and care takers who can do that on their behalf. it's an economic opportunity for a person that can drive. maybe they are retired and they can do this on their free time. the only other thing about the app, you don't have to have a smartphone, it's web enabled even from your home computer. so, now i want to talk a little bit about feedback because this is very important. the accountability aspect that i mentioned before. uber requires all of it's partners to comply with accessibility laws. uber's technology allows for efficient and effective enforcement of our policy. this is something we take very seriously. uber user can contact uber from their app as they are using it or by e-mail afterwards. within the app there is something that says support, users can connect

directly there from the drop down menu and submit feedback immediately and within the app they can do so after they have completed the trip. we have support at uber .com which is a very responsive e-mail address and they can contact that directly or apply to the receipt that they receive via e-mail. feedback is a critical response issue to uber. we've really made it a priority. so, at this point, i want to thank you all for hearing more about our service and open it up to anyone who might have questions or feedback to how we can improve our accessibility services. >> thank you very much for being here today. i think i speak for everyone here at the council that just having you here to do presentations and take some of our questions as well as the public's

questions. i have a lot of questions, i'm going to see if anyone has questions. championship? chip. >> yes, i have a few comments. i want to recognize that you are able to serve the disabled community more efficiently and effectively. first there is a lot more to go in san francisco. you provide incentives for drivers to purchase in order to accommodate wheelchair users and other persons with mobility disabilities, mobility issues. but that's not guaranteed. you are putting the own us on the driver on the independent contract or. i would like to see a program where you provide financing for people

to do it at a reasonable rate that they can afford, that can be paid over time rather than them having to secure a loan on their own in order to purchase or alter a vehicle. >> i'm glad you are mentioning that. this is something that is new to uber is our vehicle financing program just starting this year. we do that for both green car to it yota and they are able to make the payment through their earnings. we hope that makes it easier on our driver partners to make that choice, but like you said, it's still a choice. yeah, i'm interested in hearing feedback about how we can improve. >> one of the effects you are having on the local taxi industry is that because drivers are migrating to uber and people are using uber,

there is less tax ice. they can't afford to run their equipped vehicles, their lift vehicles. >> you are talking about taxis? >> yes. over time there is less an less available for persons with disabilities and makes it harder to get a ride and longer wait time, frustration, missed appointments, lots of havoc in people's lives. i would like to know that there is a vigorous effort to provide these services. right. then also i suppose this is a sign of the times, but there are people who don't own smartphones and are not very literate with computers at a

lot of people with disabilities don't have a lot of money and aren't able to afford these items, either. so, is there some effort being made to reach these folks to become more inclusive of the general public? >> yeah. that's something that we are always interested in ways to make our services more accessible to everyone. i totally hear you about the web enabled devices. one thing we made a priority is to make sure it's available on every web enabled device so you don't need to have this new iphone to access our services but looking for other ways via phone is something i will take note of. >> okay. finally. some folks don't have credit cards. some people live on cash. so, is

there someway to purchase a card that can be used on uber in a form of a cash card or gift card or something that people can use that rather than a traditional credit card? >> that's actually a great idea. there is not currently, but i like the idea of being able to purchase something like a gift card with cash that you can use on the app. that's really interesting . we noted that people tend to prefer the cash less option especially for our users who are blind. we heard a lot of nightmare stories about taxis who take the long way or don't give back the right amount of change. that's been the struggle. we are happy to eliminate those worries. but that's interesting point that you bring up. thank you. >> okay. thank you. >> hello, again. i have a few

questions. we have questions from councilmembers as well. to follow up on what chip said with the request regarding the wheelchair accessibility. when you have uber lifts in this city providing competition with taxis and limousines and making it a little bit more difficult sometimes to have access to some of these wheelchair accessible vehicles. there is a regulation in place that there needs to be a certain amount of wheelchair accessible vehicles. when you say we are great on wheelchair accessibility and proud of this, but i don't see this in place. it's solely dependent on finding the drivers to even purchase them. what you are doing is you are really betting the farm so to speak that there are going to be

these drivers out there and more than enough to be able to accommodate. you are amplifying but you are also competing saying that we are going to provide this service that's all based on the drivers that come forward. that to me doesn't speak to any measure in place to actually provide that service. more so, it's just the drivers will be there and that's where it's left off. i would love to be able to find minimum requirements that are in place for a number of wheelchair accessible vehicles and more information on the actual cars that are shown which are wheelchair accessible and more information on people with disabilities and people being able to incorporate and drive these cars. if there are no wheelchair accessible vehicles, they have to and they want to have economic opportunities. i hear one thing, but i'm not really seeing the end result. could it be possible to actually have in place minimum

