"Drivers and delivery workers are facing a health and safety crisis that's mainly impacting workers of color. A recent report, Murdered Behind the Wheel, shows that app workers are being murdered on the job at alarming rates. Last year alone, at least 31 app workers were murdered while working, and nearly 40 percent were people of color. Another report released by the Strategic Organizing Center found that 64 percent of drivers of color reported providing rides that made them feel unsafe, 72 percent of drivers of color had experienced violence while working, and nearly 60% of drivers of color had experienced verbal abuse. It's no wonder that the Chicago study also found that 86% of drivers of color report feeling unsafe on the job AT LEAST once a month. Additionally, a survey of NYC delivery workers found that 54 percent reported having experienced bike theft, and about 30 percent said they were physically assaulted during the robbery.

As Uber states, "even one critical safety incident is unacceptable." App workers agree and have come forward expressing severe concern about their safety. App workers globally have protested dangerous working conditions in Chicago, Denver, Los Angeles, the Bay Area, and from South Africa to Europe and India. U.S. policymakers have even raised the alarm about app corporations' poor health and safety records. Last year, members of the U.S. Congress wrote to the major app corporations' CEOs, including Lyft, Uber, and DoorDash, seeking information about the dangers of rideshare driving, noting that workers are "vulnerable to violent assault and even death" but the app corporations nonetheless "refuse to release comprehensive data on the dangers its drivers face on the job." 

App corporations are not systemically reckoning with their business model as an integral part of what causes the health and safety crisis. They rely on minimal "safety" solutions that provide support during or post-incident but are not rooted in preventing safety incidents, much less addressing the root causes of safety issues. As the Murdered Behind the Wheel report states, app workers need safety protection. The apparently rising murder rate of app workers only adds to the indicators of the need for systemic solutions that prevent, interrupt, and help workers heal from harm. Workers need safety protections via authentic accountability mechanisms, transparency, fair wages, and deactivation protection."