Uber Drivers Forum banner

Uber Deducts Millions from Drivers’ Wages for Airport Tickets They Can't Appeal

5K views 43 replies 28 participants last post by  Stevie The magic Unicorn 
#1 ·

Uber Deducts Millions from Drivers' Wages for Airport Tickets They Can't Appeal

Experts say the system violates drivers' Constitutionally-protected due process rights.

By Lauren Kaori Gurley
July 22, 2020, 9:00am

On March 3, 2018, Tedros, a rideshare driver in Sacramento, received an email from Uber notifying him that the rideshare giant would deduct $100 from his next paycheck.
Five months prior, the police at San Francisco's International Airport wrote him up for a permit violation while he was waiting to pick up a passenger. But rather than serving Tedros the ticket, as a police officer normally would, the airport issued the citation directly to Uber without Tedros' knowledge.

"We realize this likely will come as a surprise, but per your agreement with Uber, we must collect the violation amount from you," the email from Uber, reviewed by Motherboard, reads. "The violation amount will be deducted from your next pay statement."
It wasn't the first or last time Tedros had his paycheck slashed due to a citation from San Francisco's airport police that had occurred months prior without his knowledge.
"I've had four citations of $100 each deducted from my pay. Sometimes this means I've had negative earnings and no money to pay for gas," Tedros told Motherboard on the phone in July. "I've called Uber and they said 'we can't do anything.' There was no way for me to contest the citation."
Tedros is one of thousands of rideshare drivers in the United States who have had this problem. Contracts between Uber and airports allow for millions of dollars each year to be funneled out of their paychecks into the hands of airports, which are typically owned by local governments and publicly-owned airport authorities. Between 2016 and 2019, rideshare drivers paid $3.8 million in fines to Los Angeles World Airports, the airport authority that owns and operates Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), according to data collected from a public records request by the Mobile Workers Alliance, an advocacy group which represents gig workers in Southern California. Within that time period, the airport authority issued 11,117 citations to drivers, according to the same source.

Experts say this system is a violation of drivers' Constitutionally-enshrined due process rights, which say that the government cannot take legal action against a person without notifying them of the charges or action and offering the person an opportunity to present their case before a neutral party. Under normal circumstances, drivers in the United States have the right to dispute parking and traffic citations in a court, and often do so successfully.
"What's happening is drivers get wages taken away as a result of tickets that they don't know why they got and have no opportunity to contest," Veena Dubal, a law professor at UC Hastings and gig economy expert, told Motherboard. "I think it's a due process issue; the government is taking away their money without them understanding why. It seems fundamentally unfair, and I'd say the airport is at fault. Why wouldn't an Uber driver get a chance to contest a ticket like you and I would?"
Annie, an Uber driver in San Francisco, who asked to be identified by her first name only because she feared retaliation from Uber, said she received a $100 deduction from her earnings in December 2019 for stopping in a pedestrian zone at San Francisco's airport but had no recollection of the alleged event, because it occurred in September, three months prior.
"The only notification I got about it was when Uber took my money. No notifications in the mail or from the city or airport. Nothing," she said. "I learned about it because I checked my account at the end of a day of driving and there was $0. I was under such stress at the time, I just thought, 'Well this is another way I'm getting screwed by Uber.'"

Uber declined to comment on why it handles citations this way. Mobile Workers Alliance said it has no documented cases of drivers' wages being automatically taken by Lyft to pay for citations at airports. Drivers said Lyft absorbs fees for tickets issued at San Francisco's airport, but the company did not respond to a request for comment, and we're unsure if that policy applies more broadly at other airports.
Doug Yankel, a spokesperson for San Francisco's airport told Motherboard that while rideshare companies are "afforded a review and appeals process," drivers are not.
"SFO enters into a permit with TNCs, not individual drivers," Yankel said. "As a result, citations for any rule violations are issued to the TNC directly, not drivers. Therefore, SFO does not collect any funds directly from drivers."
"Each TNC sets their own policies on how citations are managed with their drivers," he continued. "We understand that some TNCs absorb the citation fees, while others pass this cost through to the driver."
Uber drivers told Motherboard that major airports in California, including SFO (which is owned and operated by the city of San Francisco), LAX, and San Diego International Airport, regularly fine drivers. They say they are never able to contest these fines and that they see the fines deducted from their paychecks months later. Common reasons for citations at airports include not displaying an Uber placard, stopping for too long in pedestrian zones, and parking outside designated areas for rideshare drivers.

