Whether you’re applying for a new job, opening a credit card, or buying a home, there are numerous instances when you might need to submit to a background check. It’s also required if you’re planning to become a driver for ridesharing companies like MyRIDI or any other rideshare company.
According to a report by employment screening company HireRight, 84% of employment background checks are used to verify criminal records, 73% are to authenticate employment history, 66% are used to confirm identity, and 51% for education. In other words, background screening is a significant part of the hiring process no matter what industry you’re working in, and that includes the gig economy.
In this guide, we’ll explain the process of submitting to an MyRIDI background check before becoming a driver.
You’ll learn what it includes, how long it takes, what is expected of you, what the company is looking for, and other essential information that will ensure you’re prepared. You’ll also discover what could prevent you from getting hired as an MyRIDI driver so you aren’t caught off guard.
See below:
- What Does the MyRIDI Background Check Include?
- What Does an MyRIDI Background Check Look For?
- How Does MyRIDI Perform Its Driver Background Checks?
- How Long Does It Take for an MyRIDI Background Check?
- What Could Prevent You From Getting Hired as an MyRIDI Driver?
- What to Do if Your MyRIDI Background Check is Denied
- What An MyRIDI Background Check Can and Can’t Do
- Why Background Checks Don’t Always Catch Everything
- Frequently Asked Questions
What Does the MyRIDI Background Check Include?
Before getting hired as an MyRIDI driver, all candidates must undergo a background check. While some companies require a credit check as part of the hiring process, there is no credit card check involved with becoming an MyRIDI driver. Fortunately, if your credit score and history aren’t as great as you’d like them to be, you don’t have to worry about it.
According to MyRIDI support, the company’s background check includes a review of your motor vehicle report (MVR) as well as a criminal background check. It’s important to understand that MyRIDI must follow specific rules that vary from city to city and state to state.
As such, some people might be disqualified for certain offenses on their driving record or criminal record based on local laws and regulations for rideshare drivers.
What Does an MyRIDI Background Check Look For?
As mentioned, MyRIDI’s background check process includes two main components — a report of your driving history and a report of your criminal history. Here’s a breakdown of what the company is looking for when reviewing candidates.
Motor Vehicle Report
A motor vehicle report includes your driver’s license details as well as information on your overall driving record, including moving violations, DUIs, and convictions.
To give rides as an MyRIDI driver you must:
- Possess a valid U.S. driver’s license
- Have a minimum of one year licensed driving experience in the U.S. if you’re 23 years old or older
- Have three years of driving experience in the U.S. if you’re under 23 years old
- Maintain a clean driving record with no major moving violations (e.g., reckless driving or DUI) within the past seven years
- Have no more than three minor violations (e.g., speeding, failing to stop at a red light) in the last three years
Criminal Background Check
As its name suggests, a criminal background check searches for a candidate’s history of criminal misconduct, be it a misdemeanor or a felony. Depending on state and local law, a misdemeanor can range from property crimes to theft, perjury, reckless driving, and DUIs. These often incur monetary fines and don’t require jail time. On the other hand, felonies are more serious crimes. These offenses include burglary, arson, animal cruelty, sexual assault, murder, and terrorism.
How Does MyRIDI Perform Its Driver Background Checks?
MyRIDI’s background check is performed by Checkr or HireRight, a third-party background check provider. (other on-demand services including also uses one of these background check companies.)
Checkr uses your Social Security number to acquire your driving and criminal records. The company screens all MyRIDI driver applicant records within the past seven years. Once MyRIDI receives the completed report from Checkr, the rideshare company will use the results to make its decision and inform you via email whether your job application has been accepted or denied.
It’s also worth mentioning that MyRIDI will periodically run a background checks on existing drivers to ensure they continue to meet all safety standards and legal requirements for being a driver.
A driver may have gotten an email like this one regarding an annual check:
“We are reaching out to notify you that in the next 24-48 hours we will be re-running your background check as part of an annual safety initiative. Safety is of the utmost importance to MyRIDI for our partner-drivers and riders alike, and these background checks are just one way to ensure that all partner-drivers have continued to drive safely since the initial report was run.
