It’s getting late. You come home of an evening, to work or travel and you make a call to Uber. The race went well, as usual you have dug into the candy at your disposal. When you get home, the application VTC (car transport with a driver) asks you to rate your driver. There are five stars to distribute. You are in a hurry and you assign four stars because there were some slowdowns and you are not in a very good mood. And then, after all, 4 out of 5, it is a good note.
If Sylvie*, chauffeure at Uber for the past year, you saw, it would put you immediately on guard. “Put four stars to a driver, it’s the case.” Like others, she saw his account disabled due to a bad note. Because below 4.5 out of 5, the driver receives a warning : he has a week to rectify the situation. Otherwise, his account can be deactivated temporarily or permanently. Uber stubbornly defends this system, but the multinational californian could, however, in the coming days, making sensitive changes in France.
It had been a few weeks that Sylvie had started to work from time to time for Uber. His work for the platform of VTC (cars with drivers) was about 10% of his professional activity. Everything was going well until a client. “It was late, I waited half an hour and then I canceled the race, ” she says to franceinfo. the It was a mistake, I would not have had to cancel it, but wait for it to do so because it could put me to 0.” The penalty was immediate : his note is below 4.5. And his account has been disabled for 24 hours. the “It is very unjust”, ” sighed Sylvie.
Contacted by franceinfo, Uber France was defending itself. “I have never heard of stories dramatically unjust,” says a spokesman, who prefers to insist on much more positive : 97% of drivers Uber would have, at this time, a score greater than 4.5. “We work really to ensure that the scoring system is as fair as possible. Nothing will happen on an example, except in the most serious cases” insists the spokesperson. The score is calculated on 200 races, which is more or less six weeks of work for a driver.
The latter was staring at his little stars, because, when the note goes above 4.5, he receives a first warning by e-mail and SMS. The driver then has about a week to get it back. If he does not, he is invited to visit the welcome centre at Uber for the Ile-de-France, Aubervilliers, to deliver his version of the facts. The word of the client is also included in the file. Then, a “committee decision” made up of former drivers, drivers of current and of team quality and safety of Uber will decide the case, without the presence of the principal. There is no appeal.
If Sylvie was able to recover his account after disabling past, others have not had his luck. Tarkahar, age 53, 4 children to support, saw his account suspended twice. The second for good. “I have done everything as it should be, candy, car, clean, water…,” he laments. He says he doesn’t know why his rating has fallen to 4.1. “Can-be that customers, they are sick, tired, bad mood, or late, and they give a bad note“, avance-t-il. Previously, Tarkahar was for twenty years a driver-deliveryman. “I have never been in an accident and I’ve never had a problem.” The man was now struggling to make ends meet, and describes having to borrow money to his family.
Sylvie was able to escape this situation, but she insists, powerless, to the behavior of some of his colleagues willing to do anything to be rated. “there are drivers who become minions, who come to beg customers to put a 5. We should not have to do that.” Sylvie has now that of the 5-star and prefer to ignore the system and stop being afraid. Anyway, this mother of a family does not have the right to speak to customers. This would be banned in Uber, advance the Journal du Net. that firmly challenges the spokesperson for Uber in France.
The rating system could, however, evolve rapidly. Not in principle, but in one of its organs-the key : the commission decision. This last is very criticized by the associations of VTC. “It is a commission very opaque. We don’t know who makes the decision, there is no recourse and the driver can not defend themselves,” said franceinfo Joseph Francis, the president of the AMT (Alternative mobility transport).
The man announced, however, that Uber would have heard their claims. “Tuesday 15 November, they are going to integrate the associations of drivers partners to ensure that the commission becomes mixed. This is the end of the arbitrary”, welcomes it. According to the latter, this would be a world first. In addition, the drivers could finally come and explain before the commission. The principle of an appeal of the decision of the commission would be, again, in discussion. For its part, Uber France refuses, for the moment, to confirm this breakthrough. “We discuss with the entire of drivers and initiatives will continue to be taken on the basis of this exchange“, concedes just the spokesperson.
* name has been changed at the request of our interlocutor.
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