In some instances, rideshare drivers in Los Angeles say they've been deactivated for citations they could not contest.
"Receiving a citation from [Los Angeles World Airports] may...result in the transportation network company [TNC] unilaterally deciding to deactivate a driver's account, effectively resulting in the equivalent of being terminated from one's job," drivers with the Mobile Workers Alliance wrote in a letter to airport leadership in June demanding the airport implement an appeals process for citations, complaints, and financial penalties levied against them.
In the letter, the rideshare drivers go on to contend that the heavy policing and surveillance of rideshare drivers at LAX places drivers at the risk of discrimination and police brutality. (Lyft claims that 79 percent of its drivers in Los Angeles identify as racial minorities.)
Rideshare companies deduct wages from drivers for airport citations thanks to a provision in their contracts with airports. For example, Los Angeles's airport authority reserves the right to levy fines against drivers such as a $200 fine for "failure to adhere to TNC Driver, TNC Vehicle, Requirements" and a $300 fine for "failure to accurately report a TNC Trip" in its contract with rideshare companies.
Robert Moreno, an Uber driver based in Tijuana, Mexico, who runs an online group for Latino rideshare drivers near the U.S.-Mexico border, says drivers have posted about receiving citations from police at San Diego International Airport without the opportunity to contest them.

"Normally citations are handed out physically or sent to a driver's address, but that doesn't happen at San Diego's airport," said Moreno. "The airport authorities are saying Uber gave them permission to skip the process and go straight to wage garnishment. They don't give us a chance to make a payment plan or fight the citation. A governing body shouldn't be able to delete your rights just because they're in a special contract with Uber."
Rideshare drivers in San Diego are in the process of filing a public records request with San Diego International Airport for more information about its contracts with Lyft and Uber. The airport did not respond to a request for comment from Motherboard.
Beyond these citations, airports profit massively off the labor of rideshare drivers. Los Angeles's airport authority charges Uber drivers $4 per pick-up and drop-off from the airport-trip fees that are subsidized by passengers. In 2018 alone, rideshare drivers conducted 8.9 million rides to and from Los Angeles airports, generating tens of millions in revenue for the airport authority. (San Francisco's airport charges $5 per ride, and collected on more than 10 million drop offs and pick ups in 2018.)
LAX did not respond to Motherboard's request for comment.
Joshua Browder, the founder of DoNotPay, a free chatbot that has helped drivers in the US and UK successfully appeal more than 300,000 parking ticket citations, says contesting airport tickets is one of the most common reasons Uber and Lyft drivers use his services.
"The government uses these citations as a source of revenue, and in this case, airports are issuing a tax on rideshare drivers," Browder told Motherboard. "It's well known that rideshare drivers don't make much money. The fact they have to pay these tickets while working very hard is crippling. It's an unfairness that the government places the responsibility on the most vulnerable members of society.
Do you have a tip about working conditions in the gig economy? Contact the writer Lauren at Lauren.gurley@vice.com or on Signal 201-897-2109.
"[The tickets themselves are unfair], but another level of this is that sometimes drivers aren't even breaking the rules, yet airports can issue tickets and drivers can't contest them later," he added.
Motherboard spoke to rideshare drivers and organizers in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, and Sacramento who say they are allowed to contest airport tickets, and do not see fines deducted from their earnings.
 
See less See more
#2 ·
For tone, balance and accuracy if you are doing RS at an airport that required permits you won't be issued a ticket directly. That is EXACTLY what the permit is for. If driver(s) didn't know that, they should avoid the airports.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tr4vis Ka1anick
#4 ·
Uber would lose a class action
maybe in other states, not Calif. Uber is just processing the ticket fees. Uber pays the authority, driver pays Uber. Case would be dismissed. Drivers' beef is with the airport authority.
 
#11 ·
"Uber declined to comment on why it handles citations this way. Mobile Workers Alliance said it has no documented cases of drivers' wages being automatically taken by Lyft to pay for citations at airports. Drivers said Lyft absorbs fees for tickets issued at San Francisco’s airport, but the company did not respond to a request for comment, and we're unsure if that policy applies more broadly at other airports."
 
#12 ·

Uber Deducts Millions from Drivers' Wages for Airport Tickets They Can't Appeal

Experts say the system violates drivers' Constitutionally-protected due process rights.

By Lauren Kaori Gurley
July 22, 2020, 9:00am

On March 3, 2018, Tedros, a rideshare driver in Sacramento, received an email from Uber notifying him that the rideshare giant would deduct $100 from his next paycheck.
Five months prior, the police at San Francisco's International Airport wrote him up for a permit violation while he was waiting to pick up a passenger. But rather than serving Tedros the ticket, as a police officer normally would, the airport issued the citation directly to Uber without Tedros' knowledge.