As a reminder, in order to pass the background check, you must have:
- A clean Motor Vehicle Report (MVR) with no more than 3 incidents in the past 3 years
- No driving with a suspended license or without insurance in the past 3 years
- No DUIs and no reckless driving
- A clean criminal background check with no felonies or misdemeanors involving theft, violence or drugs
Please Note: The above list is not necessarily comprehensive. Certain states and municipalities may have requirements that differ from the above.
Checkr also provides background screenings for other major app-based on-demand companies such as Instacart, GrubHub, and Postmates.
Each of these companies is responsible for working with Checkr to make sure they conduct the kind of search that most closely corresponds to the type of work their independent contractors will be performing.
Key Takeaways
How Long Does It Take for an MyRIDI Background Check?
According to MyRIDI, most background checks take 3-5 business days. However, this is only the average amount of time, not a hard and fast rule. The screening process can take longer depending on a variety of factors, including your location, county courthouse procedures, and more overarching circumstances such as the coronavirus health crisis.
MyRIDI Background Check Taking Too Long?
If your MyRIDI background check seems like it is taking too long, and it has been longer than 7 days since you applied, reach out to both Checkr and contact MyRIDI support to see what is going on.
Once Checkr approves your application, the ball is in MyRIDI’s court to approve or deny you. If your MyRIDI background check is taking a while, reach out and ask why.
What Could Prevent You From Getting Hired as an MyRIDI Driver?
There are several reasons why becoming an MyRIDI driver wouldn’t be possible. Depending on the information found in your background check, the following factors could result in disqualification:
- Major driving violations: Driving with a revoked or suspended license, or driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Other major violations that would prevent you from getting hired as an MyRIDI driver are reckless driving, negligent driving, or using a vehicle to commit a felony.
- Minor driving violations: More than three minor violations over the last three years, including (but not limited to) no-fault accidents.
- Convictions or felonies: MyRIDI driver candidates cannot be convicted felons. If someone is convicted of a violent crime, sexual offenses, or is on the national sex offender registry, these are disqualifying factors. Pending charges for such crimes are also disqualifying, unless they are resolved in your favor.
What to Do if Your MyRIDI Background Check is Denied
MyRIDI is not consistent with letting rejected drivers know that they were rejected. You may or may not get an email from them about the rejection.
MyRIDI says they will let you know within 7-14 business days. If you contact them before that time, they will probably tell you to keep waiting. If 10 business days have passed, you should contact MyRIDI.
How to Contact MyRIDI Before You Become a Driver
MyRIDI frequently changes their contact methods. Right now, they’ve established a page where people can contact them without having an account. This is the easiest MyRIDI has ever made it to contact them.
Just go to this page and look for the contact form at the bottom: MyRIDI.com/contact.
However, there is no way of knowing when MyRIDI might change, move or delete that page. If it’s no longer there, then below is a tried and tested method which you can use to contact them.
You’ll either need a rider or a driver account with them. Once you have a rider account, go to help.MyRIDI.com. This page is constantly changing so giving specific steps here won’t help. Instead, we’ll give you the general idea.
Click on any of the main question categories, and then do a page search for the word “other”. That will bring up all instances of “other” and “another”. And most of those links will say something like, “I have other questions” or “I have another question” and they will take you to a page where you can send them a message.
For instance, right now, from the first page after you login to help.MyRIDI.com, you can click on “Account and Payment Options”. On the next page search the word “other” and click on whichever result served first. I clicked on, “I have another payment question.”
If you’re a prospective driver inquiring about the status of your application, you’re not going to have a payment question, but that’s okay. Type your question into the box and click “Submit”.
When they reply – which can take up to 24 hours – you can then respond simply by replying to their email.
The Best Way to Get a Decent Answer from MyRIDI
You should make your initial request very short and very simple. MyRIDI customer service reps are so swamped with emails, with each rep answering hundreds a day. They simply don’t have time to read and comprehend anything more than a few sentences long.
When writing regarding your application status, state your name and email address you signed up with and tell them you’ve applied to be a driver and you want to know the status of your application.