requirements? >> yeah, you are totally right that one of the biggest challenges is the price of the vehicles. if it's on the driver, it's going to be a huge challenge both for us to provide incentive and for the driver to actually make a purchase like that when they are unsure maybe what the pay out will be on that. so we are always looking for different ways to incentivize that. we are also shown a lot of interest in partnering with the city for contracts for something like that. what there is potential for in a partnership like that is that the city could set requirements at that point that we would be happy to comply with in order to have a contract available to make these kinds of vehicles more accessible. >> that sounds like a great idea. sure. i'm trying to add substance. moving forward to the hard of hearing. i love hearing about reaching out to

that community. when talking about having access to communicating with the passengers via tablets are you referring to vrs, video relay services? >> i wish i knew the exact specific devices. i know those are used in some cases as well as ipads, where they go back and forth. >> so for deaf drivers, maybe more preferential to using asl instead of simple texting. if you have these video relay services in place, you are still going off a delay and having asl interpretation. there is a cost measure too trying to provide everything through technology has it's limitations to a degree. i think i just have one or two

more. we have harriet and roland have questions. in regards to meeting the -- the training , the on board training process for the drivers. how long is this training? is it a week, days? >> it's a couple days. it's a process, there is a training process they go through on their own that happens through their computer. so different training sessions that they must complete and then also an in person training that happens where they must come to receive the device that they will be using and have the vehicle inspected. >> what i'm curious about and i don't think it's any news or anybody in the amount of money in funding that comes with

uber and lift have available to them. it would seem they would want to go for not the minimum requirement of training but more for using that capital to actually hiring accessibility coordinators and having in depth training assesses -- sessions and used these throughout the year. instead of we don't have the funds, or we are a scrapie start up. that's not the case. the salaries that some of the drivers are able to pull in, the incentivizing. what's the current pay rates for drivers in the city? >> i'm not sure in the san francisco. but drivers who do this full time are able to do very well for themselves. they are able to provide and use

this on a full time basis. >> so if there is capital available, putting in the minimum bare minimum requirements on your own accessibility training and then just having a simple on-site visit. i just don't see how that's actually going to have any real world effect. so i strongly urge you to go back and say, if we have the money and putting our money where our mouth is so to speak and say we do believe in accessibility, that's something we should do is providing mandatory wheelchair accessible vans. it would be great to your city to be able to show this off as opposed to having over the computer training. that's one of mine.

okay. i think that's all i have for now. we are going to councilmember harriet wong. >> hi, going back to what chip was saying about how some don't use credit cards. perhaps uber can have their own type of gift card or smart pass. and then i wanted to go to the topic of the on board training. i think that's really important. so, i think there also needs to be perhaps so many hours of classroom training. some sensitivity type training. and i was going to ask you the question of whether uber, like would drive from san francisco to san

jose or something like that and actually give you the price ahead of time, right? >> yes. you can see the price before you request the car. so if you are dependent on knowing that number before your decision you can have that information right there. as well as the distance of the trip. the drivers are very clearly instructed that they are to accept whatever trip is requested by the driver. we have some that are very long from time to time and that's something that comes with the gig. but we are also happy that we have the accountability to show in the data if a rider requests a ride and a driver arrives at that location and then cancels the trip for any reason, that's alerted to us right away so we can follow up why that happened. cancellations when the driver arrives whether they are asking for any sort of particular request or whether they have a seeing

i dog -- eye dog and the trip is canceled, that's something we follow up immediately. >> is there an additional charge when you pass the county lines? >> no. there aren't. it's done by miles, if there is tolls as you cross the bridge. >> that's great. i know someone who would like to visit her mother in san jose or pacifica buses are once an hour and you have to transfer to another bus. >> we have a lot of what we call transportation deserts that exist in the bay area and the country. that's a need there that we see being really important that people have. it's being able to access reliable and affordable

transportation across these areas that are typically under served. yeah. >> thank you. >> councilmember roland wong? >> yes. thank you very much for the presentation and i love technology. i love using my phone too to do all kinds of stuff. i'm more concerned about you mentioned about the online training. i feel that's not really -- it's good in a way, but in reality you should have more of hands-on. i'm also a councilmember of the para transit coordinating council, part of the sf mta accessible services. we have a very stringent training program from even sensitivity

training. it's just a whole array of training sessions in order for a driver to be certified. that's really a big concern that people with disabilities need to be safe while they ride on their vehicles. so, anyway, i probably have a lot more to say, but that's one of the biggest things that i hear is not very pleasing to my ears right now. maybe can you provide us your business card so we can follow up? >> absolutely. i would be very interested in hearing if you have particular organizations or recommend people that do that type of training. >> yes. >> thank you. >> councilmember kostanian? >> thank you for coming today. will you give an option for

people who speak several languages to be at the switchboard but also drivers? >> yeah. we actually don't require any sort of language test or anything like that to come on board. a driver who is bilingual is very valuable to us. >> thank you. >> okay. now i'm going to open it up to staff? >> hi, ms. o'neal. thank you for coming. i think it's very telling in our efforts to open up the topic today how uber was the only company that accepted our invitation to come and present. even though you provided us with contacts, none of your colleagues wanted to take the chance and engage in dialogue. thank you very much for your efforts and your openness to this. now i have a couple questions. you talked

