2/ First, every Uber/Lyft driver agrees to certain terms of use when signing up and during periodic retraining. These include sexual harassment training, refusing unaccompanied minors, and most important to this discussion, an entire section on passengers with disabilities.
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3/ You are told repeatedly, in very clear terms, that you MUST take a rider with a service animal. You cannot request proof that the animal is a service animal. You take them, no questions asked.
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4/ The training even specifically uses the example of a driver with a dog allergy. That's not an excuse. If you're allergic, too bad. You take the passenger. Worried they'll leave fur behind? Tough shit. You take the passenger.
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5/ If the passenger has a disability like a wheelchair, you figure it out. Move your seats around. Rearrange your trunk. You're a professional. Act like it. Someone is depending on you. It's both the legal and morally right thing to do. If you don't like it, go do Door Dash.
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6/ Second, disabled passengers are among the BEST passengers you'll ever have. My city has a high number of blind passengers that use Lyft. They are always awesome. Transportation services for disabled people usually stink, and ride-sharing has been a godsend for these people.
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7/ Besides being super grateful for the ride, disabled passengers can give you a really interesting conversation about a way of living that you'd never know about otherwise. Did you know all the cafes in state offices and rest stops in Florida are operated by blind people?
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8/ Third, service animals are highly trained to assist their person. They are not rambunctious little puppies. They're not going to make messes. In 3 years of driving, I've driven many service animals. You know what they do during an Uber ride? Lay on the floorboards. That's it.
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9/ A service animal is not some random pet, and it's not just going for a walk. A service animal is a working animal, and when you see them, they are on the job. That dog is working, not having playtime.
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10/ Fourth, even if a mess is left behind, you should be prepared for messes anyway. People leave messes all the time. I keep a wicker basket in my trunk of cleaning supplies for all occasions. Lint roller, glass cleaner, fabric cleaner, leather cleaner, disinfectant.
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11/ My first cleaning fee was a drunk college girl who *pissed herself* in my backseat. I spent over an hour in a parking lot soaking it up with paper towels before cleaning the fabric. It's part of the job. You knew that going in (or should have).
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12/ Anyone who thinks cleaning messes isn't part of being a driver is naive. People are messy. They track dirt in. They smell bad. They hit their cotton candy vape. They spill an entire bottle of Peach Absolut vodka in the backseat (true story).
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13/ A dog is no different than any other passenger except that it wants to stick its head out the window. If a little hair on your seats that you can get up in thirty seconds with a lint roller is too much for you, do something else for money.
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14/ In summary, the driver that stranded a disabled person on the side of the road is *clearly* in the wrong by every metric possible. Morally, legally, and professionally, it's wrong. Quit blaming a disabled person for being frustrated at being mistreated.
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PostScript: Hi everyone, glad you enjoyed the thread. If you want to see more of the interesting humanity I drive around, feel free to follow me. If you enjoy tabletop RPGs, podcasts, and like highly talented improv comedians in a cyberpunk setting, check out
@NeoScum.Show this thread
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