Does Uber Run a Background Check on Drivers Every Year?

Uber runs a background check when you first apply to drive. It’s one of the big things that you first have to pass to become a driver. But did you know that a lot of cities are actually requiring that drivers undergo yearly background checks?

Check out my video on follow up background checks, read the transcript of the video below, then leave a comment if you want to start a conversation.

What Uber looks at in follow up background checks

You may have got an email that actually asked you to refresh your background check. Basically, what this means is that once you agree to this email they’re actually going to run another background check on you again, just like you did when you first signed up.

This is going to look for all the typical stuff, do you have any major felonies, any DUIs, and how many tickets you have in the past few years. As long as you have two or three or less you should be fine.

A lot of these things fall off, and they don’t look past seven years for most states. It’s just a typical background check, the same one that you do when you first get started. Uber sent me an email and said, “Hey, it’s that time of the year again. Your background check needs to be refreshed.” I made a mistake because I waited until the last minute to refresh my background check, and I got temporarily deactivated from the platform.

It takes a few days to run the background check. Make sure to consent asap

It took four days for them to process my background check. Now, that means that I wasn’t able to drive Uber for four days. I still went and did some Lyft, and it’s just my part-time gig so it wasn’t the end of the world. But full-time drivers wouldn’t have been able to work in my situation.

That’s a great reason why you should have Lyft for at least a backup, because you never know when these types of situations will come up. I’ve done lots of videos on insurance documents and various other things that cause your account to temporarily be wait-listed and you can’t work until it gets resolved. You’re basically waiting for Uber to process the background check or waiting for Uber support to get back to you, so definitely sign up with Lyft so you can have at least a backup plan in case this does happen to you.

You don’t have a choice, you have to do the background check

If you do come across this situation, and you need to refresh your background check, you don’t really have a choice. You have to do it if you want to stay active on the platform, and if nothing in your history has changed in the past year you’ll obviously be fine. If you passed it the first time and you didn’t go and get arrested in the past year, you should be fine. There are a few instances where I’ve heard of drivers actually getting deactivated because of this updated background check.

If you go out and get a few tickets, that’s something that you could potentially be deactivated.

There’s no hard and set rule for a lot of these things but obviously the less is better. Parking tickets don’t matter, but moving violations and speeding tickets do matter. We actually started working with a company in California that actually helps drivers fight these tickets. They have these options in every state, so that’s something you might want to look into if you start racking up these tickets, but if you’ve gotten a few don’t be surprised that you may not be eligible to drive for Uber if you’re not driving safely.

The other major thing is, if you’re committing crimes or DUIs or anything like that, Uber’s going to find out when they run that background check. Sometimes I’ve even heard of them catching stuff that they missed the first time around. There’s not a whole lot you can do about that, but just sort of hope that they don’t find that. The moral of the story with these updated background checks is that once you’re approved for Uber you can’t just go out and drive like a maniac. You still want to drive safely and you still want to make sure that you’re following the letter of the law and being a good citizen, and just a good driver in general.

I’d say that the updated background checks are a bit of a hassle, but from a safety perspective I think it makes a lot of sense. If you guys have any questions definitely feel free to reach out below, give me a like on this video if you like it, definitely subscribe to the channel, we got lots more great content. All right, take care.