Would you be brave enough to hop into a stranger’s car when you need to visit your friend’s house for a freaky Friday night pajama party? Under normal circumstances, no. Or, would you be courageous enough to take the midnight train when you know people could gang around you like what you saw in Matt Reeves’ Batman movie? No, either.
This is why several people continue to trust ridesharing apps for their comfort, safety, and the integrity of the drivers.
Now, a recent study by the Stanford Graduate School of Business emphasized that writing reviews for your drivers and giving them star ratings are key toward better performance. That should be a no-brainer, right? Here’s the clarification.
“Unlike traditional service industries, companies that hire gig workers often bypass extensive vetting or formal licensing requirements to speed up onboarding. So how can they ensure quality when almost anyone can sign up to work?” Katia Savchuk of Stanford University wrote on the website Tech Xplore. “Uber, for one, tries to keep drivers accountable by sending notifications when riders give them low ratings, threatening to remove them from the platform if they don’t improve, and providing reports that compare their performance with their peers.”
The study reportedly surveyed Uber drivers in Chicago that these reviews and ratings, generally considered quality control mechanisms – why wouldn’t a driver be pushed to install air fresheners if a passenger recommended they should in a review? – are motivating poor-performing drivers to get better.
According to Susan Athey, Ph. D., a professor of economics at Stanford Graduate School of Business, these service marketplaces are essential parts of the economy. Still, they won’t fulfill their potential unless they guarantee quality while allowing service workers to enter and exit flexibly.
"Workers are very responsive to information and feedback about their performance,” Athey further noted.
So, go ahead and give your Uber drivers a review. Whether it’s good or bad, it’ll help them improve their offers in the future. It may not be for you, but for the other people around.