Are Rideshare Drivers Behind The Wheel Too Long To Be Safe?

Let’s say that you are in an Uber or Lyft, and you are in an accident. Your Uber driver blames the other driver, while the other driver blames your Uber driver. You are just a passenger. From your perspective, it seems as if your driver may have done nothing wrong, that you can tell. But there might be one thing you’re overlooking: how long has your Uber or other rideshare driver actually been driving?

Maximum Time Driving

While you can get behind the wheel exhausted–something that you should never do, and something that causes a lot of accidents nationwide–Uber drivers cannot do so, under Uber’s relatively newly implemented rules (which Lyft has also adopted).

Uber drivers make money driving–we know that. But that can place an incentive on driving as much as they can, as long as they can, for as far as they can. And much like commercial truck drivers, the need to put money in front of safety, can be compelling.

Uber drivers, to get paid, must be logged into the Uber app. The app knows if the driver has driven more than 12 hours in any 72 hour time period–the maximum allowed time. Once the driver is offline (and presumably not behind the wheel) for 6 consecutive hours, the clock will reset.

All driving counts towards the limit–whether picking someone up, or driving to a destination. However sitting around waiting for a job to pop up on the app, does not count.

If the 12 maximum hours are reached in the middle of a trip, the driver will be allowed to complete the trip.

Getting Around the Restrictions

But one thing the app doesn’t account for, is what the driver does in those “off hours,” that is, the 6 consecutive hours the driver must be off the app, to reset the 12 hour clock.

For most, Uber is a “side hustle.” That means that any time when the driver is not operating an Uber, that driver may not be home, sleeping or resting. That driver may be working another job. And that means, when the driver logs back in to Uber or Lyft, he or she is just as fatigued as he would have been had he never logged off.

And as you may imagine, many tech savvy drivers are actually finding ways around the driving time restriction. Some may even be using multiple apps, or multiple accounts, or by simply signing up to drive for more than one company, like Uber and Lyft.

Many also blame Uber itself, for the low pay rate; to make any type of meaningful wage at that rate, many drivers complain that they cannot be limited by the 12 hours maximum, and that if they were paid more, they would drive less.

The next time you’re in an accident with an Uber or Lyft, it may be worth asking how long that driver has been on the roads–it may be too long to be completely safe behind the wheel.

Injured in an Uber, Lyft or rideshare? Contact our Rhode Island rideshare injury lawyers at Robert E. Craven & Associates at 401-453-2700 for help.

Source:

uber.com/en-HK/blog/drivinghourlimit/