A company doesn’t grab the title of world’s most valuable startup by always playing nice. But Uber is eager to show it also has a public-minded side.
The ride-hailing giant said today that it had reached a new milestone of recruiting more than 50,000 US veterans as drivers through its UberMILITARY initiative. The company also said it's donating up to $1 million to organizations that support veterans and their families.
“Uber uniquely can be this on-demand income generator,” says Emil Michael, senior vice president of business at Uber. “You can turn the app on and make money, and turn the app off when you have other things to do.”
The company launched its UberMILITARY initiative in September 2014 as a way to reach out to veterans and their families. From 2009 to 2011, Michael served as a special assistant to the former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, accompanying him to Afghanistan, Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere. He says a central concern among veterans is re-integrating into their communities after leaving the service, and he saw a need for flexible work options—like driving for Uber—while they’re transitioning into more permanent employment.
For the near future, Michael says the company has several more priorities, including paying out as much as a half billion dollars to drivers who have worked or still work in the military by 2020; improving access to military bases; and coming up with a special perks program for veterans who drive on Uber.
Robert Isaac Jr., a veteran who’s been driving for Uber in the San Francisco Bay Area for the past two years, said he's been surprised to find how easy it is to casually talk with passengers about serving in the military—an otherwise difficult topic for him to bring up in other everyday settings.
"Anyone in the military is more than happy to talk about their experiences," Isaac said during an interview at Uber's San Francisco headquarters. "We know a kind of separation is there, and we want to close that. We’re just as normal as everyone else—we just did a different kind of job."