Lyft and Uber in Austin have been picking up passengers at the Bergstrom International Airport for the last 18 months. The ride sharing services began at the airport following the passing of an ordinance by the Austin City Council in October, 2014. The ordinance that allowed Lyft and Uber to operate airport service called for the companies to provide a fee to the city to cover the costs of monitoring the ride sharing services. The ordinance specified that the fee would be calculated by a separate ordinance. The City Council then convened its 2014 sessions without legislating the fee ordinance. Since that time, Austin’s 3 cab companies have been paying a fee of $450 each for their 900 airport cab permits. The City Council passed a new ride sharing fee proposal last December, 2015. The result of the new legislations fees and requirements has been viewed as un-acceptible by Lyft and Uber. The dispute has now boiled down to a public vote on May 7 to decide on the ride sharing companies alternate proposal, known as Proposition 1.
Lyft and Uber in Austin face Proposition 1 results
The new fee proposal by the City of Austin gives the ride sharing companies a choice of 3 ways to pay the city:
- 1% of their annual gross revenue from operations in Austin.
- A total calculated by multiplying the city taxi permit fee by each of the companies total number of ride sharing drivers.
- A fee based on the total number of miles driven by each company in a calendyear.
The new city ordinance also calls for each company to pay 1% of its gross Austin revenue for a compliant driver education fund. If the ride sharing company participates in a safety assurance program, it will not have to pay that additional fee. The new ordinance also requires that drivers with Lyft and Uber must under go more stringent fingerprint and background checks then the companies currently require.
The vote on Proposition 1 will decide if the legislation passed by the City Council will be replaced by those drafted by Lyft and Uber. Both companies have threatened to pull out of Austin if the proposition fails.
Check out Lyft at www.lyft.com
Check out Uber at www.uber.com