Uber Now Runs Continuous Background Checks On Drivers

Uber has taken a lot of flak because of the way it conducted background checks. The company was fined $8.9 million by Colorado for adding drivers to its platform that had criminal records. Both Uber and Lyft saw more than 8,000 of their drivers combined fail a Massachusetts background check in 2017. Clearly, much more needs to be done to ensure that the drivers these companies are allowing on their platforms don’t pose a risk to their users. To that end, Uber has confirmed that it will now run continuous background checks on its drivers in the United States.

Uber has teamed up with its background check provider Checkr and Appriss, which provides safety data, for this purpose. Appriss’s real-time collection of data will notify Uber if a driver gets newly charged with a criminal offense. It will then be up to Uber to decide whether it’s going to suspend the driver to ensure that the person doesn’t harm its users with unsafe behavior.

The company started testing this system earlier this month and has since deployed it to a “meaningful percentage” of its drivers in the United States. The system has resulted in 25 drivers being removed from the Uber system so far, according to Uber VP of safety and insurance Gus Fuldner.

Fuldner told Axios that “Ultimately what we’re looking for… is a way to get the same kind of info as in a background check, but get it in a real-time manner.”

This real-time stream of new information about drivers also means that drivers that were blocked from driving for Uber because their background checks prevented them from doing so will now be able to reapply if their charges or other disqualifying factors have been resolved.

Adnan Farooqui
Categories: Transportation
Tags: Uber