A low rider rating could now get you banned from Uber

How’s your Uber rating? Although it’s largely been a superficial vanity number until now, that’s about to change.

The company on Wednesday announced it will now take a more serious stance against riders with a “significantly below average rating”.

“Respect is a two-way street, and so is accountability. Drivers have long been expected to meet a minimum rating threshold which can vary city to city,” the company noted in a blog post.

“While we expect only a small number of riders to ultimately be impacted by ratings-based deactivations, it’s the right thing to do.”

Things that can affect rider ratings include slamming doors, asking the driver to speed, and other gross things, like littering in the car, or puking on the back seat. To be honest, forgetting your dog in the car is probably a good way to piss off a driver too.

To further drive this point home, Uber is also launching an “education campaign” through which it hopes to explain these concerns to riders.

US and Canadian users will also see “a full screen summary of the Community Guidelines [on the app] and be asked to confirm that they understand or they may lose access to Uber”.

We’ve reached out to Uber South Africa for more information regarding how the new rider rating guidelines affect local users and will update this article when we receive a response.

Feature image: Uber