Negligent Hiring From Uber Leads to Sexual Assault Cases

In the new age of technology, you can order a ride with the touch of a button on your phone. Instead of hailing or calling for a taxi, companies like Uber or Lyft have taken control of the ride-sharing market. Riding in someone else’s car, in which they have control, demands a lot of trust in both the person and the company employing that driver. Unfortunately, due to the negligence and lack of care taken by companies like Uber, hundreds of thousands of drivers have obtained jobs despite their felony records. Due to such oversight, there have been over 400,000 reports of sexual assault or misconduct from 2017 to 2022. That is a report filed every eight minutes against a driver of Uber. Emily Steel with the New York Times conducted an intense investigation into the sexual assault issue with Uber.

Uber claims that their background checks are essential and comprehensive, but according to the New York Times’s research, they are anything but that. Uber claims that their background checks are “a rigorous, multi-layer background check, and we continuously monitor records to flag new offenses.” They conduct their background checks through an artificial intelligence platform called Checkr. This platform offers different types of background checks.

Types of Background Checks

Service A: This background check is based on seven years of a person’s residence history. This costs $7.15 per check.

Service B: This background check reviews a person’s entire residence history. This costs $13.80 per check.

Uber uses the Service A option in most states and only uses the more expensive Service B option when it is required by state law.

As Uber does not choose Service B automatically, possible incriminating information cannot be found. Uber executives identified this issue in 2018. It was proposed to upgrade their Checkr package to automatically employ a Service B background check on a prospective driver. This would cost the company $15.2 million yearly and an additional $16.8 million to re-review drivers currently driving for Uber. With that cost, they decided not to upgrade their plan to Service B.

When people order Uber, they are often in a vulnerable state. Whether that is someone intoxicated making the responsible decision not to drive, or simply a person by themselves. Uber is choosing to cut corners to jeopardize the safety of their passengers by not obtaining a prospective driver’s full background profile. These actions do not match the message they want to portray. They claim on their website that 99.9998% of trips in 2021 and 2022  ended without a safety incident report. However, the heinous cases of women being sexually assaulted by their drivers do not match the safety story they want to tell.

In one case, a driver picked up a woman who was noticeably intoxicated. A witness near the scene saw the woman with her underwear pulled down. The driver admitted that he had sexual relations with the victim. Later, the driver was convicted of sexual battery. The driver had been screened by Uber and was “clean” on their end. However, he has eight prior felony convictions. The reason for the clear background check was that his convictions were more than seven years old. There are hundreds of cases just like hers.

Uber says that they will never hire on the following convictions: 

• Sexual Assault or Violent Sexual Crimes
• Sex Crimes Involving a Minor
• Murder or manslaughter
• Kidnapping
• Terrorism

But Uber’s policy allows for the following crimes if the convictions are over seven years old: 

• Child or elder abuse or endangerment 
• Speeding over 100 mph 
• Leaving the scene of an accident
• Reckless driving
• Habitual traffic offenses
• Prostitution
• Violent crimes (assault, robbery, arson, etc.)

In Texas, a woman had been picked up by her Uber around 9:00 PM, but the trip diverged two times. Uber sent an automated message twice to ask if she was okay, and she failed to respond. Around 9:30 PM, the car stopped at Motel 6. The trip remained active with no movement until 2:00 AM. The woman was raped by her Uber driver.

Uber has faced 400,181 complaints of sexual misconduct in the U.S. from 2017 to 2022.

They claim that most of these incidents are for less serious incidents like explicit language or flirting. Uber states that more serious complaints are attempted and non-consensual sexual touching of any kind. Uber reports that only 12,522 of the 400,000 are serious sexual assault cases.

Solutions

Uber has identified this absurd number of complaints as an issue, and there are numerous proposed solutions. First, internal cameras in cars that flag illegal or unethical behavior were an option. But the company was concerned about employment law restricting them. As Uber’s drivers are characterized as “independent contractors,” Uber is restricted in the number of mandated trainings and what they can require of their drivers.

Uber has also proposed matching woman drivers with woman passengers. This option was rolled out in 2019 in Saudi Arabia. Just this November, Uber employed this preference in 26 cities around the United States. The customers can request a female driver on demand, reserve in advance, or set a preference. This is not an option in all locations where Uber is offered.

Uber already has safety measures in place to protect their passengers from harm. The Uber app is equipped with GPS tracking and message checking for the passenger when the ride diverges from the planned route. But it was not enough to prevent what has happened repeatedly to their passengers. As riders may have a preference, the female drivers can also set a preference for who rides in their vehicle.

Teen Accounts

Over two years ago, Uber released teen accounts. This account allows teenagers to be able to request their own rides under a family profile. The female driver preference is also available for teen accounts in the same 26 cities.

There are safety measures embedded into the app, like RideCheck, PIN verification, and audio recording.

Uber’s Look-back Period

Uber claims that the reason they conduct a seven-year lookback period is because that is the standard set in most U.S. states. This period, in their view, promotes fairness, public safety, access to work, and maintains stronger standards than other taxi services.

In Boston, the lookback is only a 5-year period. In Chicago, it is 3 years. In Honolulu, it is two. Comparatively, Uber is going the extra mile by looking back seven years.

