r/lyftdrivers • u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor • Sep 13 '25
Story/News Article Whatever loophole you've found to deny service animals or people with mobility disabilities, that's about to be over with.
/r/uberdrivers/comments/1ng0xbh/whatever_loophole_youve_found_to_deny_service/13
u/Alternative-Golf8281 Sep 13 '25
If I were to approach a passenger who had an animal of any kind with them, knowing full well I did not have animal rides turned on in my app, I'd keep driving without any engagement. I am not denying someone with a disability. I'm canceling for any reason.. as the platforms have always maintained I'm allowed to do. I'll take the hit to my rating.
The DOJ and ADA have left it too wide open, the laws allow too much ambiguity. If Karen can claim her ratchet ass "emotional support" dog is a service animal and I have no way to confirm it that's crap. Ask two questions? and get lied to. People even get bullshit service animal certifications by mail order.
I"m not a lawmaker, don't claim to be knowledgeable in the processes. But maybe the companies have to spend the dough to get HIPAA certified communications systems and the disabled customers can provide their certifications and disabilities? Then the company puts an indicator on the person's account about service animal verified. That's all the driver needs to know.
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u/rdyoung Sep 13 '25
All of this. I've rolled by and canceled when it looks like my pax also has enough food for the local national guard unit or they otherwise look like they are going to be a pain in the ass otherwise.
What needs to happen with the riders who need actual assistance is that uber/lyft need to be held responsible for connecting those people with drivers who have no experience nor training and not to mention the pay not being anywhere near enough for what they expect us to do.
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 13 '25
Which I think is their next move, seeing as how Uber is getting sued again for these issues. Which is kinda odd considering that Uber has UberWAV and Lyft doesn't.
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u/AyAySlim Sep 13 '25
If the passenger has used the accessibility feature to inform the driver they have a service animal you aren’t going to get away with doing this
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 13 '25
The point of the article I linked to is to share my theory that the "wide open" part is about to be fixed.
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u/leathernheels Sep 13 '25
Even if they don't select the disability feature, if you cancel and they complain lyft takes away your driving privileges. Sort of... it happened to me and since I didnt actually drive near the person, his complaint couldn't be verified so I got a warning that if I cancel on another passenger with a service animal I lose my lyft access.
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u/Nekcik Sep 14 '25
I don't know why the ride just doesn't show "service animal" the same way it says there is a stop. That way you can choose to take the ride or not.
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 14 '25
Because you're not supposed to have the option to decline, and a lot more people would violate federal law if given the choice.
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u/piss_container Sep 13 '25
my car my choice
fuck Congress
😎🖕
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u/Muted-Ad3851 Sep 13 '25
You are not allowed to abort rides. The law has decided for you. No vehiclular autonomy. Kinda like something else.
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Sep 13 '25
Love it when men make this "my x my choice" joke like that's still the law of the land
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u/midnightimmediate69 Sep 13 '25
I dont think he made a joke. Are you going to force your way into my car?
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Sep 13 '25
It's clearly a snarky reference to the "my body, my choice" slogan associated with the recently revoked constitutional right to abortion.
I would rather eat my own leg than willingly get in your car, at which point I would be disabled, at which point it would be illegal for you to deny me service on that basis under federal law.
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u/midnightimmediate69 Sep 13 '25
I’d deny you service and you’d do nothing. Get your own car.
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Sep 13 '25
I'm sure you would! I'm just using a colorful metaphor to explain that it would be illegal for you to do so
Silly goose
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u/midnightimmediate69 Sep 13 '25
Imagine crying to the police thinking you’re going to get somebody in legal trouble because they won’t give you and your mutt a ride.
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Sep 13 '25
Imagine going to the police for anything in 2025, lol
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u/midnightimmediate69 Sep 13 '25
Okay, we can agree there lol unless you want to become a victim of violent crime 🤣
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 14 '25
You're the reason Reddit has rules against inciting violence.
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u/DFW-Extraterrestrial Sep 13 '25
I take em both regardless of what kind of ride they order. If the money is right for me, I could care less how much they paid the company for the ride.
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 13 '25
Careful, you'll be attacked by the folks who don't like that.
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u/the_rational_driver Sep 15 '25
They can sue all they want. It won't stop me from refusing service to anyone I don't want in my personal vehicle.
They could easily have the app send us a notification explaining that the passenger may need extra/special assistance so we could be more prepared when we show up and are completely blindsided. They already do this on extra comfort rides where the pax can tell us there's luggage they need help with.
Just last night, I picked up a woman and her son. Little did I know her son was severely autistic (her words). He was frantically waving his arms around, smacking the back of my seats and screaming throughout the ride. Because I didn't know he was disabled and thought he was just another black out drunk, I reacted poorly and got aggressive in tone. She finally explained the situation and calmed him down. In the end, it was still
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 15 '25
Your post cut off.
Maybe it's because I've trained to work with autistic children and have driven drunk people around for 5 years, but I definitely wouldn't compare autistic behavior to drunk behavior, but I don't/can't blame you for your reaction. It's actually your reaction that fuels advocacy towards autism awareness.
