ATX 22
Uber Leaving Houston?
Uber threatens to leave Houston if fingerprinting continues there
By Ben Wear - American-Statesman Staff
Posted: 1:17 p.m. Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Uber has notified Houston it has a problem with fingerprinting.
The company sent a letter to the Houston City Council at 1 p.m. Wednesday complaining of what it says is a cumbersome city licensing process for ride-hailing drivers, and the ride-hailing giant lobs an open-ended threat to cease operations there if the rules are not changed.
Substituting the company's name-based background checks for the city-required fingerprint-based checks, the letter from Uber's Houston's general manager Sarfraz Maredia suggests, would be a good start.
"We know that many of you have inherited these challenging regulations and we are optimistic that we can work together in the next few months to bring Houston's rules more in line with the rest of the country," Maredia wrote. "However, if the city refuses to act, we will have to cease operations just as other ridesharing platforms previously did."
Houston officials, who had just received the letter, had no immediate comment.
+
NANCY SARNOFF
Drivers who want to work for Uber currently go through a licensing process at the city-run Houston Permitting Center. Lyft does ... Read More
The missive comes as a politically propitious juncture for the ride-hailing company. Uber and Lyft are locked in political combat in Austin and early voting is already underway on Proposition 1, an initiative to abolish Austin's requirement that ride-hailing drivers be fingerprinted for criminal background checks here. The election is May 7.
Houston's regulations, passed by a former city council in August 2014, have become a political chess piece in the Austin election because of that city's fingerprinting requirement. The message from those who oppose Prop 1 is that Uber has accepted fingerprinting in Houston, so therefore such a requirement in Austin is reasonable and workable.
Wednesday's letter to Houston rebuts that notion.
The company in the letter, and a three-page report accompanying it, says that "onboarding" ride-hailing drivers in Houston can now take up to four months because of the city's "ten duplicative, time-consuming, and expensive steps to obtain a license to drive on a ridesharing platform," Maredia's letter says. The company asserts that 20,000 people in Houston have applied to them to drive in the 18 months since the Houston rules went into effect in November 2104, then never followed through because, the company asserts, of the trouble it takes to get a license.
The result for the public, the company says in the letter, is that demand for ride-hailing is rising twice as fast as its ability to bring more drivers on its app. Because of that, the letter says, ride-hailing customers in Houston as more likely to encounter increased "surge" prices because demand more often exceeds the supply of Uber drivers.
The company does not disclose to the media or public how many drivers it has working in Houston, and it obtained a court order preventing city of Houston officials from releasing that information. (Lyft does not operate in Houston.)
The report released Wednesday by Uber includes a chart purporting to show drivers-per-million residents in Houston, Austin and Los Angeles, and the chart is presented in such a way as to imply that Austin (with no fingerprinting required until Feb. 28) has many more drivers per million residents.
But the chart has no numbers listed on its vertical scale of drivers per million residents, rendering it qualitative in nature, not quantitative. Given that and the company's refusal to release driver figures, it is impossible to confirm the company's claims about driver supply there.
The letter and report do not mention that Houston has a process under which a driver can get a 30-day "provisional" license without first going through fingerprinting. But according to Uber, a Houston driver, even to get that provisional license, must complete a physical, take a drug test, appear at Houston municipal court to get a check of outstanding criminal warrants, buy a fire extinguisher for the car, get his or her car inspected by a city inspector and get an Uber identifying marker for the car.
The Austin ordinance that would be abolished if Prop 1 passes (and replaced by a Uber-and-Lyft-authored ordinance that does not require fingerprinting) does not have a process for a provisional license. But it also does not require drivers to take a physical or drug test, or have a separate vehicle inspection.
About the Author
![Image]()
BEN WEAR Ben Wear covers transportation for the Austin American-Statesman.
By Ben Wear - American-Statesman Staff
Posted: 1:17 p.m. Wednesday, April 27, 2016
Uber has notified Houston it has a problem with fingerprinting.
The company sent a letter to the Houston City Council at 1 p.m. Wednesday complaining of what it says is a cumbersome city licensing process for ride-hailing drivers, and the ride-hailing giant lobs an open-ended threat to cease operations there if the rules are not changed.
Substituting the company's name-based background checks for the city-required fingerprint-based checks, the letter from Uber's Houston's general manager Sarfraz Maredia suggests, would be a good start.
"We know that many of you have inherited these challenging regulations and we are optimistic that we can work together in the next few months to bring Houston's rules more in line with the rest of the country," Maredia wrote. "However, if the city refuses to act, we will have to cease operations just as other ridesharing platforms previously did."
Houston officials, who had just received the letter, had no immediate comment.
