A Canberra man has called for Uber to better educate its drivers after he and his guide dog were recently left stranded three times in one day.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
Daniel McKenny, who has a vision impairment, said after he booked an Uber to travel from his home in Greenway to Phillip on February 11, the driver arrived, but drove away after seeing guide dog Jake.
Mr McKenny said he then booked a second Uber and sent that driver a message explaining what had just happened, and asking the driver not to refuse him a ride. This driver never turned up.
Later in the day, having made it to Phillip, Mr McKenny said he booked a short trip within Woden.
"This time, I was refused personally by a driver, face to face," he said.
"I even told that particular driver, 'This is a guide dog. You cannot legally refuse the dog', and he still refused and drove off."
It is illegal for a transport provider to deny a person entry or service because the person needs to bring an assistance animal on the trip.
Mr McKenny said the refusals were frustrating and inconvenient. One of the consequences was that he was half-an-hour late for an expensive medical appointment that he still had to pay the full price for.
He said he had been refused service by Uber drivers at least five times in the past three years, and there had been several other incidents where he had needed to convince the driver to allow Jake into the car.
He had also lost count of the number of incidents involving taxi and bus drivers.
"It highlights the fact there's a lot of ignorance out there," Mr McKenny said.
"I'm a human being, and I hate being defined by my disability.
"I can't see out of one eye, but that's no big deal. It doesn't make me any less of a person, but it seems like, from society's standpoint, it somehow does."
Mr McKenny said he had complained to Uber about the February 11 incidents, and the company's customer service department had promptly called him, apologised and given him an account credit.
"But it's just not good enough," he said.
"There shouldn't be any incidents like this. There should be stricter policies and an awareness among drivers of their obligations to customers."
READ MORE:
Chris Pycroft, Uber Australia and New Zealand's accessibility lead, said drivers who engaged in "discriminatory conduct" could lose access to the driver app.
"Uber welcomes and encourages assistance animals and the experience of this individual is not one any rider should have on the Uber platform," he said.
Mr Pycroft's response did not directly answer a question about whether drivers in the February 11 incidents had been counselled or reprimanded, but it did outline Uber's processes for handling complaints around assistance animal refusals.
"From the time of the incident report, the driver-partner's access to the Uber driver app is temporarily removed during an internal review," he said.
"If this is the first report against the driver, they must undergo additional education and score over 90 per cent on a test to demonstrate they understand their legal obligations to riders with assistance animals.
"Any further incidents of this nature may result in permanent loss of access to the Uber driver app in line with our community guidelines."
Mr Pycroft said Uber last year rolled out new educational materials, developed in partnership with experts including the Australian Network on Disability, to its 63,000 drivers across the country.
Drivers had to complete these materials, which outlined their legal obligations, to keep access to the driver app in Australia.
Mr Pycroft said Uber also worked with organisations including Guide Dogs Australia and Vision Australia.
