SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Uber and Lyft have teamed up to create a database of drivers ousted from their ride-hailing services for complaints about sexual assault and other crimes that have raised passenger-safety concerns for years.
The clearinghouse will initially consist of drivers expelled by the ride-hailing rivals in the U.S. but will be open to other companies that deploy workers to perform services such as delivering groceries or take-out orders from restaurants.
According to The Associated Press, the companies will use third-party company HireRight, to oversee the background checks.
The safety program follows through on a promise that Uber made 15 months ago when it revealed that more than 3,000 sexual assaults had been reported on its service in the U.S. during 2018.
The AP reported that passenger's information will not be shared in the database in order to protect privacy.
According to The AP, if a driver is dismissed, the reason they were booted will be arranged into six categories: attempted non-consensual sexual penetration; non-consensual touching of a sexual body part; non-consensual kissing of a sexual body part; non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part; non-consensual sexual penetration; and fatal physical assaults.
