Uber has expanded its program to boot US and Canadian riders from their app who have substandard star ratings as they have in other countries. On the surface, this plan makes sense but it’s imperfect and may not work as intended.
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Uber Announces New Bans
Uber had previously disclosed that riders had been banned in Brazil for sub 4.0 star ratings. They expanded that program to Australia and New Zealand in October of last year. The ridesharing app hasn’t stated the criteria that will result in bans for riders in the US and Canada yet, a surprising move given that they were clear in the other cases.
A spokesperson for Uber gave little information about the criteria that will result in expulsion from the app:
“Each city has its own minimum threshold which is directly related to the average rider rating in that city,”
The Independent Driver’s Guild welcomed the news as they felt the star rating previously only penalized drivers while unsavory riders have been permitted to use the app unscathed.
They Have Good Reason
Attacks on drivers make for flashy headlines at the expense of the drivers who are simply doing their job. Protecting their riders has always been a priority but now protecting drivers have taken a front seat position. Drivers don’t deserve abuse, physical, verbal nor of their own property which they use to conduct business.
Uber is a public company but they are not a public service. If they so choose to include or exclude customers or drivers for whatever reason they determine, that is their choice. If drivers or riders disagree with their policy they can take their business to alternatives as well.
Reasons It Could Backfire
There a few reasons that good riders should be wary of the new regulations. The issue at stake is that drivers determine any reason for which they may choose to rate a passenger poorly. Uber have not released such and riders can rate drivers poorly for any reason they choose.
Assuming for a moment that a driver didn’t care for a rider for something that had nothing to do with their conduct, the user could be banned for doing nothing wrong. For example, if a rider was polite but wearing a MAGA hat, a lightning rod for liberals, they could be rated poorly based on their political views whether they expressed them or not. The same could be true for same-sex couples, persons of color, age, or even as basic as choosing not to talk to the driver while they ride.
False low ratings will eliminate otherwise good riders from using the service which would lower the company’s revenue and tarnish their image. That’s bad for business.
This Was Expected… By Me
I wrote a post earlier this year outlining how this program could backfire if expanded. I stand by those claims and frankly, feel a little vindicated. Some said that it won’t happen here but now it’s on the US and Canadian riders doorstep. Some said that low star rated riders should be banned and to an extent, I agree.
Where I take exception is the high value that was previously used for banning. In other countries, a 4.0 star rating was reason enough to terminate an account and anyone that has flunked a test knows that one poor rating will drag down your average quickly. That seems drastic.
Conclusion
For many, Uber is more than a ride-sharing app, it’s a safety tool; Lyft is not available in many other countries while Uber is. Excluding customers or drivers from their use of the app without forcing some sort of further investigation to show why a particularly low rating is given can jeopardize otherwise good passengers and drivers from those with less honorable intentions. I welcome a system whereby both drivers and riders are protected from bad actors of the other party, however, I remain concerned about the rollout.
What do you think? Do you welcome banning customers (in addition to drivers)? Have you been banned from the app? If the star rating threshold is 4.0, is that too high?
Kyle, I wouldn’t worry too much about either a single bad rating or the unpublished threshold. As a former drive, I can tell you Uber manipulates the driver rating at which drivers are removed from the platform. When I started driving in 2014, it was 4.7 and it dropped as rates dropped and it varied not just by country but also market to market. Uber needed a certain number of drivers and they weren’t going to kick people off the platform if that got in the way. I imagine the same will apply to passengers, and Uber would like to kick the worst 5 to 10 percent of riders off the system and the rating at which they do that will vary from not just country to country but by metro area/market. Finally, for drivers during your early time when you didn’t have many ratings they didn’t kick you off until you had a certain number of rides. So I have to imagine they would do the same with riders without a lot of ratings and only remove them from the Uber platform after they’ve had many rides and be given an opportunity to improve their rating. If it’s really vital to improve ones rating, there’s always the ability to tip with cash and I realize some don’t believe in it, but if it’s really safety tool to some users a few dollars can ensure they don’t lose access to Uber.
“If it’s really vital to improve ones rating, there’s always the ability to tip with cash and I realize some don’t believe in it, but if it’s really safety tool to some users a few dollars can ensure they don’t lose access to Uber.”
And this is exactly why I have problems with this system. I have no issues tipping through the app, and do so generously. But I will NOT tip in cash, and your suggestion that riders accept being extorted into doing so with the threat of being booted off the app is ridiculous, if not offensive. Given that you as a former driver see no problems with that, that leaves me no doubt there will be abuse of the system, i.e. the odious “$5 for five” system that allegedly existed before in-app tipping. And guess what? If that starts happening, and Uber turns a blind eye, I will simply ban Uber from my family’s transportation choices.
