The request for a cease-and-desist order, which names 53 drivers in addition to the company, says Uber behaves like a taxi service but operates outside of the PTC's legal purview.
"They have to agree to operate by the rules and regulations that we put in place," said PTC chairman Victor Crist. He said that includes commercial liability and personal injury insurance, vehicle safety inspections, and Level 2 fingerprint background checks on their drivers.
Ride-share companies Uber and Lyft have long quarreled with PTC regulators over whether they must meet those and other requirements. The companies, which use smartphone apps to connect riders with private drivers, started operating in Tampa in April 2014. Almost immediately, the PTC began issuing tickets, calling the services illegal.
The cease and desist order does not mention Lyft. And Crist said Tuesday that Uber could operate in Hillsborough County tomorrow if they met legal requirements. "But they come into town and claim, 'we're not a cab, we're not a limousine,' " said Crist, who also is a Hillsborough County commissioner.
This is not the first attempt by the PTC to close Uber down. The commission voted in early February to pursue injunctive relief against Uber and Lyft after both ride-share companies failed to comply with a cease-and-desist letter.
"Anyone providing for-hire transportation service to the public within Hillsborough County … must comply with these regulations or be subject to civil penalties and even criminal prosecution as a misdemeanor," Kyle Cockream, the PTC's executive director, wrote in a memo issued last December.
Uber declined to comment Tuesday.
Contact Zack Peterson at zpeterson@tampabay.com. Follow @zackpeterson918.
Uber's trying to find somebody to pay off. How else does anybody think Travis Kalanick has managed to set up his illegal business everywhere?
ReplyDeleteHe even paid off the D.C. City Council to let him write his own non-regulations there. He calls D.C.'s bill a 'model for the nation'. Right, Travis, 'cuz your flunkies wrote the thing. How much did it cost you to buy all that? If Mary Cheh suddenly sports a new Benz, we know why.