Uber continues to be transparent when it comes to safety. Which, of course, does not mean that the situation has improved. With complaints from platform drivers on the rise — not just in the United States, but around the world — the company has promised to publish a status report every two years. The one that directly relates to the accidents that occurred in one of the Uber cars and to sexual harassment. Now, with a delay due to years of the pandemic and, according to the company, great difficulty in obtaining data from the Administration, the result also does not show large numbers indicating real changes.
On the one hand, there is the issue of sexual assault in the context of rides made by some Uber vehicles. In the United States, as well as in the regions of Latin America where the technology company operates, this question has long been one of the most serious problems faced by the company.
There were 3,824 sexual assaults on its US platform in 2019 and 2020, according to an Uber report stating its activities in the United States. The data, admittedly frightening, is lower than in the previous study. 38% less, especially as there were 5,981 sexual assaults between 2017 and 2018. Some of them the company divides into groups depending on the severity of the issue, which range from kissing without consent, rape and attempted rape. Most of the attacks involved “touching a sexual part of the body without consent”.
However, what do these data tell us? While it is true that sexual assaults have dropped significantly, we should be mindful of the events of 2020. The report refers to a global year in which Uber shut down almost 100% of its passenger operations as a result of the coronavirus pandemic. How much of this decline in sexual assault is due to the nearly 3 month hiatus that the mobility sector experienced, adding to it the end of the year that didn’t take off? This point is not fully clarified in the report, which, in any case, notes an improvement in the figure, which should be taken relatively.
Also the safety of Uber drivers
The Uber report also points to the results of traffic accidents, a group that has long demanded increased safety during working hours. The result is anything but positive. During the reporting period, the number of fatal accidents as well as attacks on drivers increased. Some, in any case, are still smaller than those that fall on passengers. The former are victims in 39% of cases and passengers in 61%.
With only an increase of 6 victims compared to the previous report, the company provides an explanation for this data: Due to less traffic due to the restrictions, the average traffic speed has increased and with it the number of accidents.
And here we open another discussion: the pandemic also imposes several important points on these data. On the one hand, the death rate was higher in 2019, but the highest number of accidents was in 2020 – along with the medical crisis. This is due to the aforementioned increase in speed on the roads, as well as the reduction in available drivers. Uber, like the rest of the mobile platforms, has been in a kind of internal crisis for some time now. There are no drivers, and demand has been growing ever since restrictions began to ease. Thus, the increase in the number of accidents can also be attributed to the pressure that in this almost Uber falls on the shoulders of its so-called partners. One that was in demand and remains on the side of driver rights platforms in the US.
What about the impact of Covid-19 on drivers? While the report talks about much of what happened in 2020, the reality is that the company does not get wet in this matter. The one to which he gave $50 million internationally to provide his drivers with the materials they need.
What happens to other countries? The reality is that Uber does not apply this policy to other regions. In particular, in the case of Spain, the company confirms that there are no reports of this type to date.
Source: Hiper Textual
