14 DAY TRIAL // San Francisco is reportedly looking into cracking down on Uber, as well as other ridesharing companies.
The city seems to have a love and hate relationship with this type of service because it helps with the competition between companies, but it’s also nearly impossible to regulate.
The main issue seems to be the fact that users expect to find a high quality service and for the cars that come pick them up to respect the same rules as licensed taxi drivers, which isn’t always the case.
The San Francisco and Los Angeles district attorneys have sent letters to Uber, Lyft and Sidecar claiming they are operating illegally. They’re asking the companies to make some major changer or face legal action, the SF Gate reports.
It seems that the two district attorney offices were busy conducting an investigation into the ride sharing companies and found various practices that are in violation of Californian laws.
“We value innovation and new modes of providing service to the public. However, we need to make sure the safety and well-being of consumers are adequately protected in the process,” said San Francisco District Attorney George Gascón.
A long list of complaints
The main issues that these three companies are allegedly guilty of is misleading customers by claiming their background checks of drivers screens out individuals who had committed driving violations, drinking and driving, sexual assault and other criminal offenses. The attorneys say that this is untrue.
Gascón indicated to an incident in June when Daveea Whitmire, 28, a Uber driver, hit a passenger. He had passed the background check, but court records tell a different story. He had been convicted of felony drug dealing and misdemeanor battery, which shouldn’t have made him an eligible candidate.
The district attorneys are asking the companies to make sure that customers pay their fares fairly. The issue is with the service fares where individuals going the same way can share a car and pay their fares separately. It appears that the math behind the process violates state law.
Sunil Paul, CEO of Sidecar, said he found the letter shocking and baffling and mentioned he’d already scheduled meetings with the district attorneys. “We think their claims are incorrect and their assertions that we are operating illegally are simply incorrect.”
Uber and Lyft are also being accused of failing to obtain the proper licenses to pick up and drop off passengers at airports. They’ve also failed to get the stamp of approval of the Department of Food and Agriculture, which apparently regulates whether customers get the amount of taxi miles they’re paying for.