We live in an age where cash is no longer king and all of this technology is meant to streamline life. I was at a high-end restaurant recently where the server brought the check and said, “if you tip me in cash, I’ll love you forever.” Not only was this incredibly tacky and awkward considering the establishment (and the price of the bill) but it’s simply not my place to correct backend issues like tip-outs. If your management doesn’t facilitate your pay the way you feel they should, the onus is on you to seek correction. Not to harangue the customer.
Personally, the whole ratings aspect of Uber is one of the many reasons I no longer use it. I use UberEats solely because of the $15/month Amex Platinum credit. I find Juno in NYC to be a much better alternative and Lyft to be a perfectly fine choice elsewhere in the U.S.
I do realize it is not my job in life to educate people on the workings of the world but I feel it necessary in this situation. Because it is obvious you have no idea how a restaurant works. Seak correction? Management choosing a servers pay? Nationwide servers make $2.13 an hour. Because they are considered tipped employees they are not required to be given a break. Most servers work double shifts. A double shift is when you work a normal shift twice in one day. About 10 to 18 hours with no break. But here’s the part one should be aware of. they are not allowed to keep their tips and pay taxes on all wages even the ones they don’t keep. In the restaurant industry they do not have to follow the law. Servers on average pay at least 3% of their total sales back to the restaurant. Total sales. Meaning if a table tops nothing on a $100 check that server gets to pay $3 to wait on that table. Some restaurants will put an additional percentage on any bar drink and credit card tips plus make the service pay $0.03 for every credit card ran. All restaurants do this in some form, from Outback, red lobster, olive garden, Texas Roadhouse, that fancy Golf Course members only resturant, every place does it. The only correction that server could seek is to find another job. If all servers did that there would be no servers to provide food for all the lazy people. I hope this helps open your eyes. Have a great week!
I am well aware of the economics of both restaurants and waiting tables, having done so myself to get through college. If you’d read my comment more closely, you would realize that I was not arguing against the nature of tipping (I tip no less than 30% in any situation, even for poor service—everyone has an off day). I am against the nature of placing a guilt trip on customers for not tipping cash because management for one reason or another cannot tip out workers adequately. I don’t need to be aware of the metrics involved. I just need to tip well for service received. If a server thinks I am going to pop out to an ATM to tip cash on a $250 check, then I have a lesson myself for them on the harsh realities of life.
I don’t want to make this into a tipping argument, but what you have said is 100% false. Tipped employees have taxes withheld at a rate of about 8% of gross receipts, and are ONLY legally required to pay tax on the ACTUAL tips earned. But no waitstaff ever goes that route because their actual earnings are always higher than the calculated amount, so they get away with paying less tax than they actually owe.
@MeanMeosh my rating as a passenger is around a 4.85. I usually but don’t always tip, and unless it’s an airport run with bags its always through the app. Basically, as driver in my market, I can tell you the only people that have a 4.0 rating as a passenger are alcoholics. If you are on time and respectful, I always gave out 5* ratings. What causes people to be down starred are being late, being disrespectful of my property (e.g. banging doors, moving seats all the way up and down but not moving them back) and or stupid stuff only drunk people do (once some drunk girls left beer bottles in the seat pocket and ripped the fabric underneath). The only folks in short that would need to tip, are those who are douche bags and alcoholics. My guess is 95 to 97 percent of Uber user will maintain an above 4.0 rating without having to tip.
I am never late for my uber and I never do anything that would annoy drivers. But I usually like to keep my ride private (no small talks about the world or whatever), yet my rating is always 4.5. We have enough studies that people do not like to give higher rates for ethnic minorities or not so beautiful people even if they act politely, so UBER needs to make low raters responsible for explanation why they rated lower. There are tons of stuff about teaching evaluations, so UBER should look into those
I disagree with the suggestion they are not a public service: they ARE, and their very existence depends of ongoing regulation and certification by agencies responsible for the provision of public transport, at least in my country.
I don’t have problem with weeding out ratbag passengers, providided there is some greater clarity around the rating process. I suspect that the greatest threat to my 5.0 rating will come from driver dissatisfaction over the tip, but I’m not going to lose sleep over that prospect.
It’s a good news for taxi and livery industry after all,
cause any rider get booted from Ap,taxi/limo may grab them,at same time any driver booted from Ap, they come to Taxi or Limo driving.
As a rider my rating is 4.91 which I really don’t understand as I’ve never had less than a 5* ride.