Chair Epstein questions Uber on delivery worker pressures

Thank you, Chair.

For Uber, we've heard from the last panel just around routes and getting people from point A to point B

and drivers feeling, one, their safety's at risk for the e-bike riders, and two, that they're being told to go down illegal paths.

So I just wanted to hear...

You know, obviously, that's concerning to hear that, and seeing that injuries are up to 50% of people who are in this industry.

What do you say in response to those claims that we just heard?

I agree with you that it is concerning to hear that.

I will say that we do not pay them workers more for driving faster or penalize them for taking longer.

I do believe that my understanding from some of the workers that I talked to today and previously that others may do that.

And, you know, I talked about Councilmember Abreu's bill 1069.

Rather than just studying it and collecting data in perpetuity, ban those practices.

We would be supportive of that.

So, so.

From your understanding, you're fully supportive of an outright ban of requiring people to go wrong way down one-way streets doing illegal activity and support the workers in their ability to have safe routes.

Correct.

And so with that, and just the final question I have, just to ensure that we're all on the same page.

What are the outcomes that you would look forward to seeing if those behaviors were banned and people were not allowed to encourage people to go down safe routes?

What is the future outcome that you'd be looking to see happen?

Safer streets for New Yorkers.

Yeah, so it sounds like we're all on the same page and sounds like you're on board with it.

Thank you.