+
NANCY SARNOFF
Drivers who want to work for Uber currently go through a licensing process at the city-run Houston Permitting Center. Lyft does ... Read More
The missive comes as a politically propitious juncture for the ride-hailing company. Uber and Lyft are locked in political combat in Austin and early voting is already underway on Proposition 1, an initiative to abolish Austin's requirement that ride-hailing drivers be fingerprinted for criminal background checks here. The election is May 7.
Houston's regulations, passed by a former city council in August 2014, have become a political chess piece in the Austin election because of that city's fingerprinting requirement. The message from those who oppose Prop 1 is that Uber has accepted fingerprinting in Houston, so therefore such a requirement in Austin is reasonable and workable.
Wednesday's letter to Houston rebuts that notion.
The company in the letter, and a three-page report accompanying it, says that "onboarding" ride-hailing drivers in Houston can now take up to four months because of the city's "ten duplicative, time-consuming, and expensive steps to obtain a license to drive on a ridesharing platform," Maredia's letter says. The company asserts that 20,000 people in Houston have applied to them to drive in the 18 months since the Houston rules went into effect in November 2104, then never followed through because, the company asserts, of the trouble it takes to get a license.
The result for the public, the company says in the letter, is that demand for ride-hailing is rising twice as fast as its ability to bring more drivers on its app. Because of that, the letter says, ride-hailing customers in Houston as more likely to encounter increased "surge" prices because demand more often exceeds the supply of Uber drivers.
The company does not disclose to the media or public how many drivers it has working in Houston, and it obtained a court order preventing city of Houston officials from releasing that information. (Lyft does not operate in Houston.)
The report released Wednesday by Uber includes a chart purporting to show drivers-per-million residents in Houston, Austin and Los Angeles, and the chart is presented in such a way as to imply that Austin (with no fingerprinting required until Feb. 28) has many more drivers per million residents.
But the chart has no numbers listed on its vertical scale of drivers per million residents, rendering it qualitative in nature, not quantitative. Given that and the company's refusal to release driver figures, it is impossible to confirm the company's claims about driver supply there.
The letter and report do not mention that Houston has a process under which a driver can get a 30-day "provisional" license without first going through fingerprinting. But according to Uber, a Houston driver, even to get that provisional license, must complete a physical, take a drug test, appear at Houston municipal court to get a check of outstanding criminal warrants, buy a fire extinguisher for the car, get his or her car inspected by a city inspector and get an Uber identifying marker for the car.
The Austin ordinance that would be abolished if Prop 1 passes (and replaced by a Uber-and-Lyft-authored ordinance that does not require fingerprinting) does not have a process for a provisional license. But it also does not require drivers to take a physical or drug test, or have a separate vehicle inspection.
About the Author
BEN WEAR Ben Wear covers transportation for the Austin American-Statesman.
This is nothing more than Uber wanting to whip up their customer base into influencing local regulation.
Stay strong, Houston
Stay strong, Houston
I wonder when Uber's going to send a similar letter to NYC?
Stay strong Houston ... it's definitely a bluff. From what I heard, people at the Austin polling locations are shocked that so many people are voting NO.
One this missing from all the Uber/Lyft ads in Austin is that none of the ads say "If you don't vote Yes, we are leaving Austin"
Stay strong Houston ... it's definitely a bluff. From what I heard, people at the Austin polling locations are shocked that so many people are voting NO.
One this missing from all the Uber/Lyft ads in Austin is that none of the ads say "If you don't vote Yes, we are leaving Austin"
Get Me hopes Uber leaves. Uber, the pretender, will never be missed.
https://www.texastribune.org/2016/04/27/austin-company-poised-fill-gap-uber-lyft/
https://www.texastribune.org/2016/04/27/austin-company-poised-fill-gap-uber-lyft/
Frankly, I think Houston & Austin should call Uber's bluff ... 'cause until Uber tries to pull the plug on NYC ... they're not serious about their no fingerprint stance. Besides in NYC drivers need chauffeurs license, medical test, drug test, etc ... and they still have over 35,000 drivers in the city.
Do not forget that Maryland is planning to licence drivers and have them submit to a Law Enforcement background/fingerprint check. Not only has Uber not issued even the first whimper of protest, it is helping to collect information on the drivers and had them give an electronic consent to submitting information.
Here is the press conference with Sylvester Turner our Mayor and City COuncil members.
They are not going to last IMHO.
They are not going to last IMHO.
Everyone should share this video as much as they can ... would love to see 100K views before May 7th (considering only 64 views so far ... it's a tall order); but we posted this to our FB & TW accounts and told our followers to share it ... so maybe we can get some traction. ATX 22 ... what do you think?
