Uber CEO Travis Kalanick Fired While In Chicago Interviewing COO Candidate

Kalanick reportedly was interviewing a candidate for Uber’s open COO position when he was fired.

As a Chicago part-time Uber driver, I can confirm Kalanick didn’t interview me for Chief Operating Officer*.  Chicago-based Grub Hub CEO Matt Maloney was mentioned by the Chicago Tribune as a possible candidate, which is plausible because Grub Hub is an established competitor of UberEATS.

At a downtown Chicago hotel, Mr. Kalanick received a handwritten note from the Board of Directors.  I wonder if he was staying at Chicago’s Trump International Hotel when he got the “You’re Fired!” note.  Was the note delivered by a courier service like Postmates or was it an UberRUSH delivery?

The firing must have been in the works for awhile because only a day later, my Uber app touted new changes for drivers including adding tips to the rider app, charging customers for excessive wait times, and now counting “destination rides” (when a driver sets a place she wants to go and Uber ties to find riders heading the same way) toward “Quest” volume bonuses.  Kalanick resisted adding tipping, even though competitor Lyft had attracted many former Uber drivers with the tip function.

Megan McArdle’s take at Bloomberg is worth reading. She writes Uber would probably still be waiting for formal approval in its first market if Kalanick hadn’t been brash and bold with a willingness to plunge into legally ambiguous areas. But, as a $5 billion worldwide transportation leader, Uber now needs a stable hand; it also doesn’t need Kalanick’s penchant for controversy and self-inflicted errors, especially regarding sexual harassment in the Uber corporate offices.

What do I think?  While Kalanick’s gaffes sometimes seemed like Trump without the Tweets, Uber was his idea, his creation, his company.   Uber blew away the staid taxi industry and its antiquated business practices.  You can now order a ride through your phone, have it arrive in moments, pay electronically, and know the cost up-front so you won’t be tricked by an unethical taxi driver who takes you on a meandering, fare-raising joyride.  Uber lowered the prices consumers pay.

Uber cars are cleaner than cabs; the service is friendlier; you get electronic receipts instead of cajoling cabbies for a scrap of paper you might lose before you get it into your expense report.  The Uber app is used throughout the world; you need not worry about how many rupees or Euros or yen bills you need for an international trip.  African-American riders tell me many cabbies, even black ones, refuse to drive into poor black neighborhoods, whereas Uber offers universal service.  Women tell me “sketchy” cab drivers can be sexually aggressive, whereas Uber’s rating service means a male Uber driver making unwanted advances will be dropped from driving.  Many drivers earn side income with Uber.

Mr. Kalanick had many flaws, but tens of millions owe him thanks for creating the ride-sharing industry.  So, thank you, Mr. Kalanick for that and good luck.  But, please take a sensitivity course or two before starting your next venture.

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*I just started a contract finance manager position at BMO Harris downtown that I’m enthusiastic about.  I’ve dropped from 80 hours of Uber per week to about 25, mostly on weekends.