The Book of Uber

The Book of Uber is a funny, hard-hitting account of Uber's attempts to enter the for-hire ground transportation market in St. Louis, Missouri, the largest metropolitan area in the U.S. where UberX and Lyft are not legal. The story is told through a series of seven letters to the mayor of St. Louis, Francis Slay, a man who has lost control of his taxicab commission. The author, M.K. Riley, explains why the taxi industry has been entrenched in a cash-based business model for a hundred years, why Uber crushes that business model and how the St. Louis Metropolitan Taxicab Commission has fought Uber and Lyft tooth and nail for its own survival. As a former car-service business owner, the author knows where the St. Louis MTC has buried the bodies. The story starts when Uber cofounder and CEO Travis Kalanick visits St. Louis in 2013 to monitor the International Association of Transportation Regulators' annual conference. And the story takes off from there, moving onto Lyft's failed bid to launch operations in the spring of 2014 in St. Louis, and the Ferguson riots and the role race plays in in the St. Louis taxi industry. Uber has found that the St. Louis Taxicab Commission is not so much a commission as it is a stacked deck, and the lawsuits have been flying. The Book of Uber also explains the shared history of the Teamsters Union, the American Mafia and the taxicab industry by laying bare the true story of the Greenlease kidnapping case that played out in St. Louis. If you are an Uber customer or an Uber driver, you will laugh and nod knowingly, but if you have only heard of Uber and want to know what the rumpus is about, The Book of Uber explains it all.