"We realize this likely will come as a surprise, but per your agreement with Uber, we must collect the violation amount from you," the email from Uber, reviewed by Motherboard, reads. "The violation amount will be deducted from your next pay statement."
It wasn't the first or last time Tedros had his paycheck slashed due to a citation from San Francisco's airport police that had occurred months prior without his knowledge.
"I've had four citations of $100 each deducted from my pay. Sometimes this means I've had negative earnings and no money to pay for gas," Tedros told Motherboard on the phone in July. "I've called Uber and they said 'we can't do anything.' There was no way for me to contest the citation."
Tedros is one of thousands of rideshare drivers in the United States who have had this problem. Contracts between Uber and airports allow for millions of dollars each year to be funneled out of their paychecks into the hands of airports, which are typically owned by local governments and publicly-owned airport authorities. Between 2016 and 2019, rideshare drivers paid $3.8 million in fines to Los Angeles World Airports, the airport authority that owns and operates Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), according to data collected from a public records request by the Mobile Workers Alliance, an advocacy group which represents gig workers in Southern California. Within that time period, the airport authority issued 11,117 citations to drivers, according to the same source.

Experts say this system is a violation of drivers' Constitutionally-enshrined due process rights, which say that the government cannot take legal action against a person without notifying them of the charges or action and offering the person an opportunity to present their case before a neutral party. Under normal circumstances, drivers in the United States have the right to dispute parking and traffic citations in a court, and often do so successfully.
"What's happening is drivers get wages taken away as a result of tickets that they don't know why they got and have no opportunity to contest," Veena Dubal, a law professor at UC Hastings and gig economy expert, told Motherboard. "I think it's a due process issue; the government is taking away their money without them understanding why. It seems fundamentally unfair, and I'd say the airport is at fault. Why wouldn't an Uber driver get a chance to contest a ticket like you and I would?"
Annie, an Uber driver in San Francisco, who asked to be identified by her first name only because she feared retaliation from Uber, said she received a $100 deduction from her earnings in December 2019 for stopping in a pedestrian zone at San Francisco's airport but had no recollection of the alleged event, because it occurred in September, three months prior.
"The only notification I got about it was when Uber took my money. No notifications in the mail or from the city or airport. Nothing," she said. "I learned about it because I checked my account at the end of a day of driving and there was $0. I was under such stress at the time, I just thought, 'Well this is another way I'm getting screwed by Uber.'"

Uber declined to comment on why it handles citations this way. Mobile Workers Alliance said it has no documented cases of drivers' wages being automatically taken by Lyft to pay for citations at airports. Drivers said Lyft absorbs fees for tickets issued at San Francisco's airport, but the company did not respond to a request for comment, and we're unsure if that policy applies more broadly at other airports.
Doug Yankel, a spokesperson for San Francisco's airport told Motherboard that while rideshare companies are "afforded a review and appeals process," drivers are not.
"SFO enters into a permit with TNCs, not individual drivers," Yankel said. "As a result, citations for any rule violations are issued to the TNC directly, not drivers. Therefore, SFO does not collect any funds directly from drivers."
"Each TNC sets their own policies on how citations are managed with their drivers," he continued. "We understand that some TNCs absorb the citation fees, while others pass this cost through to the driver."
Uber drivers told Motherboard that major airports in California, including SFO (which is owned and operated by the city of San Francisco), LAX, and San Diego International Airport, regularly fine drivers. They say they are never able to contest these fines and that they see the fines deducted from their paychecks months later. Common reasons for citations at airports include not displaying an Uber placard, stopping for too long in pedestrian zones, and parking outside designated areas for rideshare drivers.

In some instances, rideshare drivers in Los Angeles say they've been deactivated for citations they could not contest.
"Receiving a citation from [Los Angeles World Airports] may...result in the transportation network company [TNC] unilaterally deciding to deactivate a driver's account, effectively resulting in the equivalent of being terminated from one's job," drivers with the Mobile Workers Alliance wrote in a letter to airport leadership in June demanding the airport implement an appeals process for citations, complaints, and financial penalties levied against them.
In the letter, the rideshare drivers go on to contend that the heavy policing and surveillance of rideshare drivers at LAX places drivers at the risk of discrimination and police brutality. (Lyft claims that 79 percent of its drivers in Los Angeles identify as racial minorities.)
Rideshare companies deduct wages from drivers for airport citations thanks to a provision in their contracts with airports. For example, Los Angeles's airport authority reserves the right to levy fines against drivers such as a $200 fine for "failure to adhere to TNC Driver, TNC Vehicle, Requirements" and a $300 fine for "failure to accurately report a TNC Trip" in its contract with rideshare companies.
Robert Moreno, an Uber driver based in Tijuana, Mexico, who runs an online group for Latino rideshare drivers near the U.S.-Mexico border, says drivers have posted about receiving citations from police at San Diego International Airport without the opportunity to contest them.

