Uber and Lyft drivers who enchantment deactivations by the rideshare giants not often get reinstated, in line with a report issued by the New York Taxi Staff Alliance and the Asian American Authorized Protection and Training Fund.
Solely 2% of Lyft drivers and 5% of Uber drivers get reinstated after interesting a choice by the agency to kick them off of the app, in line with a survey of 341 deactivated drivers carried out by the NYTWA.
“They’re being fired, without notice and without due process,” stated Elizabeth Koo, AALDEF’s director of financial justice initiatives, who authored the report. “Losing your job shouldn’t happen without process.”
Uber and Lyft don’t think about their drivers workers within the conventional sense, however slightly contractors, utilizing the corporations’ apps to search out passengers. When both agency “deactivates” a driver’s account, they’re unable to work on that platform.
The survey discovered 70% of Uber drivers and 76% p.c of Lyft drivers have been deactivated with none prior discover that there had been a criticism or a problem with their efficiency. For-hire drivers are sometimes accountable for the capital prices of their job — upkeep, gas and automotive funds. Certainly 88% of drivers surveyed stated they purchased their car particularly for the job, and 69% stated they nonetheless had car bills to pay following their deactivation.
“The absence of notice, explanation, or appeal rights related to deactivations violates basic principles of fairness and workers’ dignity,” Koo wrote. “Policymakers should enact and enforce just-cause protections for New York City’s 84,000 active rideshare drivers to ensure that no driver is deactivated without legitimate reason, transparency or due process.”
The report comes as a invoice to ban driver deactivations absent “just cause or a bona fide economic reason” continues to work its method by way of Metropolis Council — with help from NYTWA.
“If it’s a serious allegation, you want to be able to defend your good name,” Desai added.
A spokesman for Lyft stated the rideshare firm was already working to streamline its course of for interesting deactivations, and questioned the validity of the survey’s findings.
Appeals are dealt with internally by Lyft’s security crew, Macklin stated, and are adjudicated by somebody aside from the one that issued the deactivation within the first place.
Uber spokeswoman Freddi Goldstein equally stated the rideshare big has processes for drivers to dispute each warnings and deactivations.
“Restricting a driver’s access to the platform is always a last resort—done not because we want to, but because we need to ensure everyone who uses Uber, and road users more generally, can have a safe and reliable experience,” she stated. “Access restriction is not a common occurrence.”
“Fewer than 2% of NYC Uber drivers experienced a permanent deactivation in the first six months of 2025,” she added. “These deactivations were largely due to fraudulent activity and safety incidents.”
