In a letter submitted to the California Public Utilities Commission, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, councilman Paul Krekorian and council President Herb Wesson advised that drivers who wish to work for popular ride-hailing services such as Uber and Lyft must go through a fingerprinting background check program, in order to keep passengers fully safe.
The three government officials requested the commission to initiate a pilot program in Los Angeles, which would impose the strict background checking regulations to drivers of Uber, Lyft, and even limousines, vans and other shuttle services.
Though the request does seem quite stern, fingerprinting data is already being utilized for taxi drivers in the state. Once a driver allows him or herself to be submitted to a Live Scan fingerprint background check, officials would be able to cross-check the data against law-enforcement databases. Doing so allows authorities to verify if a driver has had a conviction before, or if the identification information provided by the driver was accurate.
Uber and Lyft already have their own processes when it comes to the application of new drivers. However, the background checks initiated by the popular ride-hailing companies are quite slight at best. For one, in order to apply as a driver, applicants simply need to submit a valid ID online. Since everything is done through the Internet, there is a pretty good chance that fraud could be committed.
"The opaque nature of the existing background checks used by the transportation companies is a cause for concern for the riding public," the letter to the commission stated.
The background of drivers working for the popular ride-hailing firms has been thrown into question after several untoward incidents between drivers and their passengers. In India alone, an Uber driver was convicted of sexually assaulting his passenger. Though the incident happened outside the U.S., many are apprehensive about the possible dangers posed by drivers who are not properly screened.
Responding to the proposal, Uber has asserted that the screening practices for their drivers are top-notch, and are unlikely to end up compromising passenger safety.
"No background check is perfect, but we believe that the background check process that we use, which includes screening through national, state and local databases, stacks up well against the alternatives, without unnecessarily discriminating against minorities as fingerprint-based checks do," Uber spokesman Michael Amodeo said.
