26 Sep 2016
Ride-hailing companies Lyft and Uber came to Austin back in 2014. They served the community until May of this year, when both companies pulled out of the city. The issue, and the supposed reason for the pull-out, has to do, at least in part, with fingerprint background checks of drivers.
Both companies say that they do extensive background checks on all their drivers. But they claim that fingerprint-based background checks rely on out-of-date databases, and that this makes it difficult to hire a sufficient number of drivers in a timely fashion. The issue came to Austin voters as Proposition 1. The question was whether to allow the ride-hailing companies to rely on their own checks of drivers’ backgrounds, or whether to require fingerprint background checks.
The regulations also concerned a requirement that all vehicles be clearly marked with the company logo, and established rules on where drivers would be permitted to pick up and discharge passengers.
In May, Austin voters decided, by a margin of 56% to 44%, to reject Prop 1, to require fingerprinting and adherence to the other rules and regulations. Almost immediately, both Lyft and Uber announced that they would no longer operate in Austin.
Ride-Hailing and DWI
While the time period doesn’t necessarily allow for concrete conclusions, the evidence suggests that having a ride-sharing presence (Uber and Lyft) in the city has had an effect on the DWI rate. Figures provided by the Austin Police Department show that both DWI’s and DWI crashes decreased while ride-hailing companies operated in the city. The specifics are a bit murky, especially since the APD revised some of the previously published numbers. Originally, they reported a drop of 23% in on DWI crashes over the relevant period. The figures were later modified to show a decrease of only about 12%.
However you look at it, we have to agree with Police Chief Art Acevedo, who told the City Council when the issue first arose that there is little doubt that the availability of ride-hailing services would have at least some (positive) effect on the drunk driving issue. We’ll have to wait to see how the city reacts, and whether other companies will arrive to fill the void.
Law Office of David D. White, PLLC
1201 Rio Grande Street #200
Austin, TX 78701
(512) 369-3737