The arrest of an UberX driver accused of trying to break into the home of a woman who had been a fare the week before has raised questions of whether the service is safe enough.
, UberX drivers “are not subject to the same license requirements as taxi or livery drivers.” And while that is certainly true, it is equally the case, as the story reported, that the company’s drivers are subjected to full criminal and driving background checks.
And yet Gerald Montgomery, the arrested driver, has a clean record in Colorado, according to the Colorado Bureau of Investigation.
Would a taxi company somehow have screened him out? Not very likely. And it’s not as if there have never been rogue taxi drivers, too.
The fact is, Americans place their trust in a lot of strangers supplying commercial services who could return to their homes with bad intentions, from plumbers to cable workers, to the fellow who blows out the sprinklers.
The chance that one of them might be scouting out criminal opportunities is just one of life’s tiny — and we do mean tiny — but unavoidable risks.
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