Uber is sacking more than 15,000 drivers due to ongoing race cancellations, says union | Economie

Amasp says that between the effects of the pandemic and now rising fuel prices, about 25% of São Paulo’s fleet drivers have given up work in the sector — nationwide, no survey. The lack of drivers increased the waiting time for passengers.

“It was a brief disqualification, which left the drivers in a difficult situation. Regarding the use of the platform, there is no prohibition on the practice of disqualification,” says Eduardo Lima de Sousa, president of Amasp.

‘permanent disable’

NS g 1 Talk to three application drivers who have been excluded from the platform. All cancellations are accepted, but they say the numbers provided by the platform do not correspond to the number of canceled flights and that they were not notified of the possibility of exclusion.

When a driver is removed from the platform, Uber sends a message within the platform and restricts access to new races. Claiming a violation of the Uber Community Law, the account is “permanently disabled”.

“At Uber, canceling trips is a right for both the driver and the user. However, misuse of this resource constitutes an abuse of the platform, as it intentionally hinders its operation,” states the note sent to drivers.

Driver Francisco Peixoto Neto, 33, says the company notified him on Tuesday, but he used to cancel races in risky areas of the city of São Paulo, and more recently those that were unprofitable due to the cost of fuel. . He says he was never notified that he was breaking any rules.

“If I had received a letter earlier, I would have stopped canceling because I am counting on it to support my 5-month-old daughter. We didn’t have a chance to defend ourselves,” says Peixoto.

The same pattern was described by Douglas Santana, 36. “I’ve been working for Uber for almost 4 years, and I’ve never had any problems or complaints,” he says.

Carlos Alberto Rocha, 37, says that after a break on Tuesday, he was unable to return to the application. Moreover, when the account is deactivated, he cannot contact the company to negotiate a return.

“What bothers me is that we are simply left out, regardless of whether we need to support our family or pay car, insurance and licensing premiums,” Rocha says.

Partner drivers are independent professionals and can, like users, cancel trips when they deem it necessary. However, excessive cancellations or for fraudulent purposes constitute abuse of the resource and constitute abuse of the platform, as they impede its operation and intentionally harm the experience of other users and drivers.

Uber has its own teams and technology that constantly review rides and cancellations to identify suspected violations of Community Code and, if found, block the accounts in question.

Behaviors such as the practice of canceling multiple trips in a row and soon after accepting it negatively harms everyone who uses the platform because, on the one hand, it prevents other partner drivers from monetizing by fulfilling the same canceled trip requests, and on the other hand, it leaves users waiting longer Or even give up on demand.

The abuse of a trip cancellation has nothing to do with the driver’s freedom to refuse requests. At Uber, the driver is free to decide which travel requests to accept and which to decline.

Communication between partner and user – when the name, model, and license plate is shared and the user receives confirmation that the driver is on their way – occurs only after the driver has verified the order information (time, distance, destination, etc.). ) and decided to accept the flight.”