Elena Zerkal isn’t shy about tooting her own horn over the 11 years she spent behind the wheel as a for-hire vehicle driver.
“Five-star ratings, professional, I never had any problems,” she said. “Best ratings, best customer service review, everything.”
But the former Lyft driver says that track record didn’t spare her from being “dumped out of nowhere” by the app-based ride-hailing service last year after she told a male passenger in Midtown East that she was not comfortable driving him as he berated a female companion in the back seat.
“I felt so bad for this girl and I intervened and I said, ‘Excuse me sir, I don’t appreciate that you’re insulting the lady in front of me, I don’t feel comfortable driving you,’” Zerkal told The City Reporter. “And while my car is still in slow motion on 57th Street going west, he gets out, slams the door and yells, ‘You f—— b—-.”
Within minutes of dropping off the woman, Zerkal said, she was notified that she had been cut off from the app, deactivated by Lyft over what she contends is a false accusation of assault from the male passenger.
“The guy complained that I touched his genitalia, they completely shut down my comms,” said Zerkal, who now drives for two black car services. “I got dumped out of nowhere for this false claim that I touched him.”
The 54-year-old Queens grandmother was among close to 200 for-hire vehicle drivers who protested in Lower Manhattan Tuesday over legal maneuvering by Uber and Lyft to block a city law that is designed to protect operators from being abruptly booted off the ride-hailing apps. The City Council approved a similar measure for app-based food delivery workers last year.
The sponsor of what is known as Local Law 52, Councilmember Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens), described the battle between the drivers and the tech giants as “money versus the many, the corporate power versus the people power.”
“Over and over again, Uber and Lyft have thrown everything at us,” Krishnan said. “They have tried to block our legislation, they have gotten a former mayor in Eric Adams to veto our legislation, but every time, we have stood up, we have fought back and we have won.”
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance and Krishnan rallied outside of Uber’s Lower Manhattan headquarters two days before a hearing in federal court, saying the drivers deserve some due process instead of being suddenly deactivated by the apps.
“You could have worked for Uber and Lyft for 10 years with a spotless record,” said Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the taxi workers alliance. “And within a second and without even a moment’s notice, they will discard you as if you never existed at all.”
The two companies filed suit in federal court last month to challenge a law overwhelmingly approved by the City Council in January — and which is set to take effect July 28. The measure would bar the ride-hailing apps from cutting off workers without “just cause” and require them to provide advance notice before deactivating a driver.
Md Azizul Haque, who drove for Uber from 2018 to mid-2019, said he’s still in the dark about why he was cut off from the app.
“This law would give me an opportunity to find out the reason why I got deactivated,” Haque told The City Reporter. “And also I would get a fair hearing about my issues.”
The companies contend that the law could force them to keep bad drivers who are a threat to passenger and public safety.
“Let me be clear: We do not deactivate a user because we want to, we do it because we need to and it’s always a last resort,” Josh Gold, an Uber spokesperson, testified to The City Council in 2024. “We do it to help ensure everyone who uses Uber can have a safe and reliable experience.”
In an unsigned statement Tuesday, Uber called the new law “reckless” and said it could strip the company of its right to bounce “potentially dangerous drivers and fraudsters” from the app.
“This unconstitutional legislation seeks to force us to keep our platform open to individuals accused of misconduct and compromises rider privacy by requiring the disclosure of sensitive safety reports to the very individuals accused of abuse,” the company said.
Haque, who now drives a yellow taxi, said the reason for his deactivation “is still a mystery” to him, while Zerkal said she would welcome the chance for a hearing into why she was canned.
“Nobody wants to talk to me, they don’t care,” she said. “They completely cut me off from my livelihood.”
Additional reporting by Claudia Irizarry Aponte
