Uber vs. Lyft Reporting Procedures
With thousands of lawsuits pending across the country over rideshare sexual assaults, concerns are mounting about the safety of rideshare platforms like Uber and Lyft. If you have experienced sexual assault, misconduct, or another safety incident while riding in or driving an Uber or Lyft, both platforms have reporting procedures. Learn more about your options and when to seek legal counsel.
Author: Kathryn Kosmides
Survivor Advocate
- Uber and Lyft have faced thousands of lawsuits in recent years regarding sexual assault and misconduct, with plaintiffs alleging that the apps did not take sufficient preventative measures to keep users safe or adequately respond to reports of misconduct.
- When using Uber or Lyft, it’s crucial to understand the reporting procedures for each app in case a safety incident occurs on your ride.
- If you or a loved one has experienced sexual assault or misconduct while riding in or driving for Uber or Lyft, you may be eligible to file a lawsuit for compensation.
Uber’s Reporting Procedures
How to Report an Incident on the Uber App:
- Go to the Uber app.
- Tap “Help”.
- Tap “Help with a trip,”.
- Pick the trip during which you were assaulted.
- Tap “Report safety issue” on the “Trip details” page.
- Then, tap “Report a safety incident involving a driver” and write your complaint.
- You can also tap “call support” at the bottom of the “Help” page to call Uber.
How to Report an Incident on the Uber Website:
On Uber’s website, an online form is available for individuals without Uber accounts to report serious incidents involving a driver or vehicle on the Uber platform, including verbal or physical altercations and inappropriate physical contact. Third parties can also report serious incidents involving drivers or riders.
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Lyft’s Reporting Procedures
How To Report An Incident on the Lyft App:
- Go to the Lyft app.
- Tap “Ride History”.
- Select the trip on which the incident occurred, and choose “Report Safety Issue or Incident.”
- To report an assault choose “Unsafe Conduct.”
- Then, tap “Report a safety incident involving a driver” and write your complaint.
- You can also navigate to “Help and “Report Safety Issue or Incident” through the “Your Account” feature.
- Lyft also has a “Talk To Our Team” option in the “Report Safety Issue or Incident” section. It allows you to alert a Lyft team member to call you back within 5 minutes.
Lyft has partnered with security firm ADT. During a Lyft ride, a rider or driver in an unsafe situation can also call or text ADT emergency help from within the app. Trained ADT specialists will assist with de-escalating the situation or dispatch emergency services as needed.
How to Report an Incident on the Lyft Website
If you experienced a safety incident or felt unsafe during a Lyft ride, there are forms available on Lyft’s website for both drivers and riders to report their concerns. Select the most relevant options to get to the correct form, then click “I still need help” to use Lyft’s call option to tell their critical response team what happened on the ride. You can also report via email or log in to Lyft’s Help Center. Lyft’s safety team is available 24/7.
They also provide email and phone call reporting options. However you choose to report, we highly suggest documenting your report with screenshots or call recording.
Comparing Uber and Lyft Reporting Systems
| Both platforms | Uber | Lyft | |
|---|---|---|---|
| In-App & Web Reporting: |  | | Plus, email and phone call reporting options. |
| Available 24/7: |
Handled by a team of trained safety agents. | | Claims that all safety-related chats or calls are answered within 60 seconds. |
| Anonymous Reporting: |
In-app reporting tools protect your identity from the driver. | | |
| Law Enforcement Cooperation: | | Dedicated public safety team that collaborates with law enforcement agencies to provide support to investigations. The team provides information through a secure portal to assist with active cases. | ADT may contact law enforcement in cases involving serious incidents. |
| Legal and Policy Protections: |
Zero-tolerance policies for sexual assault and misconduct. | | |
Why Reporting Rideshare Incidents Matters
After experiencing rideshare sexual assault or misconduct, many survivors choose not to report to the platform or law enforcement. However, reporting misconduct can be helpful for several reasons. It can hold the perpetrator accountable and stop them from causing future harm, as well as create evidence and documentation in case the survivor chooses to take further legal action. It’s essential to understand that reporting misconduct to Uber or Lyft differs from reporting to law enforcement, and both methods are important.
Uber and Lyft have both represented their services as overwhelmingly safe. Lyft’s 2024 Safety Transparency Report found that serious safety incidents occurred in 0.0002% of rides between 2020 and 2022—but that’s still hundreds of thousands of incidents. Uber’s 2024 US Safety Report published similar numbers, though a New York Times investigation later found that Uber received a report of sexual assault or misconduct every eight minutes between 2017 and 2022.
Your legal right to pursue a claim does not depend on whether you were the account holder or the one who booked the ride. What matters is that you were a passenger on the Uber platform when the assault occurred. We can obtain the ride records through discovery regardless of whose account was used.
Melinda Maxson
Senior Council, Milberg PLLC
Helping Survivors Attorney Partner
What Happens After Reporting an Incident
Uber encourages reporting from both drivers and riders. When reports are submitted, Uber categorizes them using a global sexual assault taxonomy system and then determines an appropriate response. For what they consider minor incidents, Uber informs the user that their behavior made another person uncomfortable. The user may also be suspended until they agree to Uber’s Community Guidelines. For serious reports, app access is immediately suspended pending investigation. If Uber has information that a rider or driver has perpetrated sexual assault, it permanently deactivates their account.
On Lyft, the app’s safety team can help report safety incidents, advise on next steps, or escalate cases to specialized teams. If a user wishes to report an incident to law enforcement, a safety team member will guide them through how Lyft cooperates with the police. Lyft uses the same global taxonomy system as Uber and other rideshare applications.
Many survivors find that even when they follow all the right reporting procedures after a rideshare assault, the rideshare company still does not take their report seriously.
This issue is cited in numerous lawsuits against Uber and Lyft. It’s essential to document everything after experiencing harm, including chat logs with the driver or rider, messages with Uber or Lyft’s safety teams, police reports, and any other relevant information. You can use these as evidence if you choose to take legal action.
Helping Survivors attorney partner Melinda Maxson argues that Uber failing to take action after a reported incident of misconduct can be the most powerful piece of evidence in a case.
If you reported your assault to Uber and they gave you a form response, kept the driver active, or failed to investigate meaningfully — that is evidence. If they deactivated the driver months later after other complaints — that is evidence. If there is a paper trail showing Uber knew this driver was a problem and did nothing, that can be worth millions in a jury room. I want every communication you had with Uber after your assault. Every email, every in-app report, every response they sent you. That is a record of what they chose to do — and what they chose not to.
Melinda Maxson
Senior Council, Milberg PLLC
Helping Survivors Attorney Partner
Legal Rights of Rideshare Sexual Assault Survivors
If you’ve experienced a rideshare sexual assault, you have legal rights and options. Civil lawsuits can hold the responsible parties accountable and pursue compensation for your pain, suffering, emotional distress, medical costs, and more. In some cases, survivors can file a civil lawsuit against Uber or Lyft for negligently failing to protect them from predatory drivers or riders.
At Helping Survivors, we aim to empower sexual assault survivors to understand their rights and options. We can connect survivors to experienced sexual assault lawyers who work on a contingency basis. These law firms can file civil lawsuits against the individuals, institutions, and organizations that perpetrated and enabled their abuse.
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