Ladies-Only Ridesharing Service Founded By Ex-Uber Driver

Can a speciality version out-Uber Uber?

This is the question Chariot for Women is seeking to answer with the launch of its new service, which, for lack of a better description, is basically Uber by women, for women.

Founded my Michael Pelletz, once an Uber driver, the service came to life on an Uber call when the passenger seemed on the edge of a drug overdose.

“One thought kept coming up in his head: ‘What if I was a woman?’” the company’s website said. “Just one bad apple behind the wheel and those women would not be safe at all. 3 a.m. in Boston is a candy store for predators.”

Chariot for women only employs female drivers and only picks up lady riders (or boys under the age of 13).

So far around 1,000 women have already signed up for Chariot for Women, which its founder notes has the most “stringent background checks in the industry,” including fingerprinting each driver.

However, there may be an issue, according to some legal experts, with having a blanket policy of not hiring men since Massachusetts’ anti-discrimination laws prohibits discriminating against a potential employee on the basis of sex — except in situations where sex is a “bona fide occupational qualification.”

“The law is really tough on that,” Sulman told The Globe. “For gender, it’s not enough to say, ‘We really just want to have a female here because our customers prefer that to feel safer.’”

Pelletz notably has a different take.

“We believe that giving women and their loved ones peace of mind is not only a public policy imperative but serves an essential social interest,” he said, reading a company statement. “Our service is intended to protect these fundamental liberties and we look forward to ending the inequality of security that currently afflicts drivers and riders on the basis of gender.”