Yes, but the rule that usually applies to a rideshare driver is not the commercial driver’s license rule. California sets a separate 0.04 percent blood alcohol limit for anyone driving with a paying passenger in the vehicle, and a DUI conviction bars a transportation network company from keeping or hiring the driver while that conviction is less than seven years old, apart from whatever the criminal court orders.

The 0.04 percent passenger-for-hire limit

Since July 1, 2018, Vehicle Code section 23152(e) has made it a crime to drive any motor vehicle at a blood alcohol level of 0.04 percent or higher while carrying a passenger for hire. The subdivision does not depend on license class, so it reaches an ordinary licensed driver in a personal car. A separate injury offense, Vehicle Code section 23153(e), applies when a driver in that same situation also does something the law forbids, or neglects a legal duty, while driving, and that act or neglect proximately causes bodily injury to someone other than the driver. Both subdivisions define a passenger for hire the same way: a passenger for whom payment or other consideration is contributed or expected as a condition of the ride, whether it flows directly or indirectly to the vehicle’s owner, its operator, an agent, or anyone else with an interest in the vehicle.

Timing matters. CALCRIM No. 2114, the jury instruction for this offense, lists what the prosecution must prove: that the person drove, that their blood alcohol level was 0.04 percent or more when they drove, and that a passenger for hire was in the vehicle when they drove. With no paying passenger aboard, for example on the way to a first pickup or after the last drop-off, subdivision (e) does not apply. The general rules still do: the 0.08 percent limit in 23152(b), and the separate offense of driving under the influence in 23152(a), which does not depend on any number.

If a blood or breath sample taken within three hours of driving shows 0.04 percent or more, jurors may, but are not required to, infer that the level had already reached 0.04 percent while the person drove (CALCRIM No. 2114).

Not the same as a commercial driver’s license case

If you drive for a rideshare service in your own car on an ordinary license, the commercial-vehicle rule is not the one that applies to you. That rule, 23152(d), applies the 0.04 figure to anyone driving a commercial motor vehicle, a term defined in Vehicle Code section 15210. The passenger-for-hire rule in 23152(e) is a separate subdivision that turns on who is riding with you, not on the type of vehicle or license. If you do hold a commercial driver’s license, see commercial driver DUI cases for the separate license consequences that apply to you.

The state rule turns on a conviction, not an arrest

Apart from the criminal case, California law limits who a transportation network company can keep on its platform. Under Public Utilities Code section 5445.2(a)(3)(C), a transportation network company may not contract with, employ, or retain a driver who has been convicted of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs within the previous seven years. The statute’s wording is not limited to the passenger-for-hire subdivision, and it is a state requirement rather than a company’s own policy. What triggers it is a conviction; an arrest or a pending charge does not.

The same section lets a company impose additional standards of its own (5445.2(a)(5)), so what a particular company does with a driver’s account while a case is pending depends on that company, not on this rule. The seven-year rule is written for transportation network companies; it does not by its own terms address taxi companies.

What decides whether the 0.04 limit applies

Two questions decide whether the stricter limit is even in play:

  • Was a passenger for hire, as the statute defines one, actually in the vehicle when you drove, or were you between rides?
  • What did the chemical test show, and was the sample taken within three hours of the driving? That window is what allows the inference described above.

Both are fact questions. Practically, the police report, any app trip records showing whether a ride was in progress at the time of the stop, and the test paperwork are the places to look before assuming the 0.04 limit applies.

If you drive for a rideshare service and are facing a DUI charge, the Law Offices of David S. Chesley can go through the charge, the trip status at the time of the stop, and the test evidence with you: (800) 755-5174.