‘Deactivated’ — When Drivers Are Cut Off From Uber
One day last March, Zeng Yong Tan, dropped his 7-year-old son off at his Flushing school, then logged onto Uber to start his 12-hour shift as the sole breadwinner of the family.
But something was wrong.
“I couldn’t log in. Never happened before. I thought it was an error,” Tan said in Mandarin.
Tan had been “deactivated,” as Uber puts it, and he was not given a reason.
He couldn’t understand why. Tan says he had a 4.91 rating, just shy of the maximum 5.0 score, and higher than the 4.6 threshold that drivers need to avoid being deactivated.
Tan protested, received an email from Uber saying they were looking into it. And since then: silence.
In many cities, for-hire drivers are complaining about what they see as unfair deactivations. In New York, three drivers voiced their concerns at a Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) hearing two weeks ago. In San Francisco a few days ago, a group of drivers tried to deliver a petition to the company’s headquarters with 3,000 signatures of people protesting unfair deactivation. One driver was assaulted by a security guard.
In the past few years, the company has settled suits in Massachusetts and California over its deactivation policies.
Uber has not commented on its deactivation policies outside of its policy page. There is no publicly available information on how many drivers manage to be reactivated.
Deactivation in for-hire services such as Uber, Lyft, Juno and Via usually happen if drivers’ ratings go lower than a 4.6, the common threshold in all four for-hire services in the city, or if drivers make ‘hateful statements’ against their company, or cancel too many rides. The services are also watchful for drivers who are unsafe or unpleasant toward their passengers.
In some cases, a serious complaint from a rider can lead to immediate deactivation. Ashref Bjimon, a 54-year-old Nigerian Muslim, told Labor New York that he is still deactivated by Uber because a rider filed a complaint in April that he was driving drunk.
“I was so outraged. My faith means I cannot drink alcohol. And Uber doesn’t believe me… They don’t care. I am easily replaceable,” Bjimon said.
He said the complaint might have arisen because he swerved once while driving. That occurred “not because I’m drunk, but because of other factors such as crazy drivers. And I cannot explain this to Uber.”
Sometimes, drivers push back. Michelle Dotting, an UberBlack driver based in Manhattan, said that she was nearly deactivated after a passenger told the company that she “reeked of marijuana.” She said she countered that she had never “smoked that crap” and did a drug test to show she was clean. She was allowed to drive after that.
“Passengers have the right to say anything they want on the drivers and they don’t have a defense mechanism,” Dotting told the TLC board. “Some people just want free rides. There needs to be a system to help these services be accountable to help drivers.”
Meera Joshi, TLC chair, said her agency will consider a new rule to ensure that drivers can appeal deactivations through a hearing process. However, she said, the TLC has higher priorities with drivers’ minimum wage and other benefits.
“It seems that unfair deactivations haven’t changed from a few years ago. There needs to be a fair hearing,” Joshi said. “Not everyone should be reactivated, but everyone’s story should be heard.”
As for Tan, he is working with Lyft and can “thankfully” continue driving. But the deactivation means he’s making less money, because he can no longer pick up Uber customers while driving around, waiting for passengers.
“It leaves a sour taste, but these companies see us as dogs,” Tan said. “Even criminals get to defend themselves. We drivers who work hard to move New York, we just get cast aside.”