"Normally citations are handed out physically or sent to a driver's address, but that doesn't happen at San Diego's airport," said Moreno. "The airport authorities are saying Uber gave them permission to skip the process and go straight to wage garnishment. They don't give us a chance to make a payment plan or fight the citation. A governing body shouldn't be able to delete your rights just because they're in a special contract with Uber."
Rideshare drivers in San Diego are in the process of filing a public records request with San Diego International Airport for more information about its contracts with Lyft and Uber. The airport did not respond to a request for comment from Motherboard.
Beyond these citations, airports profit massively off the labor of rideshare drivers. Los Angeles's airport authority charges Uber drivers $4 per pick-up and drop-off from the airport-trip fees that are subsidized by passengers. In 2018 alone, rideshare drivers conducted 8.9 million rides to and from Los Angeles airports, generating tens of millions in revenue for the airport authority. (San Francisco's airport charges $5 per ride, and collected on more than 10 million drop offs and pick ups in 2018.)
LAX did not respond to Motherboard's request for comment.
Joshua Browder, the founder of DoNotPay, a free chatbot that has helped drivers in the US and UK successfully appeal more than 300,000 parking ticket citations, says contesting airport tickets is one of the most common reasons Uber and Lyft drivers use his services.
"The government uses these citations as a source of revenue, and in this case, airports are issuing a tax on rideshare drivers," Browder told Motherboard. "It's well known that rideshare drivers don't make much money. The fact they have to pay these tickets while working very hard is crippling. It's an unfairness that the government places the responsibility on the most vulnerable members of society.

"[The tickets themselves are unfair], but another level of this is that sometimes drivers aren't even breaking the rules, yet airports can issue tickets and drivers can't contest them later," he added.
Motherboard spoke to rideshare drivers and organizers in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, and Sacramento who say they are allowed to contest airport tickets, and do not see fines deducted from their earnings.
Note to self: only use Lyft trade dress at the airport.
 
#13 ·

Uber Deducts Millions from Drivers' Wages for Airport Tickets They Can't Appeal

Experts say the system violates drivers' Constitutionally-protected due process rights.

By Lauren Kaori Gurley
July 22, 2020, 9:00am

On March 3, 2018, Tedros, a rideshare driver in Sacramento, received an email from Uber notifying him that the rideshare giant would deduct $100 from his next paycheck.
Five months prior, the police at San Francisco's International Airport wrote him up for a permit violation while he was waiting to pick up a passenger. But rather than serving Tedros the ticket, as a police officer normally would, the airport issued the citation directly to Uber without Tedros' knowledge.

"We realize this likely will come as a surprise, but per your agreement with Uber, we must collect the violation amount from you," the email from Uber, reviewed by Motherboard, reads. "The violation amount will be deducted from your next pay statement."
It wasn't the first or last time Tedros had his paycheck slashed due to a citation from San Francisco's airport police that had occurred months prior without his knowledge.
"I've had four citations of $100 each deducted from my pay. Sometimes this means I've had negative earnings and no money to pay for gas," Tedros told Motherboard on the phone in July. "I've called Uber and they said 'we can't do anything.' There was no way for me to contest the citation."
Tedros is one of thousands of rideshare drivers in the United States who have had this problem. Contracts between Uber and airports allow for millions of dollars each year to be funneled out of their paychecks into the hands of airports, which are typically owned by local governments and publicly-owned airport authorities. Between 2016 and 2019, rideshare drivers paid $3.8 million in fines to Los Angeles World Airports, the airport authority that owns and operates Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), according to data collected from a public records request by the Mobile Workers Alliance, an advocacy group which represents gig workers in Southern California. Within that time period, the airport authority issued 11,117 citations to drivers, according to the same source.

