers for rejecting work as "unacceptable" and calling for a re-evaluation of the 'Worker' status for platform users. Additionally, James Farrar, a prominent figure in advocating for drivers' rights, criticised FREENOW's approach as “threatening”.

Drivers argue that the enforcement of job acceptance rates could hinder their ability to access customers digitally, particularly in light of existing issues like the inefficiencies of the FREENOW Taxi Butler systems used for hotel bookings. The system's flaws, including multiple cancellations without compensation and an inability to mark themselves as busy, lead to inefficiencies and potential financial losses for drivers.

Furthermore, the app’s job allocation system focus on proximity rather than estimated time of arrival has prompted drivers to decline requests that are not immediately profitable or logistically sensible, particularly from hotels known for high cancellation rates.

The introduction of 'Priority Levels', requiring drivers to complete a specific number of jobs weekly to access all available requests, has also been met with criticism. Drivers argue that this system unfairly penalises those taking necessary breaks for health reasons or holidays, reducing their job offers and impacting their income.

Mariusz Zabrocki, UK General Manager of FREENOW, told TaxiPoint: “Both the timing of our email, and the wording of it could have been better. We will make sure that in the coming weeks drivers receive more specific information regarding their personal situation if they are at risk of being penalised.

“Regarding the policy itself, it's not nearly as strict as some of the comments imply.

“First of all, 80% acceptance rate is a suggested best practice, but no black cab driver will be penalised for being slightly below that. We will penalise drivers only for extremely low numbers, (such as 10% or less) because they mean that customers are waiting longer and genuinely active drivers are losing out. Our priorities are to increase customer loyalty to black cabs and to bring as much work as possible to black cab drivers who perform well.

“The current issue is that there are drivers who leave the app on in the background for hours or days without actually checking it and it hurts our service levels and means that some customers may give up on ordering a black cab altogether. We allocate requests to nearest drivers first whenever we can, however, those drivers still don’t interact with our offers even when they’re very close by.

“Affected drivers will always receive a warning before getting suspended and have to persist with not accepting after a warning to get sanctioned and the blocks will be temporary.

“We are also working on fixing frequently mentioned issues, such as high hotel cancellations, we already managed to reduce them with some of our initial actions, but they continue to be too high, so more improvements are coming. In the meantime, drivers who don't want hotel jobs can opt out from them.

“Another feature that we're currently working on, is to allow drivers to maintain their gold status when they take a holiday or a sick leave, or don't work for any other reason. More details to come.”