Hannah Nilles, Uber’s head of safety for the Americas, says that the seven-year look-back period, “strikes the right balance between protecting public safety and giving people with older criminal records a chance to work and rebuild their lives.”

Fingerprints

Uber does not conduct fingerprint checks on prospective drivers because it argues that this screening is based on arrests, but not convictions. Uber is only concerned with convictions, so they choose not to fingerprint their drivers.

Reporting

According to Uber, they investigate every report they receive. They state that they match the action they take with the seriousness of the report. Meaning they will take more initiative in a sexual assault claim versus a vulgar language claim.

Drivers with serious reports are deactivated and not allowed to take rides anymore once the incident is fully investigated. Uber works with law enforcement when serious cases arise, like those of sexual assault.

Uber does not have a “three strikes” system. Once there is one single serious report against a driver and they are found guilty of those actions, they can be banned from Uber. If there is a pattern of small reports against a driver, they can also be banned.

Issues with Uber’s Policies

As Uber does not conduct fingerprint checks, there is a possibility of active investigations being opened against a potential driver. In 2020, an Uber driver in San Diego was accused of sexually assaulting a passenger, including choking her, and throwing her phone out of the window when she tried to get help. After further investigation, he had a felony conviction for assault with a deadly weapon in 2002 and 2006. Earlier in 2020, the driver had been arrested on the allegation of rape but not yet charged. Uber had not even attempted to apprehend such information about his previous arrest in the same year.

Uber does not conduct in-person interviews as they are logistically challenging. They do not fingerprint as they are expensive and, in their view, “not important.” Uber does not pay the higher price for a background check unless it is forced to. Their lack of duty of care to protect their passengers has created 400,000 reported cases against their drivers. Uber is choosing money over safety.

In 2017, Massachusetts administered a state-wide background check of rideshare drivers in the state. They were introducing new and stricter guidelines, and eight thousand drivers were banned from Uber who were previously approved. That is 11%.

Uber claims that Checkr, their background checking service, is too expensive to expand, but they have just reached $165 billion in their net worth. The cost to expand background checks would be $32 million. That is 0.019% of the company’s net worth. Uber has the money to expand safety procedures, but it is choosing not to.

As Uber does not investigate a prospective driver’s record for the past seven years, it is unknown what can be lurking there. Uber has thousands of sexual assault cases because of their negligent background checking. Not only can adults be placed at risk, but also teenagers alone in a car with a potential past offender. Uber has paid for fingerprinting and longer look-back background checks when required by state law.

Previous Record Case

In 2021, a woman was celebrating her birthday with friends and was heavily intoxicated. An Uber was called for the woman, and she was picked up by a Mr. Anthony Oliveras-Rivera, her driver. He had taken her home, but she did not have her keys, so he took her back to the hotel where they were celebrating her birthday. As Mr. Oliveras-Rivera came back to the hotel, he asked a security guard for help with a drunk woman in his backseat. The security guard witnessed the victim’s underwear pulled down, and Mr. Oliveras-Rivera later admitted that he had sexual intercourse with her.

The screening by Uber did not catch the eight felony convictions from 1999 to 2002 of Mr. Oliveras-Rivera. It did not catch him serving eighteen years in prison for invading a home with an armed weapon. The records also show dozens of license suspensions and an arrest for driving under the influence of alcohol nine years prior to his employment with Uber. Uber’s screening also did not show Mr. Oliveras-Rivera being investigated for sexually abusing a 5-year-old girl. With this record, Mr. Oliveras-Rivera would have been prohibited from driving a taxi in Tampa. But Uber allowed him to offend again.

Thousands of victims are left with the feeling of violation, trauma, and lack of trust. The cause of this violence is because of the chosen oversight made by Uber. They have recognized the issue and proposed solutions, but have chosen money over the safety of their passengers.

Uber has acknowledged the issue by proposing changing their Checkr Subscription and rolling out female driver/passenger preferences. However, they have failed to conduct in-person interviews with potential drivers, warn passengers about drivers’ past records, use in-car cameras, or adopt driver promise programs.

As the drivers are independent contractors, the company does not pay benefits or overtime, so the company is keeping a lot of money compared to other employers. Similar jobs that provide a service to a vulnerable person, like child or elder care, do employ benefits and still give proper background checks and fingerprinting.

Uber stated in a 2021 global safety standard document, “Our purpose/goal is not to be the police…Our bar is much lower, and our goal is to protect the company and set the tolerable risk level for our operations.” This message differs from the image of the safest ride share option.

Uber may advertise that it is the safe rideshare option, but the numbers do not lie. A sexual assault report is made every eight minutes to Uber, and their response is not to change their ways. The company may claim that these cases are unpredictable, but they are not. The records of these offenders exist, but Uber wants to give the drivers the benefit of the doubt; that is not enough to keep people safe.

Each person who ordered an Uber trusted the driver and the company to keep them safe. But both failed them. If you or someone you love has suffered from sexual abuse, an Ohio sexual abuse lawyer is willing and able to help. Whether you want to go to trial or settle out of court, a qualified and considerate sexual abuse attorney can advise you on the best options to pursue and guide you through the process of filing suit. Our lawyers at Charles Boyk Law Offices are at your service to provide you with the support you need legally while you focus on recovery.