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Originally Posted by Often1
(Post 23580475)
Who has:
1. A background check Uber Driver Arrested in San Francisco for Hammer Attack The charges come just days after the Gascon and the Los Angeles County District Attorney Jackie Lacey warned Uber, Lyft and Sidecar that they are operating illegally and could face civil penalties. The attorneys say the ride share companies mislead customers by claiming their background checks of drivers screen out anyone who has committed driving violations and other criminal offenses. |
Originally Posted by TWA884
(Post 23601937)
The background checks are wanting, at least in California.
Cheers. |
Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
(Post 23612020)
Wonder if taxi companies screening policies are any better? Note - I don't have a dog in this hunt, but there are reports of taxi cab drivers in altercations, attacks, etc. Do a google on 'taxi driver charged with'.
Cheers. Another concern is insurance. Again, these figures apply to California. Uber drivers are required to meet only reduced limits when not actually carrying passengers (i.e., while on the way to pick them up). Those are $50,000 in liability coverage for death or injury suffered by a single person, $100,000 for all damages in one accident and $30,000 for property damage. Taxi drivers, on the other hand, must carry a $1,000,000 commercial liability policy which covers them 24/7/365 while carrying passengers or not. Don't get me wrong, I like the Uber/Lyft concept; however, I think that they should compete on a level field when it comes to criminal background checks and insurance. |
Originally Posted by TWA884
(Post 23618786)
I don't know about Illinois, however, in California, taxi drivers must undergo a criminal history background check and submit to Live Scan fingerprinting.
Santa Cruz Taxi Driver Charged with Kidnapping/Rape |
Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
(Post 23631943)
Abdi was not properly permitted to operate a cab in the City of Santa Cruz. Taxicab driver permits are managed and issued by the police department, and each driver is required to be approved for a permit. The permitting process includes a criminal history vetting by the police department prior to approval. Because of his criminal history, Abdi had been denied three times in the past when applying for a permit. Regardless, my main concern is the grossly inadequate liability insurance while the so-called "rideshare" drivers are not actually carrying passengers. |
Originally Posted by TWA884
(Post 23634154)
From your link:
OK, you found one incident involving a rouge taxi driver in California in the past six months. How many such incidents involving Uber and Lyft drivers occurred in that time period? Regardless, my main concern is the grossly inadequate liability insurance while the so-called "rideshare" drivers are not actually carrying passengers. Genuine question - is the liability insurance for Uber actually different when they're not carrying passengers from when they are, & if it's different for when they're not carrying passengers, if there are no passengers in the car does it matter? Cheers. |
Originally Posted by SkiAdcock
(Post 23635265)
Genuine question - is the liability insurance for Uber actually different when they're not carrying passengers from when they are, & if it's different for when they're not carrying passengers, if there are no passengers in the car does it matter?
