Uber's Phony Surcharges or the Trickery of Travis

Uber is now changing a $4.00 airport fee. This is interesting for a few reasons:

• It's illegal for them to drop at the airport.
• An airport fee is for picking up at the airport.
• Uber failed to inform the customer that there was going to be a surcharge.

Therefore, Travis as in travesty, when are you going to pony up?

Just as interesting is your $1.00 safety fee. Is this to protect the customers from your drivers?

• Like from the one in NYC?
• Or the one in Washington D.C?
• Or the one who needed the 5 star rating?
• Or ... I could go on

Are you going to take care of that stuff, Travis? Is that what that one dollar is for?

Apparently not, says Travis.

Let me emphasize that last paragraph,

"In the email, Kalanick blamed the media for thinking that Uber is 'somehow liable for these incidents that aren't even real in the first place.' Kalanick also stressed that Uber needs to 'make sure these writers don't come away thinking we are responsible even when these things do go bad.'"

For many this paragraph might be confusing. But that's probably because you didn't read Uber's Terms and Conditions. And who can blame you? Even if you downloaded the Uber app, the text would print out to 19 pages at courier 12 pt type. This is impossible to read on a smarphone - deliberately so I would say – and the stuff Travis is ranting about starts on page 13 with the section, Limitation of Liability.

One of the things you would've learned is that Uber doesn't have drivers. Instead they have "third party transportation providers". The reason for this is that Uber is making the preposterous claim that they aren't a "transportation service" only an app and a word like "driver" would indicate otherwise – that is to say – the truth.

The main spiel starts on page 14 and I'm giving you a big chuck because you can deal with it:

THE COMPANY MAY INTRODUCE YOU TO THIRD PARTY TRANSPORTATION PROVIDERS FOR THE PURPOSES OF PROVIDING TRANSPORTATION. WE WILL NOT ASSESS THE SUITABILITY, LEGALITY OR ABILITY OF ANY THIRD PARTY TRANSPORTATION PROVIDERS AND YOU EXPRESSLY WAIVE AND RELEASE THE COMPANY FROM ANY AND ALL ANY LIABILITY, CLAIMS OR DAMAGES ARISING FROM OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO THE THIRD PARTY TRANSPORTATION PROVIDER. YOU ACKNOWLEDGE THAT THIRD PARTY TRANSPORTATION PROVIDERS PROVIDING TRANSPORTATION SERVICES REQUESTED THROUGH UBERX MAY OFFER RIDESHARING OR PEER-TO-PEER TRANSPORTATION SERVICES AND MAY NOT BE PROFESSIONALLY LICENSED OR PERMITTED. THE COMPANY WILL NOT BE A PARTY TO DISPUTES, NEGOTIATIONS OF DISPUTES BETWEEN YOU AND ANY THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS. WE CANNOT AND WILL NOT PLAY ANY ROLE IN MANAGING PAYMENTS BETWEEN YOU AND THE THIRD PARTY PROVIDERS. RESPONSIBILITY FOR THE DECISIONS YOU MAKE REGARDING SERVICES OFFERED VIA THE APPLICATION OR SERVICE (WITH ALL ITS IMPLICATIONS) RESTS SOLELY WITH YOU. WE WILL NOT ASSESS THE SUITABILITY, LEGALITY OR ABILITY OF ANY SUCH THIRD PARTIES AND YOU EXPRESSLY WAIVE AND RELEASE THE COMPANY FROM ANY AND ALL LIABILITY, CLAIMS, CAUSES OF ACTION, OR DAMAGES ARISING FROM YOUR USE OF THE APPLICATION OR SERVICE, OR IN ANY WAY RELATED TO THE THIRD PARTIES INTRODUCED TO YOU BY THE APPLICATION OR SERVICE.

The key paragraph, though, is probably on page 15:

THE QUALITY OF THE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES SCHEDULED THROUGH THE USE OF THE SERVICE OR APPLICATION IS ENTIRELY THE RESPONSIBILITY OF THE THIRD PARTY PROVIDER WHO ULTIMATELY PROVIDES SUCH TRANSPORTATION SERVICES TO YOU. YOU UNDERSTAND, THEREFORE, THAT BY USING THE APPLICATION AND THE SERVICE, YOU MAY BE EXPOSED TO TRANSPORTATION THAT IS POTENTIALLY DANGEROUS, OFFENSIVE, HARMFUL TO MINORS, UNSAFE OR OTHERWISE OBJECTIONABLE, AND THAT YOU USE THE APPLICATION AND THE SERVICE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

Of course you could rightly object that you had been tricked into signing away your right to collect liability for Uber's negligence in hiring a dangerous person as a driver. 

And, indeed, you were tricked. A legitimate organization would tell you in advance if you were signing a waiver of liability. I, for instance, signed such a waiver when I took up parachute jumping. I was told in advance what I would be signing, the agreement was on a separate sheet of paper and a person explained in detail anything I wanted clarified. 

For people to behave in any other way is uber-sleazy. But Uber didn't invent sleaze (they've only maximized it's use) and there is a California law protecting the honest, unwary people from sharks like Travis Kalanick. It's Section 1542 of the Cvil Code of the State of California which reads like this:

A GENERAL RELEASE DOES NOT EXTEND TO CLAIMS WHICH THE CREDITOR DOES NOT KNOW OR SUSPECT TO EXIST IN HIS FAVOR AT THE TIME OF EXECUTING THE RELEASE, WHICH, IF KNOWN BY HIM, MUST HAVE MATERIALLY AFFECTED HIS SETTLEMENT WITH THE DEBTOR.

So you do have legal recourse, no? Not according to Travis because his scumbag lawyers know this law and part of their trickery was to stick this law (this protection against duping and cheating unsuspecting persons) into Uber's Limitation of Liability section where it reads,

YOU EXPRESSLY WAIVE AND RELEASE ANY AND ALL RIGHTS AND BENEFITS UNDER SECTION 1542 OF THE CIVIL CODE OF THE STATE OF CALIFORNIA (OR ANY ANALOGOUS LAW OF ANY OTHER STATE), WHICH READS AS FOLLOWS: ...

It's a trick within a trick, sleaze within sleaze. In a warped way it's brilliant. If Travis had used half the innovative genius creating things that he uses screwing people he might have come up with something more significant that an app that moves cars around.