Behave, or you too may be banned, Uber tells passengers

PETALING JAYA: Uber passengers who consistently misbehave or are unruly towards their driver during a ride may be banned from using the platform altogether, according to the ride-hailing firm.
Its Southeast Asia communications head Leigh Wong said similar to drivers, riders too are rated for their behaviour by the drivers for each ride, to ensure the safety of both parties.
"If you're consistently a person who makes a driver's life difficult, then your ratings will go down.
"And depending on the number of incidents for a specific user, we may block that user from accessing our application, in accordance to our community guidelines," he said when asked on the measures taken by Uber to protect their drivers.
Wong said drivers could also report any incidents directly through the app, and that Uber's customer support team would help resolve any issues, including having the driver's cars fixed.
"It depends on a case to case basis. But we have mechanisms in place to support our partners, including tapping into our insurance to repair their cars," he said.
Wong said this when responding to an incident in Penang where a female Uber driver had her windscreen smashed by a motorcyclist with a rock last week.
He was speaking in a press conference after the launch of Uber's new Greenlight Hub and its three-month "Driver Forward" campaign to elevate driver partners' experiences, here, yesterday.
Among other things, Uber announced its support pillar for its driver partners, including a Bahasa Malaysia language support for its app, a RM10 token for drivers who return lost items to riders, and a RM20 compensation for those who choose to clean their own vehicles.
Meanwhile, Wong played down rumours that Uber's rival company Grab was in talks to acquire the firm's operations in Southeast Asia, rubbishing them as mere speculation.
"The simple fact is we have a new building here, it's a physical statement that we are here, we have invested, and we are investing aggressively in Malaysia and the region," he said.