> I had to make this decision because our very future as an essential service for the cities of the world
Any company that facilitates or provides an in-person service that has seen a sharp decline from Covid-19 is pretty clearly not an essential service in the minds of their customers.
As a counterpoint, buses/railways are imo 100% an essential service for cities and yet they were running empty during the COVID-19 lockdown where I live. I would hate to see them recategorized as non-essential because of a situation that is clearly completely abnormal.
Counterpoint to your counterpoint. I agree that public transport is essential, but the level at which it was running previously was 100% non essential, because the majority of the workforce in places like London (where we have excellent public transport) can & should work from home. There's no need for accountants to sit in an open plan office all clustered on the same spot in the City of London and therefore putting a huge strain on public transport which forces London to run a train every 60 seconds.
And precisely because public transport IS essential we still had all of it running, just at a reduced capacity to facilitate the essential public demand. So comparing public transport with Uber only highlights even more how Uber is non essential, because we can live pretty much without it, but we evidently can't without public transport (as seen in London).
Judging from my experience - restaurants are not. We have started cooking more since the beginning of the lockdown being able to cook during the time that would have otherwise been spent on commute. And we have saved a surprisingly large amount of money in the process.
Well... transportation hasn't disappeared. People still drive, cycle and take busses and trains, so clearly these means of transport are essential. However, it is true that air travel has collapsed and restaurants as well, both which seem to be non essential. People don't have to fly to other places (for the most part at least, air freight is still happening plentyfull) and people can cook at home or get delivery, so it seems that not all transportation is essential and that restaurants aren't either.
The numbers are skewed because of the nature of this pandemic. People are scared of being in close proximity with each other.
I would argue some portion of the accommodations industry is essential (avg. occupancy rates of around ~%60 in normal times, so let's say ~%60 of hotels/motels are essential) and yet I know multiple hoteliers who have had to close shop for the next few months due to zero volume. This doesn't mean that day-to-day, hotels aren't an essential service.
Any company that facilitates or provides an in-person service that has seen a sharp decline from Covid-19 is pretty clearly not an essential service in the minds of their customers.