Uber has 30 days to require sure drivers to get fingerprinted if the ride-hail big intends to proceed transporting unaccompanied teenagers in California.
The California Public Utilities Fee (CPUC) issued a ruling Thursday that requires taxi and ride-hail drivers who’re carrying unaccompanied minors within the state to go a fingerprint background verify. The ruling additionally requires transport corporations to pay for the price of these background checks.
Uber has a historical past of combating again towards fingerprint-based background verify necessities for drivers. Seven years in the past, Uber and Lyft blocked an identical effort in California to fingerprint drivers. The corporate has argued that its present name-based background checks and different guardrails are adequate, and that such an inconvenient step would discourage drivers from signing as much as the platform and would disproportionately have an effect on minorities.
All that goes out the window with regards to transporting children safely and guaranteeing they’re not stepping into the automobile with a possible intercourse offender.
“When an grownup is being tasked to offer a service to a minor, the grownup is positioned ready of belief, accountability, and management over California’s most susceptible citizenry — youngsters,” reads the choice. “Not conducting a fingerprint-based background verify to determine adults with disqualifying arrests or legal information would place the unaccompanied minor in a probably harmful, if not life-threatening scenario.”
Uber launched Uber for Teenagers, its service that permits teenagers aged 13 to 17 to hail an Uber with out a father or mother or guardian, in February 2024. The CPUC despatched a warning letter to Uber strongly recommending that Uber cease the service till a 2016 rulemaking round background checks could possibly be resolved. In March, Uber requested for readability on the rule, particularly the half that said any enterprise concerned “primarily” in transporting minors would want to implement strict background checks. The corporate stated this summer time that fewer than 10% of the corporate’s whole rides contain unaccompanied minors.
On the core of the talk has been whether or not Uber must be required to take part within the Division of Justice’s Trustline program. Trustline is a registry maintained by the California Division of Social Companies that makes use of fingerprinting to display screen caregivers for legal arrests and convictions. It additionally screens candidates towards the Little one Abuse Central Index, which comprises stories of suspected baby abuse and neglect.
Uber has stated its personal name-based screening system by way of Checkr, in addition to security options like reside journey monitoring included in Uber for Teenagers, is satisfactory to maintain riders of any age protected. Uber additionally says it solely pairs essentially the most skilled and extremely rated drivers with teenagers.
Uber has additionally been accused of not taking sufficient steps to guard riders from harmful conditions, together with baby trafficking. In July, two households in South Carolina sued Uber alleging the corporate allowed their teen daughters to be taken throughout state strains to a predator’s residence the place one of many ladies was sexually assaulted.
The CPUC’s ruling is unhealthy information for Uber, which launched Uber for Teenagers in California in February 2024, however excellent news for HopSkipDrive, a startup that gives a ride-sharing service for youths and advocated in favor of this ruling.
HopSkipDrive refers to its drivers as “CareDrivers” and says all of them have caregiving expertise and undergo a 15-point certification earlier than being onboarded — together with a fingerprint-based background verify. The startup additionally makes use of telematics to detect unsafe driving habits and allow real-time experience monitoring, and has a devoted crew monitoring every experience.
The CPUC’s ruling additionally requires transport corporations that intend to move minors share info with the company on how they implement reside journey monitoring for folks, what security procedures they implement at pickup and drop-off areas, and what kind of driver coaching the businesses implement particularly round transporting unaccompanied minors.
The ruling additionally says that every firm is answerable for paying for the checks.
Uber has additionally argued towards this stipulation, saying that forcing the corporate — which has a market cap of round $150 billion as of December — to pay for fingerprinting would end in a worth hike for the Uber for Teenagers service. Uber, like many giant corporations, has a historical past of offloading prices related to rulings and laws onto the client. For instance, California riders can count on to see the next message on the backside of their Uber receipts: “In California, on common, roughly 33% of the client worth went in direction of protecting government-mandated business insurance coverage for rideshare in July 2024, one of many highest charges within the nation.”
HopSkipDrive pays for the price of fingerprint checks for its drivers. The Fee wrote in its ruling that “if small [transportation network companies] like HopSkipDrive can cowl the price of a TrustLine background verify, Uber ought to achieve this as nicely.”
Uber didn’t reply in time to TechCrunch’s request for remark.
