The city has responded to Uber with a series of sting operations, calling the ride-sharing service a “serious risk to the public”.
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“So has a decision been made?” says the driver. One cab driver confides that Lyft will likely charge customers $9 to go from the airport to downtown Louisville, while the cab companies would charge $19.99.
“They want to change the rules in the middle of the game”, said Shakur Buni, president of the San Jose Airport Taxi Driver Association at the airport.
A few cab drivers say the airport is breaking their contract with them by letting a competitor in.
The bemused driver agrees while the passenger states that Uber is illegal.
Mayor Jim Watson had said he hoped to have a solution that is a “fair compromise” by the end of 2015, although the taxi by-law review is expected to be tabled in early 2016. Taxi registration fees have been halved as of October 30, and will be halved again at a later date.
The work stoppage is happening in advance of Tuesday’s City Council meeting, where city leaders will consider eliminating mandatory fingerprints for all drivers for ride-sharing companies Lyft and Uber, replacing it with random monthly audits of 1 percent of the drivers.
Recent months have seen taxi drivers and their supporters rallying outside parliament offices around the country to protest against Uber and the unlevel playing field that has made it hard for taxi services to compete.
The audits will verify the driver’s identity, criminal background and look for outstanding warrants.
Drivers must also display signs on their vehicles indicating what company or service they are driving for, and if they are caught picking up passengers elsewhere at the airport, such as at the curbside, the service will be issued a notice of violation.
Ride sharing companies have always been able to drop people off at the airport, but couldn’t pick anyone up. “It’s an ongoing effort where we collect a database of licence plates of those who are driving illegally within our cities”, Way said, adding they’ve been lobbying insurance companies since Uber surfaced in Canada. “That means that they allow taxis that are permitted to operate in the city of San Jose to come to the airport to transport our passengers off-airport”, she said.
Customers at the airport should expect an up to 15-minute wait Monday for ground transportation services, airport spokeswoman Rosemary Barnes said.
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Follow Ramona Giwargis at Twitter.com/ramonagiwargis or contact her at 408-920-5705.
