America’s Biggest Tortfeasor? Leaked Memo Reveals Uber Unqualified to Handle 1000’s of Reports from Victims of Crashes, Assaults

 Posted on January 24, 2019 in Personal Injury

By: Tim Tomasik and Lindsay Proskey

Uber investigators are overworked, underpaid, and in many cases have no experience qualifying them to examine thousands of serious reported incidents, according to an internal memo obtained by CNN. The 26-page memorandum revealed employees on Uber’s special investigation unit (“SIU”) routinely faced “serious level of stress and anxiety” related to massive caseloads handling the most severe incidents reported to the company, including verbal threats, physical and sexual assault, rape, theft, and serious traffic crashes. The internal document highlights the ride-share giant’s concerns about lost revenue from riders who learn about specific cases and hold a lasting impression that Uber is “unsafe” and “not worthy of their trust” after acknowledging CNN had actually underreported the incidence of sexual assaults.

As of May 2018, Uber's SIU consisted of approximately 75 people, whom the memo documents struggled to handle nearly 1,200 cases per week, (62,400 annually), with team members reporting stress, anxiety, and depression. The memo stated six of Uber’s investigators “were experiencing profound stress requiring clinical care” and that "although some reports shared with the SIU [were] frivolous” that “most of the cases reported have some basis of substantiation.” 

Most of the SIU's investigators, who assess the validity of claims from riders or drivers and decide the outcome of each case, were in their 20s and 30s. According to a CNN, an analysis of former and current employees revealed one of these Uber investigators was previously a barista and another was a kitchen manager at a fast food restaurant. The memo further warned that “[a] single suicide by an Uber investigator who posts that they could not ‘take’ the job demands any longer will be fodder for the national if not national news media.” Uber, which is preparing to go public in 2019, is valued by some at as much as $120 billion. The transportation company has stated it plans to release data related to sexual assaults and other serious incidents, but will not specify exactly when this will happen.