A sign of the rapid changes taking place in the taxi and e-hailing industry, Uber is looking to edge out the competition with a new 30,000-square-foot hub for its drivers. Queens reporter Ruschell Boone gives us an exclusive look inside.
Uber calls this a Greenlight hub. They've been building them for their drivers all over the country, but at its size, this one in Queens is its biggest yet.
It has classrooms, a cafe bar, medical examination rooms and 75 full-time employees to help Uber drivers with all kinds of issues, from city licensing to problems with the Uber app. Uber representatives call it their version of the genius bar — the tech support location inside every Apple store.
"Driver partners are our customers so making the experience as smooth as possible for them is a very top priority for us," said Josh Mohrer, general manager of Uber NYC. "Very high priority for us."
So is attracting new drivers. The taxi, car-service and e-hailing industry is in transition with companies scrambling to lure and keep the best drivers. More than 40,000 drivers already have some affiliation with Uber in New York City alone.
Mohrer says the Greenlight Hub makes it easier for them to get their car-service licenses, by providing the required courses and medical checkup all under one roof.
Just about all the services here are free.
"The licensing process here in New York is very complicated," Mohrer said. "So we found that if we helped drivers through that process and really offer for free many of those services we'll have more luck getting folks to join the system."
Michael Richman is one of those potential drivers. He's never worked in the car service industry, but he's in between jobs.
"I want to be my own boss as they say," Richman said.
The appeal of a one-stop shop convinced him to sign up. Next stop, the classes.- eight-hour classes for three days and then a 10-hour class for one day.
The Greenlight was purposely built in the same building as the offices of the Taxi and Limousine Commission so Richman and other drivers can drop off all their paperwork right after they leave the hub.