Uber announces 2nd edition of Driver Advisory Council

Mumbai, 13th April 2023: India’s first Driver Advisory Council (DAC), formed to provide gig workers a safe space to discuss issues that impact them deeply and improve their platform experience, has completed a year. The Council is a flagship initiative led by Aapti Institute, a Bengaluru-based think tank, that serves as a third-party Independent Review Board (IRB), in collaboration with Uber, with an aim to create better two-way dialogue between driver partners and the platform.

Today, Uber along with the Aapti Institute announced the second cohort of driver partners across cars, auto-rickshaws and motorbikes, who will be part of the Council for a year. These drivers are from 6 metros including Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Mumbai, and represent the interests of tens of thousands of driver partners using the Uber platform. Last year, the Council comprised 58 driver partners who were part of 3 in-person sessions and two online sessions, convened by Aapti between March 2022 and March 2023. Critical topics discussed during these meetings included earnings, product enhancements, social security, app experience, and safety, among others.

Based on these sessions, and recommendations from Aapti Institute, Uber implemented several changes last year. As per an internal survey of 80,000 driver partners by Uber, 85% of the respondents believed that the changes had a positive impact on their driving experience and 92% drivers wanted DAC to continue.