Uber Driver Drunk over Festive Season

[Winkerclan]

On Christmas Day around 9pm, my daughter took an Uber from my house back to her home. The driver only had a 3.6 rating, which concerned me a bit. When my daughter later called me to say she'd arrived at home, she told me the driver was drunk. He was driving slowly, but the car often drifted over the lanes, and my daughter became very nervous. At a busy intersection in Sandton, the driver drove right through a red robot, without even slowing down, and they were almost in a serious accident. Luckily my daughter got home unharmed. She emailed Uber to report him, but who knows how many other people this driver drove around that evening. This incident has made us very wary to use Uber, especially over the festive season, and from now on we will not accept any driver who has a lower rating.

My husband and I were in an Uber the day before (on Christmas Eve). We found our driver to be extremely loud and overly talkative, and we wondered if he had been drinking, although his driving seemed fine. We were then stopped at a huge roadblock. The police chatted away to the driver and didn't question him at all (our driver that night told us that the police all know who the Uber drivers are). But this complacency means the drivers can drink and drive, and the police won't even suspect, or have them tested.

I think it should be legislation that all Uber drivers carry with them a breathalyzer kit, where they can prove to the passengers before each trip that they have not been drinking.

 

[AfricanTech]

I presume that you gave him a zero rating

 

[acidman1]

I have taken over a 100 trips with Uber and have not yet had a suspected drunk driver. Yours sounds like an isolated incident and you should not generalize. Have you tried any of the other taxi companies or even the minibus taxis yet? Your proposed legislation would be better suited to all forms of public transport, although impractical.

 

[krycor]

Just complain directly to Uber.. They will then block the driver and likely reimburse for drive after likely calling up all other rides he provided that night. They have metrics on trip so can see if he was driving abnormally slow etc

 

[Jola]

The guy could also just have been overworked (too long shift) and too tired.

But no less dangerous.

 

[Ninja'd]

We found our driver to be extremely loud and overly talkative,

But almost everytime I read about Uber people compliment the driver for being talkative

 

[MrGray]

There is nothing magical about Uber that will make it impervious to the odd bad apple, just like any other organisation, but they do have higher standards and better systems for weeding them out, which is more than one could say for the traditional taxi companies.

 

[Jola]

But almost everytime I read about Uber people compliment the driver for being talkative

Yes, I took a trip last night, and the guy was very talkative, but I enjoyed it, gave him 5.

But horses for courses.