WHY THE INSURANCE INDUSTRY IS TAKING AIM AT UBER AND LYFT This is why it matters:But complicating things is the fact that Uber and Lyft offer two different insurance systems--one for when passengers are in the car, and another for when drivers are picking passengers up or looking for hails. During that time, as the infographic below illustrates, insurance coverage is far lower. Drivers are only covered for $50,000 injury, $100,000 injury total, and $25,000 in property damage. This means that when not driving customers, UberX drivers are primarily covered by their personal insurance--which can vary wildly depending on the state, municipality, and individual driver. Lyft’s insurance is similar as well. Otherwise, both UberX and Lyft rely on the driver’s regular personal insurance. “From the time a driver accepts a trip request through our app until the completion of the ride, our partners have $1 million of coverage for driver liability,” read the statement. “We were also the first ridesharing request service to include $1 million of coverage for uninsured/underinsured motorists, meaning that passengers and drivers are also covered for injuries when another party is at fault and lacks sufficient insurance.” Uber denies fault in S.F. crash that killed girl A conventional taxi driver would be covered by a commercial $1 million liability policy 24/7/365 regardless of whether he or she were carrying a fare. Attorneys for Uber said the ride-sharing company was not liable for the New Year's Eve death of 6-year-old Sofia Liu in San Francisco, because the driver was an independent contractor and had no reason to be actively engaged with the app at the time. <snip> Uber's response, filed Thursday, said Muzaffar was "never an employee, agent, joint venture or partner of Uber." Attorneys said he had, however, passed a background check. Moreover, they said he had not been carrying a fare, heading to pick up a fare or responding to a request to pick up a fare - and thus had no reason to be interacting with his smartphone. "The only information displayed on the screen was a GPS-generated map with his location - akin to the information displayed by a smartphone map application," lawyers wrote. Uber's attorneys also claimed that Uber should not be held responsible because the company primarily provides services and not products. <snip> California recently enacted new insurance regulations for rideshare drivers, but those still fall short of what's required of taxi drivers. California governor signs ridesharing insurance legislation The law requires ridesharing companies' insurance to cover drivers from the moment they turn on their app, not just from when they accept a ride on their app, according to information from the office of California Assemblywoman Susan Bonilla, who championed the bill. Drivers under the new law must maintain primary liability insurance coverage of at least $50,000 per person and $100,000 per occurrence for death and personal injury during the time they log on to the application, as well as $30,000 for property damage, her office said. The insurance can be paid by the driver or the rideshare company. An earlier version of the bill required $750,000 worth of insurance coverage in that window, down from $1 million in the previous draft, it said. The move to dictate more extensive coverage stems from a New Year's Eve incident in San Francisco when an UberX driver killed a child while his app was on, but before he had accepted a ride. <snip> The companies, which initially opposed stricter requirements, ultimately supported the final bill after Bonilla agreed to lower the amount of insurance required when drivers do not have passengers in their vehicles, Bonilla's office said in a statement. The driver must also maintain $1 million for personal injury and property damage from the time a ride request is accepted until the passenger exits the vehicle, her office said. <snip> |
Thanks for the link & details.
Cheers. |
Originally Posted by Sweet Willie
(Post 23206166)
not a very wise response for someone asking for other's help. Why not educate.
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Originally Posted by TWA884
(Post 23636066)
This is why it matters:
Uber denies fault in S.F. crash that killed girl A conventional taxi driver would be covered by a commercial $1 million liability policy 24/7/365 regardless of whether he or she were carrying a fare.Attorneys for Uber said the ride-sharing company was not liable for the New Year's Eve death of 6-year-old Sofia Liu in San Francisco, because the driver was an independent contractor and had no reason to be actively engaged with the app at the time. <snip> Uber's response, filed Thursday, said Muzaffar was "never an employee, agent, joint venture or partner of Uber." Attorneys said he had, however, passed a background check. Moreover, they said he had not been carrying a fare, heading to pick up a fare or responding to a request to pick up a fare - and thus had no reason to be interacting with his smartphone. "The only information displayed on the screen was a GPS-generated map with his location - akin to the information displayed by a smartphone map application," lawyers wrote. Uber's attorneys also claimed that Uber should not be held responsible because the company primarily provides services and not products. <snip> Uber settles wrongful death lawsuit in San Francisco crash Ride service Uber has reached a tentative settlement in a lawsuit brought by the family of a 6-year-old girl who died in a San Francisco car accident, according to court filings. The girl, Sofia Liu, died after she, her younger brother and their mother were hit by a car in a San Francisco cross-walk on New Year's Eve in 2013. At the time of the crash, the driver was logged on to the Uber X smartphone app and was available to provide rides, the lawsuit said. Liu's family asked the court to keep terms of the settlement with Uber confidential, court filings show, citing the privacy of her brother. <snip> |
Times are fast changing. It'll only be another year or two before anti-Uber crusaders look like CD-player fanatics with a side of "get off my lawn."
