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Uber

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Type
Company or group
Role
Other company
Updated
  • Type: Ride-hailing, delivery (Uber Eats), and freight platform. Public company, NYSE: UBER.
  • Legal entity: Uber Technologies, Inc. (Delaware C-corp, headquartered in San Francisco).
  • Founded: 2009, San Francisco, by Garrett Camp and Travis Kalanick.
  • CEO: Dara Khosrowshahi (since 2017); led the company through the pandemic.
  • Role in the pandemic-relief story: Uber was too large to take a PPP loan. Its workforce of independent-contractor drivers and couriers was the Schedule-C / sole-proprietor population that PPP and Pandemic Unemployment Assistance were extended to reach. Its Uber Eats arm became a relief channel for restaurants. In June 2020 Uber built, with Kabbage, a purpose-made PPP funnel for its drivers that prefigured the 2021 sole-proprietor PPP pipelines.

Pandemic-role map

  • Reader shorthand: gig platform that built a PPP access path for drivers through Kabbage, while not lending itself.
  • What Uber did for drivers: COVID financial assistance, resource hubs for public benefits, and a Kabbage-powered PPP application path using Uber earnings data.
  • Where responsibility sat: Kabbage/K Servicing handled the PPP lending process; Uber supplied the platform relationship and borrower data context, not lender-of-record status.
  • What Uber sold to customers: rideshare, delivery, freight, and marketplace services.

Before the pandemic (2009–early 2020)

Uber entered 2020 as a newly public company running ride-hailing, Uber Eats and Uber Freight (company filings). Its drivers and couriers were independent contractors, and it was contesting California's AB5 classification law; contractors sat outside the employer obligations (sick leave, unemployment insurance, workers' compensation) that an employee workforce would have triggered.

During the pandemic (March 2020 – 2021)

Drivers and couriers

COVID-19 financial assistance (the "14-day" policy). Announced in mid-March 2020, Uber offered up to 14 days of assistance to any driver or courier diagnosed with COVID-19 or placed under an individual quarantine order by a public health authority. The original terms paid average daily earnings over the prior six months, with a $50 minimum, and required medical or public-health documentation; the account was placed on hold during the assistance period.

On April 9, 2020, Uber revised the policy and said that the original version "supported too few drivers" and that "the process to get funds has been complicated and confusing" (revised financial-assistance policy, April 9, 2020). The revision broadened eligibility to drivers told to quarantine because of high-risk preexisting conditions, but replaced uncapped earnings-based pay with per-city maximums (Uber's own examples: Los Angeles $459, Columbus $244, Rio Grande Valley $136). Applications closed August 27, 2021.

CNBC reported on a driver with a positive test who was initially denied assistance, and on rideshare commentators calling the policy "the bare minimum."

Supplies and resources. Uber said it committed $50 million for masks, disinfectant, and sanitizer for drivers (company-claimed) and stood up an in-app COVID-19 Resources Hub and "Work Hub," the former offering help applying for the government relief (chiefly PUA) that the CARES Act had just extended to gig workers for the first time (global response hub, May 13, 2020).

Restaurants (Uber Eats)

On March 16, 2020 Uber Eats waived its delivery fee on orders from more than 100,000 independent restaurants across the U.S. and Canada, offered opt-in daily payouts to ease restaurant cash flow, ran daily in-app marketing for local restaurants, and cut onboarding time for new restaurants to under 24 hours (Uber Eats restaurant-relief release, March 16, 2020). Uber also pledged 300,000 free meals to first responders and healthcare workers.

The public

On March 31, 2020, Khosrowshahi pledged 10 million free rides and food deliveries to healthcare workers, seniors, and people in need, working with cities, hospitals, food banks, and governments ("10 million free rides and deliveries" pledge, March 31, 2020). On April 16 Uber partnered with Feeding America and World Central Kitchen to deliver meals to the food-insecure and homebound, and launched 1-833-USE-UBER, a phone line letting seniors without smartphones order Uber Eats (Feeding America / World Central Kitchen release, April 16, 2020). The May 13 global-response hub consolidated the rest: 200,000 free NHS rides in London, free rides and meals for domestic-violence survivors across dozens of cities, and Uber Health rides for frontline workers.

Government relief and Proposition 22

On March 23, 2020, Khosrowshahi wrote to President Trump asking that stimulus relief reach independent workers and arguing against reclassifying drivers as employees (CNBC).

On June 16, 2020, Uber and Kabbage launched a streamlined PPP application built specifically for "drivers and delivery people using Uber". It clarified eligibility and auto-prepopulated Uber earnings data so a sole proprietor could apply quickly (Kabbage streamlined-PPP-for-Uber-drivers release, June 16, 2020). Kabbage's release reported 130,000-plus SBA-approved loans and $3.8 billion at that point. The funnel preceded the sole-proprietor PPP pipelines that Womply and Blueacorn ran in 2021; the Kabbage PPP unit became K Servicing (see that profile).

Uber was the largest funder of California's Proposition 22, which exempted app-based drivers from employee status after AB5 and passed November 3, 2020 (Ballotpedia).

After the pandemic (2021–present)

Uber acquired Postmates in an all-stock deal worth about $2.65 billion, announced July 6, 2020 and closed December 1, 2020 (SEC 8-K, cited in the Postmates profile).

Current posture (as of mid-2026)

Public company, NYSE: UBER, with Dara Khosrowshahi as CEO; the Postmates brand continues inside Uber. We found no Uber corporate PPP loan and no PPP-fraud finding.

Federal lobbying and political money (as of 2026-06-25)

LDA and FEC filings show Uber's federal lobbying at about $2.3 million in 2020, its 2020 Senate LDA disclosures naming the Paycheck Protection Program and classification bills, the absence of a federal PAC, and $59.5M to Prop 22 with $29.6M itemized in calendar 2020 . The same note records that Uber's relief hub listed three lenders — QuickBooks Capital first (May 2020), then PayPal and Kabbage from June 18, 2020.

Sources

Primary documents in this archive

  • Uber driver/courier COVID-19 financial assistance (original): supporting you during coronavirus 2020-03-15
  • Revised financial-assistance policy ("supported too few drivers," per-city caps): update covid-19-financial assistance 2020-04-09
  • Uber Eats restaurant relief ($0 delivery fee, daily payouts, 300k free meals): food not finances eats restaurant relief 2020-03-16
  • "10 million free rides and deliveries" pledge: move what matters-10-million rides meals 2020-03-31
  • Feeding America / World Central Kitchen / senior phone ordering: feeding america world central kitchen 2020-04-16
  • Global response hub ($50M supplies; NHS rides; domestic-violence rides): supporting our communities global response 2020-05-13
  • Uber–Kabbage streamlined PPP for drivers: kabbage streamlined ppp for uber drivers 2020-06-16
  • Pre-existing trade-press capture of the Kabbage–Uber PPP deal: PRESS debanked kabbage and uber partner for ppp 2020-06-18

External references

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