A lawsuit forced Uber to explain why it deactivates drivers
Uber Australia published an online guide to how it deactivates drivers. The guide outlines some of the things that the company monitors:
It explains the star rating system, which is out of five stars. If a driver drops below a certain level then their account risks deactivation. After every trip a passenger can rate a driver. There's no global level that will cause deactivation - the average driver rating is calculated by city and used to figure out what an acceptable level is.
A document sent to Uber drivers in San Francisco in 2014 included a more in-depth explanation of the rating system, and said that a driver rating below 4.6 out of 5 could cause drivers to be deactivated.
Another factor that Uber says can lead to deactivation is the amount of cancellations by a driver. Sometimes a driver will accept a ride, see the destination, then cancel if they don't like it. Uber says that a cancellation rate higher than 5% will be a cause for concern that can lead to deactivation. Drivers receive notifications if they're cancelling too many trips, but if they keep on doing it then they could be deactivated.
One issue that is also mentioned in Uber's post is a driver who has provided inaccurate information to Uber. If someone else is using their driver account, or a driver uses a car that's not approved by Uber, then their account may be shut down.
The guide was published following legal action by Mike Oze-Igiehon. He claims that he was unfairly deactivated by Uber following customer feedback that accused him of being asleep in his car. Oze-Igiehon told The Daily Mail that "one of them said I was driving while I was tired ... Most of the time they are drunk in the back seat of my car, how would they know if I was tired or not?"