Uber Drivers Can Rate Passengers And That May Affect Your Next Ride
LOS ANGELES (CBSLA.com) — If you've ever waited for an Uber ride that never came it may be because you're on Uber's blacklist.
It's a widely-known feature that passengers can rate drivers on the app.
But the reverse is also true. Drivers can also rate passengers and, for some, that's not a good thing.
Derrick Jennings has been an Uber driver for the past two years and says the rating system is a two-way street.
"What we want is for people to respect the driver, and for drivers to respect the customer. We go above and beyond," Jennings said. "They can give us a low rating. It can go both ways. That way, we can police each other."
Uber admits to the so-called blacklist where low-scoring passengers, rated on a scale of one through five, might not get picked up.
TV news producer Emily Torran, a resident in the Bay Area, says she was on it.
"I asked the driver what was going on. And he basically told me I had a really low Uber rating: under three out of five."
She thinks she got the low rating because she worked on her phone during rides to the office rather than chatting with her driver: "I feel really judged for being blacklisted for not being really friendly."
Uber says the passenger rating system is meant to curb disrespectful, threatening or unsafe behavior.
Jenning says he's seen his share of it: "She was talking kind of foul to me on the ride and I noted that on the survey...I gave her a '1.'"
Passengers with low scores allegedly are given a temporary cooling-off period or banned for unsafe behavior.
Until now, passengers had no indication they were being rated or what their rating was, but the next version of the app will allow them to know exactly where they stand.
But for now, passengers can find out their score by asking their driver or sending a service request.
