This Week in Rideshare: Background Checks, Bus Drivers and Ballot Initiatives.

Checkr gets checked, bus drivers quit and Prop-22 comes to Mass. LegalRideshare breaks it down.

MONDAY 8/30/21

After a botched background check, a driver sues Checkr, Lyft and Uber. Law Street Media explains:

According to the Eastern District of New York complaint, the plaintiff had driven for Uber and Lyft for a number of years before he was required by both companies to provide his social security number for a background check conducted by Checkr. In April 2021, Uber allegedly notified the plaintiff that his check could not be completed, and that he would be barred from driving for the company until it was. Reportedly, from May to July 2021, the man tried repeatedly to contact Checkr, via phone, mail, and online complaints, but to no avail.

TUESDAY 8/31/21

Uber and Lyft could step up as bus drivers quit over vaccine mandates. Chicago Sun Times reported:

As thousands of Chicago Public Schools families scrambled to find transportation to the first day of school Monday because of a mass bus driver resignation that officials attributed to anger over a vaccine mandate, Mayor Lori Lightfoot said her administration is in talks with rideshare companies to take children to their schools.

Lightfoot said when she heard of the bus problem she told her aides to reach out to rideshare companies Uber and Lyft to “see what they can do to provide resources to help our families who need alternative means of transportation to get the kids to school and get them there safely.”

WEDNESDAY 9/1/21

Thanks to the pandemic, the average cost of a ride is up….big time. CNET reported:

If you feel like your last Uber or Lyft trip cost a whole lot more, that’s because it did. CNBC reported on new research from Rakuten Intelligence on Tuesday that showed the average trip riders take using Lyft or Uber costs 92% more as of this July. The figures look at a 2018 baseline for comparison, which is important to understand the COVID-19 pandemic’s effects. And that’s where a lot of the problems lie.

THURSDAY 9/2/21

Uber drivers in Texas could be in the cross-fire over the state’s new Senate Bill. Newsweek reported:

According to analysis of Senate Bill (SB) 8, those who drive women to abortion clinics in order to get illegal abortions could be sued for $10,000.

The law does not contain criminal penalties for illegal abortions but it empowers private individuals to enforce the regulations through lawsuits against doctors and anyone who “aids or abets” in procuring a “criminal abortion.”

FRIDAY 9/3/21

A flavor of Prop-22 has landed in Massachusetts. Biz Journals reported:

The petition to designate drivers working for app-based companies contractors, as opposed to full-time employees, is a step closer to landing on the Massachusetts 2022 ballot.

Attorney General Maura Healey certified the proposed ballot measure, along with 16 other petitions. Fifteen petitions are proposed laws, like the question about drivers, and one is a proposed constitutional amendment.

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