Charlotte Uber driver won’t pick you up if he thinks your trip is ‘superfluous’
Here’s how a Charlotte Uber driver decides if he’s going to pick up a passenger in the middle of the novel coronavirus pandemic: Hank McGovern said he calls riders in advance to ask the purpose of their trip and to check on their health.
“In the last two days, have you had a fever, coughing or trouble breathing?” he said he asks riders.
McGovern wants to know why and where he’s about to take a passenger so he can weed out “superfluous” trips like someone wanting to hang out with a friend or family member, he said. McGovern said that’s how community spread of the coronavirus occurs.
Uber does not mandate that its drivers ask customers about their health before picking them up, the company said in a statement to The Charlotte Observer.
“As has always been the case, if a driver feels uncomfortable picking up a passenger for safety reasons, they can choose not to accept or cancel the trip,” according to the statement. “However, it’s against Uber’s Community Guidelines to discriminate against anyone based on their race or national origin.”
McGovern, who wears a mask while driving, said he will drive people to workplaces considered essential under the stay at home orders. He drives health care workers their hospitals, for instance.
The vast majority of his passengers appreciate the questions, he said, although a few seem offended.
“Are you a doctor?” one man sarcastically replied, he said. Another expressed bewilderment, he said, saying he didn’t know Uber drivers were supposed to ask such questions.
And the administrator of a Facebook page for ride-share drivers told him drivers shouldn’t police their riders like that.
‘The right to cancel’
McGovern is a 66-year-old psychologist who lives in the Montgomery County town of New London.
As independent contractors for Uber, McGovern said, “We have the right to cancel a ride if we don’t feel safe.”
Most of his rides are in the Charlotte area, he said. He drives a 2019 Nissan Sentra with the license plate STOIC.
Riders have given him consistently high ratings, he said. His overall rating hit 4.93 at one point and now stands at 4.86, he said.
When one customer didn’t answer the phone, McGovern drove to her house anyway. She was in a McDonald’s uniform, and he drove her to her restaurant.
Apparently, though, she was offended when he asked why she hadn’t answered the phone: She gave him the lowest driver rating of “1,” he said.
But most are like the worker he took to a garage several days ago, he said. The worker thanked him for his reasoning behind asking the question, McGovern said.
McGovern said that anything he can do to prevent the spread of the virus he will.
He said he continually sprays Lysol disinfectant in his car. He keeps hand sanitizer in it and installed a plastic shield between him and the back seats. Integrity Flooring of Harrisburg donated the plastic, he said.
McGovern said he called the Uber driver help line a few weeks after he began asking drivers the purpose of their trips and if they were ill.
He was told he could ask the questions, he said, although the person told him his cancellation rate would rise as he rejected more riders, possibly resulting in fewer calls.
He’ll take that risk.
This story was originally published April 12, 2020 at 8:00 AM.