Sunday, May 8, 2016

Uber and Lyft to Pull Out of Austin,Texas; Houston May Be Next

Uber and Lyft are to pull out of Austin, Texas on Monday, rather than comply with a requirement to run fingerprint-based background checks on drivers.

Both companies will suspend operations in Austin starting on Monday morning, leaving more than 10,000 taxi drivers in the Texas capital without their driver jobs.

This may be only the first city in Texas to lose Uber and Lyft service.

Uber has also threatened to pull out Houston if the city does not remove fingerprint requirements.

In Austin, voters rejected on Saturday a proposal backed by Uber and Lyft that would have removed the fingerprinting requirement. The ballot measure failed despite Uber and Lyft spending a combined $8m canvassing for support.

Uber and Lyft have strongly resisted fingerprint checks because they take too long — typically three to four months — and are more expensive. Uber says existing background checks, which pull from federal, state and county court records, are just as accurate and do not discriminate against racial minorities the way that fingerprint checks can.

  -RW

(via FT)

10 comments:

  1. They failed because they didn't manage the spending of that 8 million well. Oversaturated the exposure and pissed off all the residents sending too many redundant text messages and mailers.

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  2. Uber and Lyft are fakers and liers and cheaters. They want to just make money but not to have any employees so they wont have to pay any taxes. Tough SH*T, fakers. There are rules as to how to conduct a business, the government always wants its cut from the profits. Dont steal, the government hates competition. The government just taught you a lesson: You are nothing.

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    1. Huh? The purpose of a business is to make a profit and that can only be done by serving customers. (Either that or cheating via cronyism - is this what you mean by cheating). Whether you have employees or not, you pay taxes, btw. So what if Uber replaced every employee with self driving cars. This would benefit mankind. Or would you propose that we all go back to horse and buggy and start typing on type writers again?

      Also, I'm not sure I understand anyone seeing a finality in this pull-out. Assuming Uber/Lyft are properly serving customers then they are doing the right thing. Establish yourself in a city (basically ignoring stupid laws), get consumers on your side, then pull out if it gets too hot. If consumers like you enough, they will complain, and eventually you will win.

      Wenzel had a recent post about the hindi move "Guru". I would suggest you watch it. The entrepreneur in that movie took similar approaches (by making it a war of consumer vs government) and in the end created 10's of thousands of jobs in India, and benefited those who bought his products and those employees. And yea, he "broke the law". By doing such things as importing and using more than the "allowed" spinning wheels (or something like that). So if you believe the government should be allowed to control what and how many of something you buy, then your just an idiot and a statist.

      So given all that, what is behind your "Tough SH*T" talk, really? Envy perhaps.

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    2. @Sapien,

      ─ Uber and Lyft are fakers and liers and cheaters. ─

      You don't say.

      ─ They want to just make money but not to have any employees so they wont have to pay any taxes. ─

      A planet where companies want to make money?

      Preposterous!

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    3. Member of Bernie's 'Bird Brain Party' perhaps? Such a dullard....."fakers and liars and cheaters".....WOW!

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  3. I'm just waiting for the first fatality of a customer, and let's see them try to get some money out of the insurance. Not a chance in hell.

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    Replies
    1. cuz we all know nobody every died in a taxi cab. I know, cuz the mayor of the town said they were safe with a big smile on his face.

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    2. Re: Unknown,

      ─ I'm just waiting for the first fatality of a customer, and let's see them try to get some money out of the insurance. ─

      Uber and Lyft drivers have to carry liability insurance. I don't understand what facts you have to justify your criticism.

      Delete
  4. The government hates innovation and hates efficiency, because they make the government look so bad by comparison.

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