Rules for Uber, Lyft, cabs might just go away

In January 2015, the Fort Worth City Council started updating its vehicle-for-hire ordinance to include ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft, putting them on a regulatory “even playing field” with taxicabs and limousines.

Along the way, it has become an effort to get the city as far as possible out of the business of regulating rides.

On Tuesday, City Council members surprised even themselves when they seemed to carry that concept to the ultimate: Drop all regulations, no matter who is behind the wheel or what they are driving.

Leave it all to the free market, they said.

At first, new regulations were to be done by about this time a year ago. That deadline slipped repeatedly as various ideas were discussed — how much insurance should be required, what sort of vehicle inspection system should there be, how background checks for drivers should be done.

Uber, the app-based ride-hailing service in which drivers use their private vehicles, often working only a few hours a week, clearly influenced the council’s thinking.

Uber puts a lot of money and effort into lobbying against regulations — primarily because, company representatives say, regulations make it harder to recruit drivers.

Uber has even found one type of regulation to be unacceptable: extensive city background checks for drivers. Uber says it does its own background checks, and city checks are not necessary.

The company has left some Texas cities that required background checks and is threatening to leave Houston. An election this weekend in Austin focuses on whether the city will continue to require fingerprint background checks.

The latest design for a Fort Worth ordinance, on which the council received a briefing Tuesday, would let Uber have its way on that and other topics. Taxicab regulations in place for decades would be relaxed.

After more than a year of work by city staff members and representatives of the vehicle-for-hire industry, it became clear that the council preferred no regulation at all.

“You don’t want the city to be controlling everything,” said Mayor Betsy Price. “We’re here to facilitate business, not to necessarily regulate it out of existence.”

Minimal safety-related requirements might remain.

The council’s thinking clearly has evolved over the past 17 months. That’s OK, but the change is so radical — from strong regulation to little at all — that council members should take a deep breath and think again about whether this is what they really want.

This story was originally published May 4, 2016 at 5:52 PM with the headline "Rules for Uber, Lyft, cabs might just go away."