The San Antonio City Council voted Thursday to relax regulations for ride-booking companies like Uber and Lyft. But Uber, the strongest critic of the original ordinance,said the changes were not enough, and the company would still be leaving town. Here’s the story.
In an eight to two vote, the city council passed revisions to its December ordinance, including less expensive insurance requirements, and different fees. Council members also opted to randomly drug test drivers instead of having a pre-employment screening, and they removed the requirement that drivers be proficient in English.
Mayor Ivy Taylor said the new, changed ordinance was balanced and kept public safety at the forefront, but added that the ball was now in the court of the companies concerned. “We have done a great job at addressing some of the issues that they had outlined or had concerns with,” said Taylor.“The conversations that we had with them for two weeks have been very positive, only in the last couple of days have they reversed the tone.”
Uber General Manager Chris Nakutis said the changes weren’t enough. “They’ve just killed thousands of jobs in San Antonio. We’ve spoken with the drivers just now. I’ll let them know that they will be able to operate in the outlaying areas around San Antonio, in San Marcos, and in Austin.”
Natukis wasn’t specific about what would keep the company in San Antonio. He said the fees were still too high to remain in the Alamo city.“The state of Virginia sees it fit to charge $5,000 [annually] and San Antonio, for some reason, is saying that we should pay $25,000. It just seems excessive.”
The ordinance does also keep a required 10-fingerprint background check. It’s unknown if Lyft, a similar company, will leave as well. The new ordinance will go into effect April 1.
In an e-mail sent late Thursday night, San Antonio Mayor Ivy Taylor issued the following statement:
My council colleagues and I have been working with city staff over the last several months to balance the needs of public safety with the needs of Transportation Network Company (TNC) models. We want these companies to remain and continue to operate in San Antonio. We have heard loud and clear from the many San Antonians who provide or depend on TNC services and from the hospitality and visitor industries who believe that expanded transportation options are necessary.
In recent discussions we offered significant concessions to the original regulations that we hope will allow them to continue to operate in our community. At the core we are really asking for three items we believe will ensure public safety: We are asking for appropriate insurance to protect the public, when it becomes available; we are asking that drivers receive thorough criminal background checks and we are asking that companies establish a program of random drug tests of drivers.
After the adoption of the initial ordinance last year, at least one T.N.C stated that the insurance requirements were prohibitive. Given this response, I expedited the review of the December ordinance and in meetings held in the past few weeks, TNCs seemed amenable to proposed changes related to insurance. Our changes eliminated excess coverage and acknowledged that appropriate coverage is not widely available at this time.
Several days ago, the T.N.Cs reversed course and have since stated they cannot continue to operate in San Antonio with the ten point fingerprint background check requirements. Both Uber and Lyft believe that their corporate interests are incompatible with these basic public safety requests. However, our job as a council is not to ensure the profitably of their business model, our job is to ensure the public’s safety.
Our ordinance is reasonable and the TNCs are operating in some markets with similar rules. Teachers, architects and city employees are required to use the ten-point fingerprint check. I fully respect the views of citizens and my council colleagues who differ with me but I am confident we have made the right decision with today’s vote.”
