Uber Eats app at centre of B.C. distracted driving dispute

Uber Eats delivery app shown on a Samsung photo. (Dennizn/Dreamstime.com)

Is tapping the screen of a cellphone once enough to warrant a ticket for using an electronic device while driving in B.C.? That's the question a judge had to answer in a recent case.

Vasu Virda, who works as an Uber Eats driver, was handed a ticket for violating the Motor Vehicle Act when he tapped on the app to accept an order in July of 2024, according to a ruling on the matter. Because of how the app works, Virda told the court he only had seconds to accept the order if he didn’t want it to be sent to another driver.

Virda successfully challenged the ticket, securing an acquittal from a judicial justice in September of last year "on the basis that the legislation permitted a person operating a handheld electronic device to touch the device once while they were operating a vehicle," the decision says.

But the case came before a B.C. Supreme Court judge two months later, after Crown challenged the acquittal.

"Mr. Virda makes a number of submissions that the law is not fair to people like Uber Eats drivers and taxi drivers who require their devices as part of their jobs," Justice Wendy A. Baker wrote in her Dec. 18, 2024 ruling.

"However, I am not here to rewrite the legislation to include them. I am not able to do that, so I must apply the law as it is written."

The Crown's argument was that the law does allow "one touch" of a device while driving – but only in certain circumstances. Those circumstances, the prosecutor told the court, do not include using the Uber Eats app.

The legislation, the judge noted, uses the phrase “one touch” only when referring to what a driver is allowed to do in order to "initiate, accept or end a call."

Because Virda was not using his phone to make or receive a call, Baker found he had violated the law.

"I accept what you say, Mr. Virda, that you were not intending to break the law and that you were intending to operate safely and that you were required to deal with that app as part of your work," Baker said.

"I absolutely accept what you say. However, I must apply the law as it is written and, as a result, I must unfortunately convict you under the section."

The infraction comes with a fine of $368, but the judge agreed to reduce it to $295. Virda was given six months to pay.