“During a ride arranged through the Uber platform, Uber and its affiliates therefore prohibit possessing firearms of any kind in a vehicle,” read the guidelines on the Uber site. “Any rider or driver found to have violated this prohibition may lose access to the Uber platform.” Uber hasn’t made an official announcement about the new regulations but it’s believed they were added on June 10.
That timing would mean the change in terms happened before Wednesday’s mass shooting in Charleston, South Carolina, and an Uber spokesperson speaking to The Wall Street Journal has confirmed this is the case. Nevertheless, the change in Uber’s rule has come at a time when the debate about gun control is once again dominating the headlines.
Besides the issue of gun control, it also brings into question the relationship between Uber and its users. Uber’s business model is built on treating its drivers as contractors rather than employees, and it doesn’t own any of the cars that power its service — how much jurisdiction it should therefore have over what is and isn’t allowed in those cars is a matter of debate.
That tricky relationship between Uber and its drivers has recently been put under strain by a ruling in California, which gave one driver the right to be treated as an employee not a contractor — and that would mean higher costs and more red tape for Uber. Uber rival Lyft also uses drivers on a freelance basis, and also bans firearms from the vehicles it utilizes for its service.
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