AUGUST 21, 2018 – The ridesharing service Uber is no stranger to publicity – but not all of it has been positive. Earlier this year, CNN reported that 103 drivers for the company had been accused of assault in the past four years – with at least 31 of them convicted for their crimes.
These incidents are in direct contrast to the company’s promise of providing “a safe drive home,” which is why they’ve made the decision to prevent as many future incidents as possible – through a real-time driver monitoring program.
The program, which began testing in July, will provide Uber with information as soon as a driver is charged with a criminal offense. Depending on the nature of the crime, the driver may then be pulled from service as convictions or charges for felonies, violent crimes or sexual offenses result in an automatic disqualification from driving for the company. Since testing began, 25 drivers have been suspended.
The problem, of course, is that while companies such as Uber have stringent background screening policies in place that must be met during the hiring process, once the individual becomes an employee, there is often little screening that is conducted on an ongoing basis. That means that if a once clean employee starts abusing drugs again, gets a DUI or begins demonstrating other unsafe driving habits (such as speeding), you might not know about it right away. In fact, unless you’re required to run a Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) each year as a DOT-regulated business, you might not know about it at all.
To combat this problem, and help protect the safety of our nation’s roadways (not to mention the business’ reputation), many companies are implementing similar monitoring programs so that when a driver gets into an accident – or arrested for theft – they’ll be one of the first to know. Monitoring programs are available for both criminal and motor vehicle reports, with notifications sent to the company representative almost immediately after a change is detected on a report. This gives the employer the ability to address issues quickly, before a workplace incident occurs.
Although more and more employers are showing interest in these continuous monitoring services, only a handful of companies have begun offering these programs. At Foley, our compliance portal gives clients the ability to monitor their drivers’ criminal and motor vehicle reports, with updated reports uploaded to their portal account soon after a change is found. For DOT-regulated employers, the MVR monitoring program fulfills the annual motor vehicle report requirement, as well.
To learn more about our compliance portal, or Foley’s continuous monitoring programs, please call (860) 815-0764.