Each Uber driver in the United Kingdom will be eligible at 20 hours of free child care as part of a new program intended to obtain more women in taxi driving.
They can use the allowance via a Nannying and Babysitting application for the rest of 2025.
“We would really like, really attracting more female drivers to the Uber platform,” said Uber Uk Andrew Brem.
But the independent union of workers in Great Britain (IWGB), which represents the engines, said that “anyone can see through” what he called a “cynical blow of public relations”.
“If Uber really wanted to support families, they would pay enough money for drivers to be able to have time to be with their children,” he told the BBC in a statement.
“Instead, Uber’s insuls costs oblige drivers to spend so long on the roads that, in many cases, relations break and families are broken,” he added.
Uber said he had tested free childcare services with 1,000 drivers and had an extremely positive response – with 96% of those who participated by saying that it facilitated work.
The program will now be extended to more than 100,000 Uber drivers in the United Kingdom.
“Like some other occupations, (Uber Driving) happens to be predominantly male – this is not something we would like,” Brem told BBC News.
It expects free childcare to be initially used by existing drivers rather than new ones, “but it’s more, I think, to take the drivers in the habit of doing it.”
He adds: “By testing it free of charge, you have the experience and you see the ease of getting child care through this particular path.”
Uber UK will keep the program open for the rest of the year, then “see how it goes”, in terms of the extension more, said Brem.
The company hopes that this decision could help drivers who have taken strike in recent months for what they say is an unfair salary.
In October, Uber drivers in Glasgow told the BBC that their salary had dropped in 2024, despite the price increases to customers.
Then, in January, the strike drivers said they worked “too many hours” despite families at home.
“I have not yet met an investigation into employees, including ours, where people don’t say they want to earn more,” said Brem.
“I understand that our main role by helping them more, however, is to keep the super busy platform, so our focusing on demand growth,” he said.
Brem said drivers could now see weekly ventilation of the amount of money they earned compared to the quantity of Uber tariff.
He added that, leaving locking, there was an “unusually higher income” for drivers, because demand exceeded the offer of available walks.
“We are more in a kind of normal situation now, but it probably affects some of the experiences (drivers) have had,” he said.
Uber also underlined the experience of a mother of three children who participated in her childcare driver and said it was a “massive boost”.
Tania Naseer said she used childcare during work and also to go out with friends.
“As a mother, it is important for me to have my own loaded batteries to be there for my children,” she told BBC News.
“Now I can hire a goalkeeper for the weekend and then I can work on weekends, and these are the busiest hours.”
She added: “Ideally, yes, a salary increase would be great, but right now, it seems to work like that.”
Childcare will be offered via a baby-sitting and nanning application called Bubble, which corresponds to parents with children.
Drivers can use free hours when they wish, not just when working for Uber.
Mr. Brem says that he hopes that drivers using the daycare program “will recognize that it is a precious thing that they wish to continue” after having used their free hours.
The BBC found that drivers were available for different costs – some receiving 47% less than the total rate
