Uber And Lyft In Austin: New Texas Law Allows Ride-Hailing Services To Operate Throughout State
Texas Gov. Greg Abbot will sign a bill into law Monday that will set statewide regulations on ride-hailing services, as well as allow companies Uber and Lyft to resume operation in the city of Austin after the companies ceased operations due to city ordinances.
The new law will implement state-level rules for ride-hailing companies while wiping out rules passed by local governments. Both Uber and Lyft intend to return to the city as soon as the bill, House Bill 100, is signed.
Read: Sex Discrimination: Texas House Adds Limited Definition Of Sex To Bill Regulating Uber, Lyft
Under the law, ride-hailing services will be required to obtain a permit from a state licensing body and pay an annual fee to continue operating. It also will mandate the companies perform background checks on drivers at the local, state and national level.
What the bill does not do, though, is require drivers be subjected to fingerprint-base background checks. The city of Austin, Texas voted in 2016 to require services like Lyft and Uber perform fingerprint checks, which the companies deemed to be too burdensome and chose to halt operations rather than comply.
The fingerprint checks are performed by searching through an FBI database that maintains a person’s criminal record until they are 99 years old. Fingerprint background checks are typically used for positions considered “security or safety sensitive.”
The Austin Statesman reported both Uber and Lyft intend to begin operating within the city again starting Monday as the new bill will no longer mandate the companies run fingerprint checks on drivers.
Read: Uber, Lyft Lose Austin, Texas, Referendum After Spending Millions To Change Ride-Hailing Rules
“Ridesharing in Texas took a tremendous step forward with the passage of HB 100,” a spokesperson for Lyft told International Business Times. Lyft thanked lawmakers “for defending consumer choice and all the stakeholders who have helped create safer roads and expand reliable, affordable rides for Texans. On behalf of the entire ridesharing community, thank you to all of the legislative champions who have helped guide this bill through the Capitol.”
Uber spokesperson Travis Considine echoed those sentiments, telling IBT: "Austin is an incubator for technology and entrepreneurship, and we are excited to be back in the mix. Our local team is focused on making sure that Uber works for Austinites and helping our driver-partners earn. We know that we have a lot of work to do in the city, but we couldn’t be more excited for the road ahead."
The bill to allow Uber and Lyft to return to Austin caused controversy earlier this year when an amendment was tacked on that attempted to define “sex" as "the physical condition of being male or female."
The original text of the law barred drivers from discriminating against riders on the basis of "location or destination, race, color, national origin, religious belief or affiliation, sex, disability or age." An amendment proposed by Republicans legislators added a stipulation that defines “sex,” which originally passed before being stripped from the bill.
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