Uber and Lyft passenger greeting services are teaming up to ensure that malicious people who have been kicked out of their platforms stay off their platforms.
The two announced a partnership Thursday along with the historic screening company HireRight to create a database of drivers who have been disabled for committing serious crimes, including physical and sexual assault, as part of their new Industry Sharing Safety Program. Concerns about passenger safety have plagued Uber and Lyft for years, along with dozens of complaints and lawsuits alleging that the companies failed screen drivers properly and banish those with multiple attacks to break rules.
The program is being implemented initially in the United States, and other transportation and delivery services may join the data sharing system, as long as they agree and comply with the same privacy protections as Uber and Lyft.
“You should be safe, no matter what travel sharing platform you choose,” said Uber senior vice president and chief legal officer, Tony West, in a press release. “Dealing with these difficult security issues is greater than any of us and this new Industry Sharing Security Program demonstrates the value of working in collaboration with experts, advocates and others to make a significant difference. We encourage more companies to join us. ”
Hitchhiking drivers like Uber and Lyft are largely considered independent contractors, not employees, which means that they can drive and often drives for both companies.
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A third party, HireRight, will collect and manage all data shared between these companies and ensure that all parties comply with the industry standards described by the National Sexual Violence Resource Center. Per The Associated Press, information about the victims will not be shared in the database and the incidents that led to the dismissal of a driver are divided into six broad categories: attempted non-consensual sexual penetration; non-consensual touch of a sexual part of the body; non-consensual kiss of a sexual part of the body; non-consensual kiss of a non-sexual part of the body; non-consensual sexual penetration; and fatal physical attacks.
“We would like to share the basis of the deactivation, as well as identify the information about the driver just enough that other companies can find that person on their platform, nothing more,” said West in an interview with NBC.
Incidents of assault and sexual harassment are notoriously underreported for the police, which makes signaling dangerous drivers particularly important, as they can escape the radar with traditional background checks that often depend on legal records. The non-profit victims’ rights group, National Rape, Abuse and Incest Network, which previously criticized Uber and Lyft for lack of rigorous driver screening processes, praised the companies for coming together in the name of passenger safety.
“Sexual violence thrives in secret,” said Scott Berkowitz, the group’s president and founder, in the press release. “Thanks to this initiative, perpetrators will no longer be able to hide or escape responsibility simply by switching hitchhiking platforms.
Uber and Lyft have launched a number of safety features in recent years, including in-app panic buttons and additional ways for passengers to check on their drivers. But critics argue that these precautions should already be taken. In 2018, CNN found that 103 Uber drivers and 18 Lyft drivers have been charged with sexual assault or abuse in the past four years. In the company first safety report, Uber reported that it received 3,045 reports of sexual assault while traveling in 2018. In the same year, nine people were murdered and 58 killed in traffic accidents. Lyft has also accumulated several women’s lawsuits because of his handling complaints of sexual assault and claims that it did not do enough to protect passengers from dangerous drivers.