Experts say this system is a violation of drivers' Constitutionally-enshrined due process rights, which say that the government cannot take legal action against a person without notifying them of the charges or action and offering the person an opportunity to present their case before a neutral party. Under normal circumstances, drivers in the United States have the right to dispute parking and traffic citations in a court, and often do so successfully.
"What's happening is drivers get wages taken away as a result of tickets that they don't know why they got and have no opportunity to contest," Veena Dubal, a law professor at UC Hastings and gig economy expert, told Motherboard. "I think it's a due process issue; the government is taking away their money without them understanding why. It seems fundamentally unfair, and I'd say the airport is at fault. Why wouldn't an Uber driver get a chance to contest a ticket like you and I would?"
Annie, an Uber driver in San Francisco, who asked to be identified by her first name only because she feared retaliation from Uber, said she received a $100 deduction from her earnings in December 2019 for stopping in a pedestrian zone at San Francisco's airport but had no recollection of the alleged event, because it occurred in September, three months prior.
"The only notification I got about it was when Uber took my money. No notifications in the mail or from the city or airport. Nothing," she said. "I learned about it because I checked my account at the end of a day of driving and there was $0. I was under such stress at the time, I just thought, 'Well this is another way I'm getting screwed by Uber.'"

Uber declined to comment on why it handles citations this way. Mobile Workers Alliance said it has no documented cases of drivers' wages being automatically taken by Lyft to pay for citations at airports. Drivers said Lyft absorbs fees for tickets issued at San Francisco's airport, but the company did not respond to a request for comment, and we're unsure if that policy applies more broadly at other airports.
Doug Yankel, a spokesperson for San Francisco's airport told Motherboard that while rideshare companies are "afforded a review and appeals process," drivers are not.
"SFO enters into a permit with TNCs, not individual drivers," Yankel said. "As a result, citations for any rule violations are issued to the TNC directly, not drivers. Therefore, SFO does not collect any funds directly from drivers."
"Each TNC sets their own policies on how citations are managed with their drivers," he continued. "We understand that some TNCs absorb the citation fees, while others pass this cost through to the driver."
Uber drivers told Motherboard that major airports in California, including SFO (which is owned and operated by the city of San Francisco), LAX, and San Diego International Airport, regularly fine drivers. They say they are never able to contest these fines and that they see the fines deducted from their paychecks months later. Common reasons for citations at airports include not displaying an Uber placard, stopping for too long in pedestrian zones, and parking outside designated areas for rideshare drivers.

In some instances, rideshare drivers in Los Angeles say they've been deactivated for citations they could not contest.
"Receiving a citation from [Los Angeles World Airports] may...result in the transportation network company [TNC] unilaterally deciding to deactivate a driver's account, effectively resulting in the equivalent of being terminated from one's job," drivers with the Mobile Workers Alliance wrote in a letter to airport leadership in June demanding the airport implement an appeals process for citations, complaints, and financial penalties levied against them.
In the letter, the rideshare drivers go on to contend that the heavy policing and surveillance of rideshare drivers at LAX places drivers at the risk of discrimination and police brutality. (Lyft claims that 79 percent of its drivers in Los Angeles identify as racial minorities.)
Rideshare companies deduct wages from drivers for airport citations thanks to a provision in their contracts with airports. For example, Los Angeles's airport authority reserves the right to levy fines against drivers such as a $200 fine for "failure to adhere to TNC Driver, TNC Vehicle, Requirements" and a $300 fine for "failure to accurately report a TNC Trip" in its contract with rideshare companies.
Robert Moreno, an Uber driver based in Tijuana, Mexico, who runs an online group for Latino rideshare drivers near the U.S.-Mexico border, says drivers have posted about receiving citations from police at San Diego International Airport without the opportunity to contest them.

"Normally citations are handed out physically or sent to a driver's address, but that doesn't happen at San Diego's airport," said Moreno. "The airport authorities are saying Uber gave them permission to skip the process and go straight to wage garnishment. They don't give us a chance to make a payment plan or fight the citation. A governing body shouldn't be able to delete your rights just because they're in a special contract with Uber."
Rideshare drivers in San Diego are in the process of filing a public records request with San Diego International Airport for more information about its contracts with Lyft and Uber. The airport did not respond to a request for comment from Motherboard.
Beyond these citations, airports profit massively off the labor of rideshare drivers. Los Angeles's airport authority charges Uber drivers $4 per pick-up and drop-off from the airport-trip fees that are subsidized by passengers. In 2018 alone, rideshare drivers conducted 8.9 million rides to and from Los Angeles airports, generating tens of millions in revenue for the airport authority. (San Francisco's airport charges $5 per ride, and collected on more than 10 million drop offs and pick ups in 2018.)
LAX did not respond to Motherboard's request for comment.
Joshua Browder, the founder of DoNotPay, a free chatbot that has helped drivers in the US and UK successfully appeal more than 300,000 parking ticket citations, says contesting airport tickets is one of the most common reasons Uber and Lyft drivers use his services.
"The government uses these citations as a source of revenue, and in this case, airports are issuing a tax on rideshare drivers," Browder told Motherboard. "It's well known that rideshare drivers don't make much money. The fact they have to pay these tickets while working very hard is crippling. It's an unfairness that the government places the responsibility on the most vulnerable members of society.

