Joining several other Alabama cities, the Tuscaloosa City Council voted Tuesday on language to allow Uber, a popular ride-hailing service, and others like it to begin operating in the city again.
According to The Tuscaloosa News, the Council voted to amend its vehicle-for-hire rules. The amendment will allow for ride-hailing companies like Uber and Lyft to return to operation in the city.
Uber offered its services in Tuscaloosa for a brief stint in the fall of 2014, but left quickly after city officials demanded for the company to comply with safety regulations.
With the new amendment in place, Uber could begin operating in the city within the next month.
By the time Uber begins operating again in Tuscaloosa, it will have been nearly a year-and-a-half since the Auburn City Council voted to apply the same regulatory standards that taxi's are required to meet to ride-hailing services like Uber.
In January 2015, after only a few months of Uber operating in the Loveliest Village, the Council voted, like Tuscaloosa, to apply taxi regulatory standards to the ride-hailing service.
Uber left the city shortly thereafter and hasn't been back.
"They're not a ride-share," said Auburn City Manager Charlie Duggan in a December 2015 interview with The Plainsman. "They're a taxi company. Ride-sharing is when I was in college and I was heading to Tampa and someone rode with me and gave them some money for gas."
"These are people who are driving around town, waiting for people to give them a call to drive them from one place to another."
Auburn Mayor Bill Ham and Tuscaloosa Mayor Walt Maddox often work closely together and consult one another about happenings in the two major college cities in the state.
In that 2015 interview, Duggan said his staff would be sending the City Council a report on the status of Uber by the end of that year. By March 2016, Duggan said his staff had reached out to Uber, but the ride-hailing service had not responded to requests by the city to return to the discussion table.
"We've asked Uber to reply to us about how our current ordinance doesn't suit their being able to work here in Auburn," Duggan said in March. "They haven't replied to us. It's up to them whether they want to do business in Auburn. We certainly would welcome them."
The service did not want to meet the city's safety standards, according to Duggan.
"Some of the larger issues were that they wanted to do their own background check and not use anything prescribed by the city," Duggan said. "They also did not want to meet the insurance requirements that the city has."
Mountain Brook, Birmingham, Montgomery and Mobile, among others, have adjusted their city codes to allow for Uber to operate in their respective cities. Tuscaloosa will now be among them.
During the 2016 SGA election season, two of the three candidates for SGA president touted bringing Uber back to Auburn as one of their main platform points. One of the key reasons, according to the candidates, is the safety, security and cost-effectiveness that Uber provides.
"It's a great way for students to have a cheap ride, whether that's late at night or during the day," said Jesse Westerhouse, SGA president. "It's very easily accessible and easily usable by students. It also provides a quick and easy job for students. Students have it in high school and don't have it in college. They deserve to have it in a lot of ways."
Major Auburn taxi services disagree, however. Jeff Steiger, owner of KGM Auburn Trax Taxi and Transportation Service, went before the City Council in 2015 to urge them to keep Uber out of the city.
According to Steiger, if taxi services go out of business because of Uber, there may be no ride available when students and other residents need it.
"[Wednesday, Friday and Saturday nights are] our business window," Steiger said. "For that, we pay 31 days of taxes and insurance, which is about four times as expensive as personal auto insurance."
"With Uber in town as we went through last fall, there was no business other than game days. When Uber comes into town, we lose the business that supports our cost. When we lose our business that supports our cost, then we go out of business."
Uber service is patchy, Steiger said, and depends on peak hours, as drivers can choose their hours when they share their rides.
"If Uber drivers feel like coming out, then we'll have rides," Steiger said. "If they don't feel like coming out, then there will be a lot more people driving and drinking in town."
According to Ward 3 Councilwoman Beth Witten, a freer and more competitive market works better for all members of the Auburn community.
"I want to see Uber come back," Witten said earlier this year. "It's important to have alternative modes of transportation, outside of just cabs ... whether its Uber or Lyft. Competition is always a good thing for everyone. We need to provide multiple avenues for people to be responsible."
Witten said she would like to see Uber and the city come to an agreement before the fall.
According to Witten, that agreement could possibly include a City Council ordinance designating Uber as a "vehicle-for-hire" service instead of a standard taxi service, essentially flipping the council's January 2015 decision on its heels.
Witten's idea would be similar to the plan initiated in Tuscaloosa Tuesday night.
"There are business people who need to grab a car for transportation because maybe they don't have a vehicle or their car is in the shop," Witten said. "I have a friend who has to pay $12 a day for a cab ride so that she can go work a minimum-wage job. That's really hard on her. If we can have another option, maybe she can grab something that only costs her $7."
Do you like this story? The Plainsman doesn't accept money from tuition or student fees, and we don't charge a subscription fee. But you can donate to support The Plainsman.
