San Francisco: Ride sharing company Uber Technologies Inc. has said that low rated riders in USA and Canada might get their accounts deactivated. The company informed that it expects good behaviour from the rider’s side as well in addition to the driver’s side.
The rule took effect immediately from Wednesday. The company did not share the threshold rating that would lead to the deactivation of the rider’s account but said it would give them plenty of opportunities to change themselves so as to improve their rating.
“Riders will receive tips on how to improve their ratings, such as encouraging polite behaviour, avoiding leaving trash in the vehicle and avoiding requests for drivers to exceed the speed limit,” said Kate Parker, Uber’s head of safety brand and initiatives.
Earlier, only the drivers were the victims of these strict standards and were groaned of the riders not being under the same strict standards as them. On falling below a certain rating (considered to be 4.6) the drivers are permanently shut from the service.
“Drivers have long been expected to meet a minimum rating threshold, which can vary from city to city. While we expect only a small number of riders to ultimately be impacted by ratings-based deactivation, it’s the right thing to do,” Uber said.
The company has been experimenting on getting feedback on riders for years. In 2017, they came up with a feature where the drivers could choose tags according to the behaviour of the rider. They could choose from “wait time,” “patience,” “number of riders,” and more tags like them. If a rider gets the same tag within 30 days, they would be notified about it and how it is affecting their rider rating. There was however no such strict action taken if the rating remained low until from now.
“Respect is a two-way street, and so is accountability,” said Parker.
Uber has 91 million active riders and 3.9 million drivers across the world by December 2018. The company operates in 63 countries and regions. In USA alone, it provides about 40 million rides per month.
By:- Nikhil Vatsa