about the drivers that do not follow your accessibility protocols or they are caught with not following procedures that there is an enforcement process. can you give us more details about that. how many times does an uber driver have to not accept a guide dog to be terminated? what is your procedure? >> typically when there is a report of any kind that we take seriously whether it's driving under the influence which we have a zero tolerance policy for itd and we have a zero tolerance for discrimination. when there is a reported nature of that, the driver's ability to use the app is immediately put on hold pending investigation. so that happens immediately while there is an investigation that occurs. so we make sure to make contact with all parties

involved. few times that there have been complaints, for example about a service dog. there was a very unique situation where the driver say had an allergy or something that we wanted to know everything about and making sure that's valid and once we complete the investigation and we find things to be still not satisfactory, the driver is taken off the platform immediately. to conform with that, there is a variety of ways that happens. the driver always has a rating. you can see the drivers rating. right now, the lowest out of five stars is 4.6. so, you know, this is not only one time feedback that we get, but we take feedback comprehensiveively and make sure that no one ever falls

below our standards. >> thank you, that's helpful and since we are talking about statistics and numbers and ratings. do you have any breakdowns of disability related requests, feed backs or whatever you received over the last six months, the last year. do you have someone who works with customer service feedback and with the special emphasis on disability or accessibility issues or are there plans for somebody like that? >> yeah. we don't have that right now. currently our customer service staff address every issue across the board. i don't have on me specific numbers, but i would be interested to get that information because i'm sure we have it. >> thank you. >> all right. i think we are ready to open it up to the public. councilmember harriet

wong? are you sure? okay. so first we have john alex from the pedestrian and safety advisory committee. >> thank you ms. o'neal for representing uber in san francisco. i have a question regarding service intervals. is it a functional request that you state you will have a service animal when you register the car and if so, do you state it's a registered,

licensed service animal because there is a difference between over the years of exist some are and some aren't. do you specify? >> we don't specify. if someone says they have a service animal. they have a service animal in our book. that's not something that we require anyone to show any proof of. we take that at face value. >> we have charles raf bon. >> good afternoon, councilmembers. i am charles rather born from the cab company. we have been serving all the people of san francisco for more than 80 years and recent decades have

been leading provider of accessible services. i would like to start off by saying to the people with disabilities of san francisco, thank you for your business. it means a lot to us. on the subject of uber, lord, there is a lot to say. uber does not accept prearranged service request. it makes the service pretty useless for folks who need to arrange a medical appointment. they require you to use a cellphone or computer. mark soto told me recently that more than 80 percent of the para transit users do not use computers at all. uber requires passengers to wave virtually every legal right as a condition of using their services. imagine what would happen if you went to use a taxi cab and we would require

you to sign a contract waving all liabilities for accidents, safety, up to and including death. the bottom line, actually is that providing service to people with disabilities is expensive. staff call centers are expensive. wheel chair accessible vehicles are expensive. when the city allowed uber to compete directly with taxis without the expense of serving disabled people, it began a process of undermining the taxi company's ability to provide accessible services. two years ago analects -- luxor offered several accessible cabs, now we have

fewer than 10 in service on the streets today. i assure you that it is due 100 percent to the city and now the c puc allowing uber to skim the cream off the top to cherry pick the most profitable rides while giving disabled people promises about service later. just very briefly, uber is accountable to no one. you have to accept their word for everything. we heard today about the on boarding process. a few months ago did an investigative report. the vehicle inspection was an uploaded photograph of the vehicle. nbc did an investigative report in three cities. the background checks

were virtually non-existent. you have to take a lot of what you heard today with a big grain of salt. any ways, there is a lot more to say about for instance, what's next? but i see my time has run out. thank you for your patience. >> thank you. >> next we have charles minister. >> thank you. council. i'm also a member of the senior disability action and california alliance for retired americans. this has been a dis in genius public relates by uber. this is a capital enterprise. you have to answer to someone, that's

your stockholders. i believe they have been capitalized to over $10 billion and they didn't until a couple months ago. they are running out of laptops and phones. they are here devouring and destroying services that have been responsible to communities for decades. regulations that have been in place for decades to protect the riding public and workers. i'm a retired union. i know what it takes when you work for a living and they have no protection at all those workers. i was at the california public utilities commission hearing when uber and the rest of these ride sharing programs were given carte blanche to operate in

this state. they gave them and i'm sure there was a lot of lobbying and probably bribing going on. they had to do something with that $10 billion. they hadn't produced any physical presence. they are angling to get the city to fund the vehicles for them to operate. that's the future. that's what they are looking for. they don't want to spend any of their cash for that. they have to take care of their stockholders. so, we already know about their insurance history. they did all they can to get that reduced. as i made the point clear, for the public utilities commission. i might decide, say i was a fisher man and i'm going to start under cutting the pilots and bring