"[The tickets themselves are unfair], but another level of this is that sometimes drivers aren't even breaking the rules, yet airports can issue tickets and drivers can't contest them later," he added.
Motherboard spoke to rideshare drivers and organizers in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, and Sacramento who say they are allowed to contest airport tickets, and do not see fines deducted from their earnings.
Racketeering!!!
 
#17 ·
I'm thankful that in Orlando our code enforcement is kind enough to tell us why and at least write a ticket to our face.

I've also been shockingly good at avoiding tickets. I'm also not stupid enough to do illegal pickups, anywhere that code enforcement is ever going to be anyway.

God only knows how many times I've picked up in Residences without the proper permits... But Picking up Joe from his house on the wrong side of the orange/Osceola county line is fairly low risk to me.

You people need to learn how to play the airports game, and learn to shuffle passengers who are in the wrong place.
 
#21 ·
I don't understand how this would work. If you drive for U and L, how does the airport know which TNC to bill to unless the driver was issued the cite directly or spoke to someone?

Sounds to me like the airport picks a TNC and sends a bill.

I had a similar situation with an Uber xchange lease years ago. Supposedly I got a parking violation in the city of Del Mar. Xchange said they paid it, and tried to bill me. I was notified about 8 months after it alleged to have occurred, and after I had returned the car. I told them those citations are open to appeal, and it's not my fault they paid it without giving me the ability to contest it. They just ate it. My situation is a bit different, since parking citations ARE supposed to direct to the vehicle owner/lessee, and not billed through an intermediary.
 
#22 ·
I don't understand how this would work. If you drive for U and L, how does the airport know which TNC to bill to unless the driver was issued the cite directly or spoke to someone?

Sounds to me like the airport picks a TNC and sends a bill.

I had a similar situation with an Uber xchange lease years ago. Supposedly I got a parking violation in the city of Del Mar. Xchange said they paid it, and tried to bill me. I was notified about 8 months after it alleged to have occurred, and after I had returned the car. I told them those citations are open to appeal, and it's not my fault they paid it without giving me the ability to contest it. They just ate it. My situation is a bit different, since parking citations ARE supposed to direct to the vehicle owner/lessee, and not billed through an intermediary.
**** the city of Del Mar. one of the richest towns in all of America and they have an entire army of parking ticket ****s that spend all day just writing tickets. They chalk tires and even send you tickets in the mail. I hate that town's policies with a passion. Beautiful place though.
 
#23 · (Edited)

Uber Deducts Millions from Drivers' Wages for Airport Tickets They Can't Appeal

Experts say the system violates drivers' Constitutionally-protected due process rights.

By Lauren Kaori Gurley
July 22, 2020, 9:00am

On March 3, 2018, Tedros, a rideshare driver in Sacramento, received an email from Uber notifying him that the rideshare giant would deduct $100 from his next paycheck.
Five months prior, the police at San Francisco's International Airport wrote him up for a permit violation while he was waiting to pick up a passenger. But rather than serving Tedros the ticket, as a police officer normally would, the airport issued the citation directly to Uber without Tedros' knowledge.

"We realize this likely will come as a surprise, but per your agreement with Uber, we must collect the violation amount from you," the email from Uber, reviewed by Motherboard, reads. "The violation amount will be deducted from your next pay statement."
It wasn't the first or last time Tedros had his paycheck slashed due to a citation from San Francisco's airport police that had occurred months prior without his knowledge.
"I've had four citations of $100 each deducted from my pay. Sometimes this means I've had negative earnings and no money to pay for gas," Tedros told Motherboard on the phone in July. "I've called Uber and they said 'we can't do anything.' There was no way for me to contest the citation."
Tedros is one of thousands of rideshare drivers in the United States who have had this problem. Contracts between Uber and airports allow for millions of dollars each year to be funneled out of their paychecks into the hands of airports, which are typically owned by local governments and publicly-owned airport authorities. Between 2016 and 2019, rideshare drivers paid $3.8 million in fines to Los Angeles World Airports, the airport authority that owns and operates Los Angeles International Airport (LAX), according to data collected from a public records request by the Mobile Workers Alliance, an advocacy group which represents gig workers in Southern California. Within that time period, the airport authority issued 11,117 citations to drivers, according to the same source.