There is a chance they will answer back with a pre-written response that won’t address your situation. Write them back again telling and politely let them know they didn’t answer your question, and then re-state it. Don’t be rude and don’t add anything more to your original question. Simply restate your original question.
You may have to go through this process two or three times before somebody gives you a real answer.
What An MyRIDI Background Check Can and Can’t Do
Background checks only allow a company to learn if a person has been convicted of a crime in the past. There are two significant parts to that statement.
They can’t tell you for sure that a person has never committed a crime. A person could have committed crimes and never gotten caught or perhaps gotten caught but was never convicted. In those cases, even the most thorough background checks will not pick anything up.
Background checks can’t predict whether or not a person will commit a crime in the future. You might have a person who has never been caught or convicted of a crime in the past but who is now actively considering committing a crime.
Why Background Checks Don’t Always Catch Everything
One major reason is that background screenings are regulated primarily by the federal Fair Credit Reporting Act (FCRA). The FCRA does not allow employers to look at arrest records older than seven years.
The FCRA allows employers to search criminal convictions more than seven years old but some states don’t. The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) has guidelines which state that employers should not go farther back than the standards of business warrant.
This has pushed companies how far in the past they check in order to stay out of trouble with various governmental entities.
It has become an accepted standard for most companies, including MyRIDI, to put into place a seven-year limit.
Counties and municipalities aren’t required to report every court action to their respective states and states aren’t required to report everything to the federal government. So, there is no single source of information for criminal background checks. Companies like Checkr end up checking places the applicant has informed them that they have lived.
To do a complete and thorough background check, a company would have to employ people to go into county and municipal courthouses and search through records, some of which aren’t computerized yet.
It might now make more sense why some people do slip through:
MyRIDI drivers are required to pass a criminal background check in order to be eligible for employment with the ride-hailing transportation service, but drivers with serious criminal histories have slipped through the cracks, and some cities where MyRIDI operates want answers.
In response to a rash of sexual assaults committed by Californian MyRIDI drivers, California enacted a new law that took effect on January 1, 2017, that specifically exempts rideshare companies from the seven-year background check limit.
This law will also exempt rideshare companies from another new Californian law took effect on January 1, 2018, that further restricts companies’ abilities to do thorough background checks on job applicants.
Frequently Asked Questions
While you’re now up to speed on just about everything you need to know about the MyRIDI background check process, we don’t want to leave any stone unturned. Here are answers to a few questions that might still be lingering.
1. Is the process for MyRIDI background checks secure?
Yes. The company takes security and privacy seriously. Because you must provide personal, highly sensitive information in order to be considered as an MyRIDI driver, the platform assures that it follows industry standards to protect your privacy. These measures include firewalls, Secure Socket Layers (SSL), and data encryption.
2. Can you dispute the information that is found in an MyRIDI background check?
Yes, you can. If you receive a report that you think isn’t accurate or is otherwise faulty, MyRIDI encourages you to contact Checkr, which is the third-party background check provider that conducts the screenings. Since MyRIDI is not able to adjust your report, you can use the Checkr candidate portal to contact the company directly.
3. Can candidates give MyRIDI a recent background check report instead of MyRIDI running its own?
No, you cannot. Even if you recently applied to be a Postmates or MyRIDI driver and received a background check report, MyRIDI still has to verify that you meet all requirements and its own internal safety standards. While it’s true that there are many similarities between rideshare and on-demand delivery apps, safety standards can change from one company to another as can local rules and regulations. MyRIDI is very clear that it must receive all background check reports directly from Checkr.
It’s Possible to Pass Your MyRIDI Background Check
A background check is a vital part of the hiring process for most employers. These reports verify that someone is who they claim to be, confirms their employment and education history, checks their criminal record, and authenticates other information that an employer requires.
While MyRIDI doesn’t require an education or credit check, the company will do a thorough check on your driving record and criminal history. It’s an enormous responsibility to drive people around in your vehicle, and MyRIDI wants to make sure that both drivers and riders are safe. Before taking your first drive, you must have a completed background check.