Ride-Share Drivers in Boston Are Losing Their Jobs Over Decades-Old Offenses

Frederick Hardy, a Boston-based Uber driver, tried to open his app to begin work one day in February only to discover that he was locked out of the system. He couldn’t log in and, therefore, couldn’t work. Hardy, 52, had been driving for Uber for four months and never had any problems. When he called the company to find out what was going on, he was instructed to contact the Department of Public Utilities.

It turned out that Hardy was one of more than 8,000 transportation network company (TNC) drivers across the state whose driving certificates were revoked under a new set of disqualifying criteria as part of more stringent background checks signed by Governor Charlie Baker, effective January 2017. “I was working one day and the next day I wasn’t,” says Hardy. As of April, approximately 400 or 500 disqualifications had been successfully appealed, according to WBUR; as of June 7, there were 1,933 appeals, 593 of which were successful, according to the DPU.