For thousands of Chicago-area rideshare drivers, losing access to an app can also mean losing access to a paycheck — often with little warning and few realistic ways to get back on the road.
Scrutiny of that system has intensified after data from the Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection showed that fewer than 4% of deactivated drivers were ever reinstated, Capital & Main reported.
Here's what to know
City data cited by Capital & Main recorded 30,881 deactivations of rideshare drivers between Jan. 1, 2019, and July 20, 2026.
Just 1,085 drivers were ultimately reinstated, or roughly 3.5%.
One case in the report involved Gregory Hardin, a 42-year-old driver who said Uber removed him from the platform after he logged in using a new iPhone 16.
Hardin explained that the company marked his account as active on another device and deactivated it two weeks after he bought the phone.
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"I was thinking, like, 'Wow, so I do something nice for myself, and it ends up costing me my livelihood,'" Hardin recalled.
The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection data did not break down deactivations by company. Leading reasons included unauthorized account sharing, fraudulent onboarding documents, and "conduct that gave rise to a public safety concern."
Uber and Lyft both defended their appeals systems as fair.
In an emailed statement cited by Capital & Main, Uber spokesperson Austen Radcliff claimed people review each appeal and that the process does not rely "solely" on automated systems.
More background
Hardin said his income fell by 60% after he lost access to Uber, pushing him to rely on Grubhub deliveries that he described as "wildly inconsistent."
Drivers and labor organizers warn that company-run app appeals can put workers at a disadvantage, especially those who do not speak English as a first language.
Nathaniel Hudson-Hartman, a rideshare driver and organizer with Drivers Union Oregon, told Capital & Main that those barriers come up often.
Lori Simmons, a lead organizer at The People's Lobby's Education Institute, surmised that rideshare companies have no incentive to change the system.
"They don't have to retain the workforce that they have here because they can just keep deactivating drivers and finding new ones to sign up," she observed.
What's being done?
Illinois has already moved toward changing that system.
Gov. J.B. Pritzker signed a law that opens the door to a formal appeals process for deactivated rideshare drivers and also lets drivers unionize, similar to laws in Massachusetts and California.
Other states are also moving toward greater transparency.
Maryland, Washington, Virginia, and Ohio are among states that have proposed or passed laws creating clearer deactivation review processes, though those laws do not include union rights.
In Washington, the Drivers Union — affiliated with Teamsters Local 117 — has helped reinstate more than 2,000 drivers, spokesperson Anna Minard noted.
One of those drivers, Robert Whitlock, said it took years to reverse deactivations from Uber and Lyft, but he eventually won back pay after challenging the decisions.
"You do it to one driver, and then everybody else knows what could happen, and they don't organize anymore," said Tia Koonse, policy director at the Labor Center of the University of California, Los Angeles.
"It may not be a big thing to Uber, but it's a huge thing to a driver," Hardin added.
Where can I learn more?
Questions about how rideshare companies treat drivers also shape debates over pay, vehicle costs, and city rules. These stories examine Uber and Lyft policy changes, shifting electric vehicle incentives, and new transportation mandates in other cities.
• Uber drivers said reversing key EV incentives left them paying more to stay on the road.
• Uber and Tesla launched a major EV partnership aimed at lowering costs for drivers.
• New York City will require zero-emission Uber and Lyft fleets by 2030.
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