There is no doubt that Uber has been highly successful. They are about to go public and no doubt, the IPO will be fruitful. However, Uber is not without its critics. Certainly, the taxi and limousine industry are dead against the idea of you (or me) firing up our vehicles and transporting people for pay to the airport or dentist’s appointments or wherever. They claim unfair competition. Uber is banned from certain foreign markets due to union protests and unfair labor practices. Uber fined again over background checks.
However, from a customer point of view Uber’s labor problems or the fact that they might get picked up by a 1937 Dodge is not top of mind. The biggest concern can be boiled down to one word: safety. We want to know that the stranger who will be picking us up is of good character. We want to know that this person does not have rap sheet. We especially want to know; indeed, we want to be certain that the Uber driver is the kind of person we can entrust with those we love.
In turn, we want to know, we expect that Uber will do everything in its power to put our minds at ease in terms of safety. Anything less than that would not only be unethical, but would negate the most important thing that Uber has to offer. It is not happening.
Recent Uber Fines
Uber has just been fined $8.9 million by the State of Colorado Public Utilities Commission (PUC) for their methodology in conducting background checks. In examining the qualifications of drivers in Colorado, it was found that they allowed drivers to have criminal and vehicular records that should have disqualified them from driving, and didn’t.
One case in particular that was chilling involved a person who was an escaped prisoner who used an alias to pass a background check. Other drivers were also found to use fake names and in some cases, they lacked valid driver’s licenses! In all, the Colorado PUC determined that nearly 60 drivers should not have passed the Uber background check, but they did.
The investigation by the Colorado PUC was undertaken after it was found than an Uber driver had assaulted a passenger. The $8.9 million fine was assessed based on fining Uber $2,500 for each day an unqualified driver was allowed to drive.
According to the Colorado PUC:
“We have determined that Uber had background check information that should have disqualified these drivers under the law, but they were allowed to drive anyway. These actions put the safety of passengers in extreme jeopardy.”
Though Uber was quick to point out that the number of drivers who were found to be unqualified were tiny compared to the more than 13,000 drivers they have in Colorado. Perhaps that gives the company a certain amount of security, but I doubt it puts passengers at total ease.
Checkr
Checkr is a company Uber uses to conduct background checks. The company employs certain pieces of a potential driver’s data such as Social Security numbers along with driving records and criminal histories in various databases. Nevertheless, Checkr merely reports the data to Uber. It is up to Uber to judge whether or not the crimes are serious enough to bar the drivers from joining the Uber system.
In Colorado, according to a CNN article, the PUC found that: “12 Uber drivers had felony convictions; 17 had major moving vehicle violations; 63 had driver’s license issues and three had interlock driver’s licenses, which are needed after recent drunk driving convictions.”
Either Uber decided to allow those drivers with convictions to have another chance or the system was in some way so badly flawed that the Uber “screeners” never picked up on the misinformation or the attempted cover-ups. I might add that Colorado is not alone. For example, in Massachusetts an astronomical 8,000 Uber and Lyft drivers were ultimately barred from driving after deeper investigations of drivers in that state. Often, drivers will work for both Uber and Lyft, even though they are competing entities.
In an effort to boost revenues, it would appear that Uber is not scrutinizing its drivers as well as it could. While it is not totally surprising given the company’s desire to go public and increase revenues that it might have allowed sub-standard applications to fly under the radar, the practice is highly unethical at best. To not delve more rigorously into a driver’s background could result in dangerous outcomes. It is time for Uber to take ethical responsibility for protecting its passengers across the nation and in international markets. Uber fined again over background checks.
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