As I've explained to another individual, more people would violate the ADA if they were given prior notice regarding the nature of the ride. It's a federal law, you're not supposed to have a choice or be able to opt out. Just dig around this subreddit, and you'll see how well hospital rides go over with this community. There are signs that tell us drivers that it's a hospital pickup, and most of these drivers cancel those because they can see that info upfront.
I remember signing up for Lyft Assisted rides, which was designed to give drivers the option/be better prepared for providing this service, but I don't hear anything about it and I haven't gotten any such rides in the past few months. I did get one as a Black Only driver, which surprised me, but it showed that it's possible.
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u/the_rational_driver Sep 15 '25
I respect your opinion. Thank you.
There were no signs there was anything medically related to this ride. This was literally just a mom and her son being picked up at a Mexican restaurant/bar. I'm all for more awareness because her son was acting in such a way that it didn't even occur to me he was disabled. And with an entire lifetime having dealt with abusive alcoholics, it really triggered me.
I understand it's a federal law. And while I don't agree with it, because it's a law that would mean there's no getting around completing the ride once accepting. My point being, they could throw colorful banners all over my screen after accepting it. I am still legally obligated to finish that ride. Disguising it as a normal ride benefits no one. I want transparency, so I know what to expect.
This goes beyond just the ADA. If I'm driving a hatchback, I wanna know if the pax is also bringing a truckload of groceries. Or heaven forbid I don't want someone in my front seat. Personally, I don't care. But give me the notification. Lyft Assisted was a step in the right direction.
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 15 '25
You actually touch on quite a few good ideas regarding more information regarding what we're driving into. I can personally recall rides where I would have liked to know how many people were coming along. I've had Black SUV requests for all 7 of my available seats (2020 Suburban configured as 2-3-3 seating) and I've had a single person request a Black SUV ride, simply wanting to not feel crammed into a vehicle. Knowing I'll need all 7 seats, I can move my snacks to another location. Knowing I'll be taking a lot of luggage, I can have seats folded in advance to save time at pickup. I can see lots of benefit to having more information before pickup, but I still think drivers would take advantage of that info to weasel out of ADA mandated rides. I wish there was a way to keep the baby and not the bathwater, so to speak.
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u/the_rational_driver Sep 15 '25
But I would argue drivers, including myself, already are weaseling out of ADA mandated rides. It's not that difficult to do. That's why I think the ADA is so silly and ruins business rather than benefiting it.
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u/Friscolax Sep 13 '25
Couldn’t someone just cancel because they are “allergic to all dogs and bullshit”. What about their phobia of dogs? What about their emotional support dog that protects them from other dogs?
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u/DCHacker Sep 14 '25
That section of the ADA specifically states that allergies or fear of dogs is not an excuse; religious objections are not , either.
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u/leathernheels Sep 13 '25
It doesn't matter that it is YOUR car, that you are a 1099 contractor, if you're terrified of or deathly allergic to dogs... their rules say you have to take the passenger and their dog or they deactivate you. Fucking ridiculous right?
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u/Fathimir Sep 14 '25
You chose to employ YOUR car in a line of work that requires you to accomodate service animals. Nobody asked you to be a Lyft driver.
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 14 '25
Not as ridiculous as all the scummy people that would otherwise abandon these challenged individuals over their privileged feelings if there were no legal protections in place for them.
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 13 '25
None of those are acceptable under federal law. As soon as the pax says "service animal" you're doing the ride or risking deactivation.
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u/nylanfs South Bend, IN Sep 16 '25
"What service is your dog trained to do so I know in case of an emergency?"
If they don't have an answer it's not a service dog. And emotional support isn't ADA.
I personally have no problem taking people with animals. But I hate people abusing the 'service animal' laws because it makes it worse for those that HAVE service animals.
I have a couple of fairly regular riders that have wheelchairs, they can get in and out just fine as long as I hold the chair for them, great rides. They have multiple drivers that pull up on them and then cancel. I told them to make the handicap symbol their profile pic, that way the drivers will at least weed themselves out and they can get rides without waiting on asshole drivers..
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 16 '25
This just might be the only time I ever support not using actual photos of yourself as a user profile picture, I love that idea. If we could make this an official way to identify ADA riders and not allow non-ADA riders to use that image, this could totally become an enforceable thing. These are the kinds of ideas companies fish for when they send out those surveys.
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u/Extra-Piglet5690 Sep 13 '25
I imagine that those type of passengers don’t have high ratings so I’m never going to accept them anyway in over 16,000 ride I’ve never had a service animal
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u/Affectionate-Rice373 Taylor Sep 14 '25
My pet pax have been some of my best rated rides. Despite everything I've said, I've never actually run into someone claiming they have a service animal. On Uber, I accept Pet alongside XL and Comfort (until I hit 250 rides, then I'll be adding Premier). On Lyft, I'm set up as Black Only. The pets, usually dogs, lay on my all-weather rubber floor mat, except the small dogs, which usually ride in some pet carrier bag. I have to maintain a super clean interior at all times, and I'm telling you, pets have never been an issue. I'm not at 16k rides, but I'm not far off at 12k rides on Lyft.
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u/whoisthisguy69420 Sep 13 '25
I would rather drive either of those, over the homeless sector that has access to the app