March 30--Winter Wheeler doesn't drive, take a cab or have someone drop her off when she heads to the Atlanta airport for business trips. Instead, she uses a mobile app called Uber to hail a town car sedan.
"I don't like taxis," said Wheeler, 32, adding she also doesn't like walking around in a cavernous airport parking garage at night looking for her car when she returns.
Uber and similar services use mobile technology to give customers a new, at-your-fingertips alternative to traditional cab and limo service. Some Uber users first hear about the service as a way to get a ride home from a bar or party, then turn to it for airport rides, too.
But the technology-enabled options are prompting protests among cab drivers, limousine operators and others who operate under an array of regulations and say the new entrants bring unfair competition.
Limo and cab operators lobbied the state legislature this winter to pass regulations governing Uber and a similar service, Lyft, but the effort led only to a study committee. City and airport officials also are weighing what they might change in the rules to include the new services, and how to uniformly enforce them.
With Uber, Wheeler can use her smartphone to see what town cars are nearby, along with an estimated wait time and fare quote, before requesting a pick-up.
It can be difficult to flag down a cab in Atlanta, and calling for one may require a lengthy wait. At the airport, a long line of cabs wait to pick up customers, but service levels are inconsistent -- and some cabs don't take credit cards.
Wheeler figures it's worth paying a bit more -- $45 from her Midtown home to Hartsfield-Jackson International via Uber, vs. about $35 by cab. She also likes using the service in other cities because she doesn't have to know exactly where she is to get a pick-up -- her phone's GPS tells Uber where to send it.
Side-stepping regulations?
Uber has two main types of service. UberBlack offers on-demand car service using large black sedans, often called town cars. UberX is a lower-cost ride-sharing service, as is Lyft. Both services entered the metro Atlanta market within the past two years.
Cab and limo operators say their biggest issue is with UberX and Lyft, which they say side-step regulations by allowing regular people using personal cars to give rides for a fee, without being held to cab or limo regulations. They say there are gaps in the regulatory requirements for safety and insurance coverage.
Hartsfield-Jackson spokesman Reese McCranie said the airport is "in the process of determining" whether UberBlack drivers adhere to all the same requirements as traditional limo services. The airport recently put a moratorium on new limo permits after a wave of new applications.
"We require that any car-for-hire adhere to the permitting process we have in place," McCranie said. "We need to make sure they have correct liability insurance as well." "
Uber, which is based in San Francisco, says all UberBlack drivers must have a state chauffeurs' permit, be licensed and insured according to state requirements, and have permits to pick up at the airport if they do that.
Some are drivers for other limo operators and pick up extra work through Uber, which they can do as independent contractors.
Airport trips "are definitely a focus of our growth efforts in Atlanta," according to Keith Radford, Uber's general manager in Atlanta.
Other cities, states and airports have taken varying approaches to Uber and Lyft. Airports in San Francisco and Los Angeles cracked down on ride-sharing pickups, according to news reports. Seattle has capped the number of ride-share drivers.
'A game changer'
Darrell Anderson, head of A-National Limousine, which has both limo and shuttle operations at Hartsfield-Jackson, said Uber and Lyft will have a significant impact.
"It's going to be a game changer in the industry because of technology, that's no doubt," Anderson said. But he said he doesn't want them "having a different set of rules than what we have to abide by."
Getting a limousine license, for instance, requires a national and state fingerprint-based criminal background check and operators must meet certain insurance requirements, among other requirements.
Anderson said Uber is "doing everything [cabs] don't want to do and being very successful."
Anderson said cabs have "lagged behind" -- citing the cash-only policy some still have -- opening a window for Uber and Lyft. That has also hurt the limo business, Anderson said.
In metro Atlanta, come cab drivers work for large "full-service" companies with dispatch services that send taxis out to pick up passengers, while others drive for smaller companies without dispatch and mainly depend on a few daily pickups at the airport for business.
Rick Hewatt, president of the full-service Atlanta Checker Cab Company, said his company has an app and takes credit cards, and he disputes the perception that cabs are always late. "We still fall short some days," Hewatt acknowledged, but he said the vast majority of his customers are picked up within 15 minutes of their requested pick-up time.
Hewatt wants Uber and Lyft to be required to follow regulations -- including safety requirements.
"They make us do all the things companies do to provide transportation, such as train our drivers, supply the correct insurance... your drivers have to be vetted properly," Hewatt said. "All those things are put in place for a good reason -- to protect the public."
Lyft spokeswoman Paige Thelen said Lyft would support state legislation to introduce and regulate "a new category of transportation" to include ride-sharing.
"We think it can benefit the consumer to impose regulation that requires the same safety measures we take," including a background check, driving records check, vehicle inspection and excess commercial liability insurance, Thelen said.
Hewatt also wants taxi regulations loosened to better enable cabs to compete with Uber and Lyft, such as removing airport flat rates.
"Every major city is fighting this," he said.
Copyright 2014 - The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
