Uber is going to start cutting off riders with low ratings

A high Uber rating is about to become more than just bragging rights with your friends.

The ride-sharing company will soon start to banish riders from the service if they get consistently low ratings from drivers.

Starting this May, Uber Canada will begin notifying a small number of riders with low, consistently poor ratings from drivers that they must improve their behaviour or risk losing access to the Uber app.

Uber will give riders multiple opportunities to improve their behaviour, with continuous low ratings resulting in the loss of access to the Uber app for up to six months.

According to the ride-sharing company the rider deactivation will first rollout in Toronto this month, and then in the rest of the country in the coming weeks.

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Just like you can rate your driver, drivers can also rate passengers on a scale of one to five stars after each trip. Your rating is an average of the ratings you’ve received from drivers, and is measured out of five stars.

Passengers can already be banned from the app for damaging  the drivers’ or other passengers’ property, making physical contact with the driver or fellow riders, using inappropriate and abusive language or gestures, making unwanted contact with the drivers of other passengers once the trip is over, or breaking the local law while using Uber.

Uber has yet to say how low your score will have to be in order to receive a ban from the app.

The initiative is part of a number of changes Uber hopes will improve safety.