I'm thinking about joining up with Uber - but I am left a bit perplexed by the complete stupidity of management re: fingerprinting and background checks. I have a Concealed Handgun License (yes, I know the rules say that drivers and riders can't carry), and that license suffices for me to by a handgun without going through the Federal system for approval. Since I submitted my fingerprintes to the DPS and the DPS and FBI did a complete background check, why is that not good enough for a piddly company like Uber? Just wondering.
The fingerprinting and in depth background check are for the Houston TNC permit. Uber runs their own, and from what the Mayor said, they miss some important stuff.
RC
RC
Once again Uber threatens to leave a city because the law is compatible with their business model. Boo Hoo.
Here is another opportunity for Lyft that likely it will blow.
Lyft should come out in support of the fingerprinting. It might even take some of GM's money and offer at least a partial subsidy to the drivers for the fee. It could offer either that or a nice sign-on bonus to Uber drivers and a subsidy to its current drivers (is Lyft in Houston, even?).
Lyft can then puff out its chest and tell the people of Houston, "Let Uber pick up its ball and go home crying, people of Houston, we can play with my ball". Even if Uber backs down, it still looks bad.
But, as it failed to do in Austin and San Antonio, it is likely that Lyft will not take advantage of this.
Lyft should come out in support of the fingerprinting. It might even take some of GM's money and offer at least a partial subsidy to the drivers for the fee. It could offer either that or a nice sign-on bonus to Uber drivers and a subsidy to its current drivers (is Lyft in Houston, even?).
Lyft can then puff out its chest and tell the people of Houston, "Let Uber pick up its ball and go home crying, people of Houston, we can play with my ball". Even if Uber backs down, it still looks bad.
But, as it failed to do in Austin and San Antonio, it is likely that Lyft will not take advantage of this.
Lyft doesn't operate in Houston at all.
The only market I am aware of where Lyft operates with fingerprinting is NYC.
This video needs to be sent to every mayors office and every city council where U/L operate.
While I am a less government type of guy, these regs seem quite fair and reasonable. Fair is fair if the cabs/limos/bus drivers have to do it. But since the regs create a barrier to entry, albeit a small one, Travis's panties are in a twist since it will slow down their burn and churn with drivers as it's currently so much cheaper to onboard new drivers than to take care of the current ones.
I hope Juno is watching this, there's a big opportunity here.
While I am a less government type of guy, these regs seem quite fair and reasonable. Fair is fair if the cabs/limos/bus drivers have to do it. But since the regs create a barrier to entry, albeit a small one, Travis's panties are in a twist since it will slow down their burn and churn with drivers as it's currently so much cheaper to onboard new drivers than to take care of the current ones.
I hope Juno is watching this, there's a big opportunity here.
Basically all Uber is saying is, "We need to get Houston's regulations in line with the rest of the country before the rest of the country get's their regulations in line with Houston's".
After all, if every city in the country adopts the same regulations on fingerprint background checks, Uber cannot boycott all of them.
After all, if every city in the country adopts the same regulations on fingerprint background checks, Uber cannot boycott all of them.
The more they fight it, it appears the pushback from the cities is getting stronger. Uber was lobbying the Texas Legislature to set regulations at the state level, but the Legislature let it die without a vote in the last session.
I think they were successful in pushing their agenda in a couple of states. North Carolina was one, I think.
I think they were successful in pushing their agenda in a couple of states. North Carolina was one, I think.
Houston drivers must be making bank with the awesome surges this article states are occurring
Nobody opposes this expect Uber and criminals not wanting to get caught. They ran sting operations at LA airport and caught drivers with felonies, warrants, and recently let out of prison for rape and murder.
No reason not to fingerprint and shut up neh sayers.
No reason not to fingerprint and shut up neh sayers.
NYC & LA ... just started requiring drivers to take a selfie before they can login to app for the day ... 3 strikes and you're deactivated temporarily until someone can manually verify the driver.
> http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...york/uber-new-safety-feature-requires-well-lit-selfie-drivers-article-1.2616898
Step in the right direction; but I still want fingerprints ... and considering that NYC has both fingerprints & real-time selfies ... should be a no-brainer to keep fingerprints in Austin & Houston
> http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york...york/uber-new-safety-feature-requires-well-lit-selfie-drivers-article-1.2616898
Step in the right direction; but I still want fingerprints ... and considering that NYC has both fingerprints & real-time selfies ... should be a no-brainer to keep fingerprints in Austin & Houston
What twitter handles are used? I only retweeted @SylvesterTurners tweet. I'd like to retweet more if you can post the twitter handles.
#MayorTurnerisnotaDeBlasio
#MayorTurnerisnotaDeBlasio
These apps companies dont pay attention to the law I'm in California on vacation drive in Dallas turned lyft app on to see what prime time looks like out here and got a ping.How the hell does that happen.
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