Parents Using Uber To Chauffeur Kids To School, Even Though It’s Not Allowed

Rather than packing their kids onto a crowded bus in the morning or having to take time out of their morning schedule to get those students to school (or just making them walk, which is what legs were invented for), some parents are looking to ridesharing service Uber to ferry their youngsters around — even though it’s against the company’s own rules.

“It’s cheaper. It’s on-demand, so you only use it when you need it, as opposed to reserving somebody,” one suburban Maryland mom explains to the Washington Post. “Uber is just another tool for families to make it work.”

She says that traffic in her neck of the woods can be so bad in the after-school hours that it makes more sense to just send an Uber to fetch her teen daughters.

Problem is, Uber’s terms of service explicitly forbid hiring a car for unaccompanied minors.

“[Y]ou may not allow persons under the age of 18 to receive transportation or logistics services… unless they are accompanied by you,” reads the terms.

The company isn’t commenting on the increased use of its cars to chauffeur minors in violation of its own rules, but the Post notes that there are a number of newly launched services around the country that are specifically catering to parents who can afford to pay someone else to drive their kids around.

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