The glories of unfettered capitalism.... or at least the kind that
seeps in under the pretense of having been fettered a little.
The City Council cleared the way for Uber and similar cellphone-based
ride services that are popular in other cities to begin operating in
New Orleans on Thursday.
The council voted 4-3 in favor of an ordinance that would allow a
premium service called Uber Black to operate luxury vehicles with
professional drivers in the city, though not the broader, lower-cost
UberX service that makes use of individuals who drive their own cars.
Councilmembers James Gray, Susan Guidry and Nadine Ramsey voted against
the measure.
Well they say UberX is not allowed by this ordinance but it also
wasn't explicitly prohibited.
Two other ordinances relating to Uber have been pulled from consideration for the time being.
One of them, by Brossett, would have created new classes of
limousines, including one that cut a rule requiring operators to
maintain at least two cars.
The other, also by Brossett, sought to define services commonly
referred to as "ride sharing," which are the more attention-getting and
also controversial aspects of services like Uber. It also would have
prohibited those services and set penalties for defying the ban.
Uber says it only plans to introduce its high-end car service, not
ride sharing, but speakers on Thursday argued ride sharing inevitably
follows.
And anyway, a few of the councilmembers appear to have actually paid at least a little attention to how Uber operates in
every other market it has entered and formed a reasonable opinion of how things might also go here.
UberX, meanwhile is a ride-sharing service that also uses app technology
to hail a car, but it uses ordinary drivers who are employed by Uber
and Uber only. City Councilmembers Susan Guidry and James Gray have been
the most vocal about what they see as the dangers of UberX, citing the
lack of insurance drivers employed by Uber are required to carry and the
concern that UberX's drivers have not been properly vetted by the
city.
Guidry has warned at meeting after meeting
that Uber X will be a reality for New Orleans as soon as the company
grabs a foothold with Uber Black. Previously, Hayes has denied that
accusation, saying that Uber Black is what's on the table. It is illegal
for non-CPNC-holding individuals to drive for hire here, and
representatives from the mayor's office who introduced the proposed
ordinance said that the city will do its best to enforce the law. To
that, Guidry responded, "We don't even have a head of the taxicab
bureau." (Malachi Hull, the city's controversial Taxicab Bureau
director, was fired in July and has not been replaced.)
"I feel like we're letting ourselves in for a world of hurt," Guidry
said. "If we had stronger laws, I'd be more comfortable with this."
Al Hebron, the president of Flagship Limousines, called UberX
"unenforceable" in his remarks to the council in opposition to the
proposed ordinance. "Booting, tickets … mean nothing to an $18 billion
company," he said.
Amazingly, others in the room... and many around town since the day this argument began... continue to blow these facts off as conspiracy theory. Even when faced with obvious evidence.
Two men, Christian Hebron and Carl Traub, both announced to the council
that they had applied to work as drivers for UberX in New Orleans, and
both had already begun the hiring process. Uber posted a call for drivers on the local job site worknola.com
today. Hebron said Uber asked about his vehicle, but Traub said the
company did not. Both men said Uber did not ask them about their own
personal insurance.
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