Uber and Lyft team up on the two drivers accused of assault
Uber and Lyft ride-hailing services announced in separate blogs that they are working together to share information about US drivers and delivery workers accused of physical and sexual assault to ensure these individuals are banned across both systems.
HireRight, a company that specializes in conducting background checks, oversees the Industry Sharing Safety Program database.
Other carriers and delivery companies in the United States have the opportunity to contribute to and access the database as long as they adhere to the accuracy of the data and the same privacy policies that Uber and Lyft should follow, including the program that Uber created in partnership with the National Resource Center for Sexual Violence and the Urban Institute in 2005. 2018.
Jennifer Brandenburger, Head of Policy Development and Research at Lyft, said: We want to share this information with each other and hope to share it in the near future with other companies, so that our peers in the field can be informed and make decisions about their platforms in order to keep them safe. .
The secure database will not contain information about the victim.
Creating a shared database of abusers is a major step for the two companies, as Uber and Lyft have both been repeatedly criticized for not protecting passengers, especially if they are women, from drivers.
And when Uber published its first safety report in 2019, the company revealed that it received nearly 6,000 reports of sexual assault between 2017 and 2018.
In 2019, 14 unnamed women filed a lawsuit against Lyft, alleging that the company failed to perform adequate background checks on its drivers.
Finding a way to share the identities of blocked contractors from its platform was one of the actions Uber said it takes in its safety report.
Scott Berkowitz, president and founder of the nonprofit National Rape Network, praised the two companies for working together.
He said: Uber and Lyft have both shown to be leaders across the Industry Sharing Safety Program, and by putting competition aside, Uber and Lyft are putting users first while building a safer, shared transportation community for everyone.