Experts say this system is a violation of drivers' Constitutionally-enshrined due process rights, which say that the government cannot take legal action against a person without notifying them of the charges or action and offering the person an opportunity to present their case before a neutral party. Under normal circumstances, drivers in the United States have the right to dispute parking and traffic citations in a court, and often do so successfully.
"What's happening is drivers get wages taken away as a result of tickets that they don't know why they got and have no opportunity to contest," Veena Dubal, a law professor at UC Hastings and gig economy expert, told Motherboard. "I think it's a due process issue; the government is taking away their money without them understanding why. It seems fundamentally unfair, and I'd say the airport is at fault. Why wouldn't an Uber driver get a chance to contest a ticket like you and I would?"
Annie, an Uber driver in San Francisco, who asked to be identified by her first name only because she feared retaliation from Uber, said she received a $100 deduction from her earnings in December 2019 for stopping in a pedestrian zone at San Francisco's airport but had no recollection of the alleged event, because it occurred in September, three months prior.
"The only notification I got about it was when Uber took my money. No notifications in the mail or from the city or airport. Nothing," she said. "I learned about it because I checked my account at the end of a day of driving and there was $0. I was under such stress at the time, I just thought, 'Well this is another way I'm getting screwed by Uber.'"

Uber declined to comment on why it handles citations this way. Mobile Workers Alliance said it has no documented cases of drivers' wages being automatically taken by Lyft to pay for citations at airports. Drivers said Lyft absorbs fees for tickets issued at San Francisco's airport, but the company did not respond to a request for comment, and we're unsure if that policy applies more broadly at other airports.
Doug Yankel, a spokesperson for San Francisco's airport told Motherboard that while rideshare companies are "afforded a review and appeals process," drivers are not.
"SFO enters into a permit with TNCs, not individual drivers," Yankel said. "As a result, citations for any rule violations are issued to the TNC directly, not drivers. Therefore, SFO does not collect any funds directly from drivers."
"Each TNC sets their own policies on how citations are managed with their drivers," he continued. "We understand that some TNCs absorb the citation fees, while others pass this cost through to the driver."
Uber drivers told Motherboard that major airports in California, including SFO (which is owned and operated by the city of San Francisco), LAX, and San Diego International Airport, regularly fine drivers. They say they are never able to contest these fines and that they see the fines deducted from their paychecks months later. Common reasons for citations at airports include not displaying an Uber placard, stopping for too long in pedestrian zones, and parking outside designated areas for rideshare drivers.

In some instances, rideshare drivers in Los Angeles say they've been deactivated for citations they could not contest.
"Receiving a citation from [Los Angeles World Airports] may...result in the transportation network company [TNC] unilaterally deciding to deactivate a driver's account, effectively resulting in the equivalent of being terminated from one's job," drivers with the Mobile Workers Alliance wrote in a letter to airport leadership in June demanding the airport implement an appeals process for citations, complaints, and financial penalties levied against them.
In the letter, the rideshare drivers go on to contend that the heavy policing and surveillance of rideshare drivers at LAX places drivers at the risk of discrimination and police brutality. (Lyft claims that 79 percent of its drivers in Los Angeles identify as racial minorities.)
Rideshare companies deduct wages from drivers for airport citations thanks to a provision in their contracts with airports. For example, Los Angeles's airport authority reserves the right to levy fines against drivers such as a $200 fine for "failure to adhere to TNC Driver, TNC Vehicle, Requirements" and a $300 fine for "failure to accurately report a TNC Trip" in its contract with rideshare companies.
Robert Moreno, an Uber driver based in Tijuana, Mexico, who runs an online group for Latino rideshare drivers near the U.S.-Mexico border, says drivers have posted about receiving citations from police at San Diego International Airport without the opportunity to contest them.

