Ride-hailing services Uber and Lyft have teamed up to make sure creeps kicked off their platform stay off their platform.
The two announced a partnership Thursday partnered with background research firm HireRight to establish a database of drivers deactivated for committing serious offenses, including physical and sexual assault, as part of their new Industry Sharing Safety Program. Uber and Lyft have concerns about passenger safety for years, along with dozens of complaints and lawsuits alleging the companies failed to do so screen drivers appropriately and ban those with multiple attacks for breaking rules.
The program will initially roll out in the US, and other ride pickup and delivery services will be able to participate in the data sharing system in the future, as long as they agree to and adhere to the same privacy safeguards as Uber and Lyft.
“You have to be safe no matter which carpooling platform you choose,” said Uber’s senior VP and chief legal officer Tony West in a press release“Tackling these tricky safety concerns is bigger than any of us and this new Industry Sharing Safety Program shows the value of partnering with experts, lawyers and others to make a meaningful difference. We encourage more companies to join us. ”
Drivers for taxi services such as Uber and Lyft are largely considered independent contractors, not employees, which means they can and often runs for both companies.
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A third party, HireRight, collects and manages all data shared between these companies and ensures that all parties adhere to the industry standards set forth by the National Sexual Assault Information CenterPer the Associated Pressinformation about the victims will not be shared in the database and the incidents leading to the dismissal of a driver are divided into six broad categories: attempted sexual penetration without mutual consent; touching a sexual body part without permission; kissing without mutual consent of a sexual body part; kissing without mutual consent of a non-sexual body part; sexual penetration without mutual consent; and fatal physical attacks.
“We would share the basics of the deactivation as well as identify driver information just enough for other companies to find that person on their platform, nothing else,” West said in an interview with NBC
Incidents of sexual assault and intimidation are notoriously underreported to the police, which makes flagging dangerous drivers particularly important, as they can slip under the radar in traditional background checks that often rely on legal documents. The nonprofit for victims of victims, the Rape, Abuse, & Incest National Network, which previously criticized Uber and Lyft for lack of rigorous driver screening processes, praised the companies for their partnership in the name of passenger safety.
“Sexual violence thrives in secrecy,” Scott Berkowitz, the group’s president and founder, said in the press release. “Thanks to this initiative, perpetrators can no longer hide or escape responsibility simply by switching ridesharing platforms.”
Uber and Lyft have both introduced a slew of safety features in recent years, including in-app panic buttons and additional ways for passengers to authenticate their drivers. But critics argue that these precautions should have been long overdue. In 2018 CNN found that 103 Uber drivers and 18 Lyft drivers had been charged with sexual assault or abuse in the past four years. In the company very first safety reportUber announced that it received 3,045 reports of sexual assault while traveling in 2018. In the same year, nine people were murdered and 58 died in car accidents. Lyft has also filed multiple lawsuits against women handling complaints about sexual violence and claims that it hasn’t done enough protect passengers from dangerous drivers