EXCLUSIVE
Dodgy Uber drivers are being allowed to remain behind the wheel despite clocking up scores of serious complaints about their bad behaviour and unwanted sexual advances.
Daily Mail Australia can reveal that in extreme cases rogue drivers are being reported to the service as many as 20 times before finally being booted from the platform.
The complaints cover everything from dangerous driving and foul-mouthed tirades to unashamedly hitting on passengers and demanding oral sex from riders.
Despite attracting a litany of grave concerns about their alleged misconduct, repeat offenders’ disturbing records are shielded from passengers by the firm’s faulty status system that allows them to boast gold and diamond star ratings.
Even after being punted, unsavoury Uber drivers continue to cash in after being awarded handsome compo payouts of up to $10,000 from the company for ‘breach of contract’.
It comes amid growing frustration the global ride-hailing service – which boasts about four million active users in Australia – is not doing enough to keep passengers safe.
But unrepentant drivers claim they are the real victims – and that they are being unfairly targeted by drunk, deceitful and racist passengers making false allegations in the hope of rorting a free trip or refund.
And they have in turn accused Uber of violating their contracts by ‘deactivating’ their accounts – the equivalent of sacking them from the service – following ‘unprovable’ complaints from passengers.
Uber is the world’s largest ride-hailing service with about four million active users in Australia
Sacked drivers claim passengers are lodging fake complaints to rort free trips from the firm
An escalating stand-off between drivers and their passengers has resulted in a spate of legal proceedings in Australia over what constitutes a ‘sackable’ offence.
One driver tried to sue Uber for $10,000 and demanded he have his profile restored when he was booted from the platform after a shocking 20 complaints were lodged about his driving and personal conduct.
The concerns against Arif Najafi culminated in an allegation he requested oral sex from a male passenger after dropping him home in the early hours of February 4, 2023.
Mr Najafi launched legal action against Uber in the NSW Civil and Administrative Tribunal, claiming the company had not afforded him a fair opportunity to properly explain the situation and refused to give him ‘a second chance’.
The driver boasted a 4.82 star rating at the time he was banned, having amassed more than 13,000 trips during his three-and-a-half year career with service.
His run came to an ended after his final passenger complained the driver had inappropriately propositioned him, asking ‘if I would like to give him sexual oral favour as I was his last drop off home’ and whether ‘I would like to suck his penis’.
Mr Najafi denied making any advances and instead insisted it had been him who had been ‘sexually harassed’ and on the receiving end of the indecent proposal.
Some dodgy drivers are clocking up dozens of serious complaints before being banned
The app has transformed the nation’s taxi industry since it launched in Australia in 2012
‘At 1.30am I picked up a man…first he asked me what time do you finish. I said maybe you are (the) last trip,’ Mr Najafi said in an explanation heard by the Tribunal.
‘At the corner he said, “Stop here.” I stopped, he asked me, “Do you like to have sex with me?” I said, “Sorry, I don’t.” Then he gets out from my car.’
It was the latest in a plethora of complaints that claimed Mr Najafi was ‘intimidating, abusive’, ‘aggressive and rude’ and repeatedly used his phone or checked social media accounts while driving.
One passenger claimed Mr Najafi asked ‘about my love life and… he stated he was married but wasn’t happy’.
‘Then, when I was getting out, he put down his window and asked me for my number,’ the passenger complaint read.
Another said he made inappropriate remarks about their weight and asked ‘why they are the size they were’.
The father-of-three denied any wrongdoing, blamed some of the complaints on racism, and claimed it was unfair to ban him on the basis on untested accusations.
However, the Tribunal found Uber was within its rights to deactivate Mr Najafi’s profile given the ‘weight, volume and nature’ of the complaints against him and dismissed his claim in February.
It came little more than a week after the Tribunal dismissed a similar claim from fellow former Uber driver Muhammad Zie Ur Rehman, after he clocked up 18 complaints about his conduct.
Consumers have complained the Uber app’s ‘star rating’ system offers little protection
He accused the service – which has transformed Australia’s taxi industry since it launched in 2012 – of ‘wrongfully deactivating’ his account and also sought reinstatement, along with $4,000 in damages for loss of income.
Mr Rehman told the Tribunal he had an exceptionally high star rating of 4.91, and boasted a ‘92% satisfaction rate’, after making 11,194 trips as a driver via the app.
The ride-hailing business booted him from the service for breaching its ‘community guidelines’ last August – even though he insisted the allegations against him were all false.
The Tribunal agreed the vast majority could not be verified or relied on to justify banning Mr Rehman from the app.
One discounted complaint about the driver was made by a female passenger who claimed he propositioned her for a dinner date during an early-morning trip.
She claimed she was startled by the suggestion given she had just told him she was heading to her boyfriend’s place for dinner.
Mr Rehman said it was all a misunderstanding.
‘(The) rider was very talkative and asked me since when I am driving,’ he explained.
‘I replied to her that, “I am driving for a few hours and I have not had a chance to do diner.” It did not mean what she thought…who does diner at 4am in the morning?
