Rideshare giants Uber and Lyft say that they will now share the names of the deactivated drivers from their platforms that were kicked off due to sexual assault and other serious safety incidents.

In recent years, Uber and Lyft have made a concerted effort to improve their image regarding safety and transparency, with Uber releasing a report in 2019 highlighting more than 3,000 sexual assaults during rides. That report came after a 2018 CNN investigation exploring reports of assault and abuse by rideshare drivers.

Now, the companies are planning to share information on some of their deactivated drivers with each other. This is intended to prevent drivers who were deactivated due to sexual assault or other serious incidents from simply moving to another rideshare app—many drivers already work for multiple companies.

Uber and Lyft are working together to create an industry sharing safety program, using a third-party consumer reporting agency called HireRight. Not all deactivated drivers’ names will be shared—just ones who were deactivated over the most serious safety incidents.

Incidents considered serious enough to be reported via the safety program include sexual assaults, ranging from non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part to rape, as well as non-sexual physical assaults leading to fatalities.

The industry safety sharing program officially began in mid-March, though past deactivations that qualify under the program’s terms would be shared dating back to 2017. The program as it currently stands only applies to deactivated drivers, and not to riders who have been deactivated for similar reasons.

Lyft and Uber are not the only ridesharing companies that can use this program. Similar transportation and delivery network companies can use the program for a minimal fee and compliance with the program’s requirements.

“I’ve often said that safety should not be proprietary,” Uber’s chief legal officer, Tony West, told CNN Business. “While Uber and Lyft are fierce competitors on many fronts, I think on this safety issue we agree that folks should be safe no matter what ridesharing platform they choose.”

While the industry sharing safety program is a significant step, it does not mark the first time that information like this has been shared between companies.

“Deactivation data sharing is not a new concept—we do this already in certain jurisdictions like Chicago where there’s a regulatory framework that allows us to share this information,” said West.

Part of the challenge for creating the program is that these companies span the entire country, and different states have different privacy and antitrust laws.

If you or someone you love were a victim of sexual or physical assault by an Uber or Lyft driver, you may be able to file a lawsuit and pursue compensation.

This article is not legal advice. It is presented
for informational purposes only.