Uber France has celebrated the tenth anniversary of its arrival in France.
The platform made its appearance in France on December 5, 2011. Present then only in Paris, it only had sixty registered drivers during the first month of its existence.
Ten years later, Uber is present in most major cities in France and has 30,000 VTC drivers.
An exponential development which did not take place without legal setbacks or without criticism.
Despite everything, the platform remains very present in the daily life of the French, with five million customers having made at least one trip in 2021. Here are 7 anecdotes about the VTC platform, taken from the press release published by Uber for the occasion.
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An idea that germinated in France
Although the platform was first launched in San Francisco, it was in France that the idea for its foundation was born.
In 2009, Travis Kalanick and Garrett Camp, entrepreneurs in Silicon Valley, attended The Web conference, held in Paris that year.
When they left the conference, they noticed the same difficulty in finding a taxi in Paris as in San Francisco.
The idea then came to them to create an IT service for taxis.
Uber was born.
Almost 10,000 trips for the same customer
Precisely 9,701.
This is the largest number of trips made by a single customer.
In this case, it is a client.
She has been using Uber since 2012 and has made an average of 81 trips per month over the past 10 years.
A loyalty that Uber wanted to thank in its press release: "
At this level, it is no longer love ... To you our most loyal customer, we say THANK YOU
" writes the company.
Several babies were born in an Uber
Some of the most memorable moments in a lifetime can take place in a VTC.
For some people, that's even where it started.
Uber thus lists no less than 12 babies born during a trip.
Driver during one of these trips, Benjamin remembers agreeing in 2019 to take a couple for a trip between Vitry and the Montsouri hospital, where the woman was due to give birth.
But she loses water in the car and Benjamin accelerates to arrive on time.
The baby, a little girl, is finally born in the back seat of the vehicle, just arriving in the hospital parking lot.
A journey of more than 1000 km
The longest run distance a customer has taken with Uber is 1,129 km.
It was a passenger traveling from Marseille to Plumieux, in Brittany, on May 30, 2020, just a few days after the lifting of the first confinement.
A race that cost 1,607.91 euros.
The attendance record is ...
The most Uber rides ever in one day is 301,337.
The day in question was that of New Year's Eve 2019. By way of comparison, the population of Bordeaux or Nantes is of the order of 300,000 inhabitants.
Turkey bagel
It was in March 2016 that Uber Eats was launched in France, initially in Paris only.
The very first order placed is a bagel with turkey, pastrami and cheddar, made by the Bagel Corner restaurant, located in Les Gobelins.
The application is now present in nearly 300 urban areas and covers more than 60% of the French population.
Forgotten objects
Every year for the past five years, Uber has published the ranking of unusual objects forgotten in its cars. On the occasion of its 10th anniversary, the company has compiled the top 20 most unlikely objects. In the first place, figure ... a dog. While this is the only animal left behind in an Uber, other, more exotic animals were also transported with their owners. A driver reports having transported a client with his 3 pet tarantulas, well kept in their cage ... Cage that their owner did not forget when getting out of the car, to the great relief of the VTC driver requested for this trip .
Also in the list of the most unusual objects that have been found in an Uber car include: a prosthetic hand, a wedding dress, a wedding ring, a Mickey costume, dentures, a jar of pickles, a wig and diapers for adults.
All were subsequently claimed by customer service, says Uber.