Despite The Scary Rape Headlines, Uber Is Probably Still The Safest Way To Order A Taxi To be a taxi driver in the UK, applicants need to undergo what's called a DBS check. That check searched for previous criminal convictions. Drivers in London also undergo a medical check to ensure that they're fit to drive. Every driver also has a unique identification number. Things are slightly different with Uber. First of all, drivers are given criminal background checks in the same way that normal taxi drivers are. But there are some important differences. For example, all Uber cars using the app are tracked using GPS, which means that the company has a record of every journey. There's also no cash involved with Uber, as payments take place through the app. And unlike taxis, you can't hail an Uber off the street. While hailing a taxi is convenient, it opens up passengers to unlicensed taxis operating illegally. And of course, even if you get a taxi from an official rank, you don't know who the person is at the wheel. Uber also has a system in which passengers and drivers can rate and — if need be — identify one another. The company is notoriously vigilant when it comes to its driver ratings. It has been speculated that any driver that dips below a 4.7 rating out of 5 is deactivated by the company. In the normal course of business, drivers and riders know only each other's first names. Riders get to know the cars, photos, and license plates of their drivers, too. It's all automatically recorded in the app. If a dispute arises (or an assault), Uber has a complete record of who was in the car, where the car went, and how long the journey was. That's much more identifying info than a taxi ride generates. But is Uber safe to use? Well, in general, yes. But that's not to say the app offers a completely secure experience. No company can do that. But the average Uber ride — with its GPS monitoring, cashless payments, real identity recording, and pre-booking — generates more information about who is in the car, and is therefore likely to be generally safer than a normal taxi. |
Any concern about Uber drivers is mostly unfounded, especially when you consider the creeps the drive regular cabs.
All Uber drivers undergo a background check and must undergo an annual car inspection. Proof of insurance and a drivers license is also required. When you hail an Uber, you're given a picture of his car, his license plate and a picture of the driver, lest you have any concern about being picked up by an ax murderer. Anecdotally speaking, every Uber car I've ever been was a helluva lot better than some beat to crap old Crown Victoria most cabbies drive. And as that article notes, there's a huge paper trail involved. It's certainly not an easy avenue to perpetrate crime. |
Originally Posted by WRCSolberg
(Post 25482750)
All Uber drivers undergo a background check and must undergo an annual car inspection. Proof of insurance and a drivers license is also required.
Secondly, most personal insurance policies specifically exclude commercial activity, which ride sharing for profit is. |
P.S.
Uber's background checks don't catch criminals, says Houston Last week saw the latest story about an Uber driver, for all the wrong reasons. The newest incident happened in Houston, when an Uber driver allegedly took a drunk female passenger to his home and raped her. The driver, Duncan Eric Burton, 57, is an ex-con. He'd spent 14 years in federal prison on drug charges and was released in 2012, according to the Houston Chronicle. And he had cleared Uber's background check. <snip> "Not all background checks are created equal," said Lara Cottingham, deputy assistant director to the City of Houston's Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department. "It's easy to lie about your name, it's easy to lie about your Social Security number, it's easy to lie about where you've lived. Your fingerprints are tied to you." Case in point: one applicant who cleared Uber's background checks had 24 alias names, five listed birth dates, 10 listed Social Security numbers and an active warrant for arrest, according to a report released last week by Houston's Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department. <snip> |
Originally Posted by TWA884
(Post 25482941)
Two points, Uber does not use biometric identifiers such as fingerprints, so its does not uncover or track aliases which are often used by individuals with criminal records. Their checks do not extend as far back in time as is possible with fingerprint based criminal background checks (NYT).
You think cabbies are safer than Uber? Haha. Secondly, most personal insurance policies specifically exclude commercial activity, which ride sharing for profit is. Sorry, guy, not buying it. As someone who takes Uber regularly and has driven for Uber, they're not the menace to society you're trying to portray them as. |
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