"Normally citations are handed out physically or sent to a driver's address, but that doesn't happen at San Diego's airport," said Moreno. "The airport authorities are saying Uber gave them permission to skip the process and go straight to wage garnishment. They don't give us a chance to make a payment plan or fight the citation. A governing body shouldn't be able to delete your rights just because they're in a special contract with Uber."
Rideshare drivers in San Diego are in the process of filing a public records request with San Diego International Airport for more information about its contracts with Lyft and Uber. The airport did not respond to a request for comment from Motherboard.
Beyond these citations, airports profit massively off the labor of rideshare drivers. Los Angeles's airport authority charges Uber drivers $4 per pick-up and drop-off from the airport-trip fees that are subsidized by passengers. In 2018 alone, rideshare drivers conducted 8.9 million rides to and from Los Angeles airports, generating tens of millions in revenue for the airport authority. (San Francisco's airport charges $5 per ride, and collected on more than 10 million drop offs and pick ups in 2018.)
LAX did not respond to Motherboard's request for comment.
Joshua Browder, the founder of DoNotPay, a free chatbot that has helped drivers in the US and UK successfully appeal more than 300,000 parking ticket citations, says contesting airport tickets is one of the most common reasons Uber and Lyft drivers use his services.
"The government uses these citations as a source of revenue, and in this case, airports are issuing a tax on rideshare drivers," Browder told Motherboard. "It's well known that rideshare drivers don't make much money. The fact they have to pay these tickets while working very hard is crippling. It's an unfairness that the government places the responsibility on the most vulnerable members of society.

"[The tickets themselves are unfair], but another level of this is that sometimes drivers aren't even breaking the rules, yet airports can issue tickets and drivers can't contest them later," he added.
Motherboard spoke to rideshare drivers and organizers in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, and Sacramento who say they are allowed to contest airport tickets, and do not see fines deducted from their earnings.
Uber and Lyft management low life dirtbags who shit all over their drivers all day long.

 
#24 ·
Veena Dubal, a law professor at UC Hastings and gig economy expert, told Motherboard. "I think it's a due process issue; the government is taking away their money without them understanding why. It seems fundamentally unfair, and I'd say the airport is at fault. Why wouldn't an Uber driver get a chance to contest a ticket like you and I would?"
Like seriously WTF ! is wrong with you !!! A law Professor ???

In the mean time Uber scratching there a$$ asking themselves, What is a Due Process.

See what happens when American History is not taught in school anymore. smh...
 
  • Like
Reactions: Tr4vis Ka1anick
#27 ·
Does nobody understand how these systems work? If I infringe, I am the one the airport deals with. Not some 3rd party (Uber), who has nothing to do with my infringement. If we get a speeding ticket on the open road, does Uber pay the fine and then deduct it? Of course not. Same here.
Crony Capitalism Wins Again!
No. The contract was signed before Uber existed. 5 year life. The 3 taxi companies concerned pay big money for the exclusivity. Classic ordinary capitalism at work.
 
#28 ·
Does nobody understand how these systems work? If I infringe, I am the one the airport deals with. Not some 3rd party (Uber), who has nothing to do with my infringement. If we get a speeding ticket on the open road, does Uber pay the fine and then deduct it? Of course not. Same here.

No. The contract was signed before Uber existed. 5 year life. The 3 taxi companies concerned pay big money for the exclusivity. Classic ordinary capitalism at work.
That was the way it was in my county airport in Florida and the governor stepped in and Uber and Lyft allowed in every airport in the state.
 
#30 ·
Uber would not lose a class action. They never have.
In Seattle the Port don't play. Make sure you are correct and don't do stupid shit on port property. I have seen people hit with $2,000 in fines for rampant douchbaggary.

That guy should probably STOP violating port policies if he doesn't want to get fined.
 
#35 ·
I once had one of those ticket writing dipsticks tell me I couldn't use a hand signal (for extra safety) while pulling out from a curb at the airport. She insisted that only bikes can use hand signals (nonsense) and that using my hand and a turn signal was confusing for other drivers. WTF? When I asked her why hand signals were a part of the road test at DMV, she stopped harassing me.Those people writing the tickets are morons that don't know the traffic laws. UBER should not charge drivers for tickets we can't contest. If I received a ticket from that individual I would have contested it and won easily.
 
#36 ·
UBER should not charge drivers for tickets we can't contest.
for tone, balance and accuracy the airport authority is charging you via Uber, who only wants to be reimbursed for a ticket expense a driver incurred. Bark at the right party.
 
#38 ·
I once had one of those ticket writing dipsticks tell me I couldn't use a hand signal (for extra safety) while pulling out from a curb at the airport. She insisted that only bikes can use hand signals (nonsense) and that using my hand and a turn signal was confusing for other drivers. WTF? When I asked her why hand signals were a part of the road test at DMV, she stopped harassing me.Those people writing the tickets are morons that don't know the traffic laws. UBER should not charge drivers for tickets we can't contest. If I received a ticket from that individual I would have contested it and won easily.
 
#44 ·
What's "the wrong place" at MCO?
That's more for uber/lyft than for the taxi drivers.

Customers can ping from Arrivals, Departures, or the commercial lane. Regardless of what uber tells them to do they will ping from all 3 places and text where they are at.
 
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Top