‘This was an error of communication.’
Drivers are making more than $130,000 a year as demand for the Uber drivers soars
Another complainant – who claimed he was was told to ‘get the f*** out’ Mr Rehman’s car after his girlfriend fell ill – was also discounted after the driver explained the couple had been drunk and aggressive.
‘A man and his girlfriend hired Uber to go to McDonalds, and the girl, she vomited in the car,’ Mr Rehman explained in a version of events accepted by the Tribunal.
‘I stopped the car at the petrol station and she vomited the rest outside the car. I requested the rider that I have to end the trip and, “you do another Uber”.
‘The rider was very drunk and he stated abusing me and passing racial comments. I ended to ride and asked him to leave.’
In total, the Tribunal found four of the 18 complaints against Mr Rehman could not be proved while a further seven were ‘unreasonable to hold against the driver’.
But it found there was sufficient evidence to support the final seven complaints.
And while none of them justified the deactivation of his account in isolation, the Tribunal found that together they established a pattern of behaviour and subsequently dismissed the driver’s claim against Uber.
One banned Uber driver was awarded $10,000 for breach of contract after he was booted from the platform following a string of unproven complaints about his alleged behaviour
However, it hasn’t been all one-way traffic.
In June, Uber was ordered to pay a former driver, Ranjit Singh, $10,000 in damages ‘on the basis that he was wrongfully terminated from the Uber platform’.
Mr Singh held a ‘gold diamond’ star rating of 4.98, and a satisfaction rate of 87%, after making more than 19,950 Uber trips during a three-year career with the service.
He was punted from the platform last August after being accused of ‘sexually inappropriate behaviour / commenting upon a rider’s appearance’.
‘The driver was asking me if I have children and if I am single or married,’ the complainant said in a report tendered to the Tribunal.
‘He proceeded to tell me I look like a Bollywood actress which he has met and showed me a photo of them together.
‘He continued to tell me I am very beautiful. I felt highly uncomfortable.’
His account was deactivated the following day and later permanently deleted.
It followed a string of earlier concerns raised about Mr Singh.
In March last year, a passenger complained he had made them uncomfortable after asking ‘intrusive inappropriate private questions’.
One passenger claims her Uber driver repeatedly looked her ‘up and down’ while driving
He was also accused of asking another passenger, in October 2022, about her ‘ethnicity’, whether she was ‘free on weekends’ and ‘looking (her) up and down while driving’.
And in March 2021, a fourth complaint was lodged by a passenger who claimed ‘he made comments about how attractive I was and described me as “exotic,” “chocolate,” “sexy.’ It’s a hell no from me.’
Mr Singh denied all the allegations and said it was well-known within the Uber-driving industry that drunk and dishonest passengers tried to rort free trips from the company by making fake complaints.
‘The allegations are absolutely false and very inaccurate,’ he told the Tribunal.
‘I have always treated my passengers with the utmost respect and integrity and have followed Uber’s community guidelines and policies.
‘I would frequently encounter intoxicated riders who would complain about the surge pricing and lodge a report in order to get a refund and a free trip.
‘This is a common, ongoing practice amongst riders as this has occurred to many of my fellow driver partners who are also innocent.’
Mr Singh revealed he pulled in more than $130,000 a year driving for Uber after expenses, with an average weekly net income of about $2560.
Banned drivers claim its widely known within the industry that passengers file fake complaints
The Tribunal found in his favour, citing his denials, a lack of evidence and the infrequency of the complaints.
‘The number of complaints is very small in comparison to the amount of trips (he) performed and his overall passenger rating,’ it found.
‘(Mr Singh) performed almost 20,000 trips…the four complaints also occured over a two-and-a-half year period.’
Although it awarded him $10,000, it did not order Singh’s profile be reinstated, noting he had not made a request for it be reactivated.
The Tribunal also found in favour of former Uber driver Salahadeen Suliman Hussaen Abdalla in June.
However, it stopped short of awarding him the $10,000 in damages he was seeking or ordering his profile to be restored.
Mr Abdulla was kicked off the app in February 2022 after attracting just two complaints about his behaviour.
The first dated back to March 2020, when a passenger claimed Adbulla was ‘adamant about being friends and insisted I give him my number’.
The second complaint, made the day he was banned, saw him accused of asking a passenger, ‘Where is your boyfriend? I can give you good friendship.’
The Tribunal found there was not enough evidence – nor complaints – to establish a pattern of behaviour and ordered the company to pay Mr Abdulla $1000 for breach of contract.
Uber has defended its star rating system and said it encouraged both drivers and passengers to report any inappropriate behaviour by either party during trips.
‘Nothing is more important than the safety of all users on the Uber platform,’ a spokeswoman told Daily Mail Australia.
‘Unlike other modes of transportation, Uber prompts driver-partners and riders for feedback after every trip.
‘We encourage people to report, which we believe is crucial to keeping the Uber community safe.’
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Read more at DailyMail.co.uk