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Massachusetts Governor Introduces Bill To Regulate Uber, Lyft

Posted by Soulskill on from the enjoy-your-medallions dept.

jfruh writes: The "wild west" days of ridesharing services may be coming to an end. The governor of Massachusetts has proposed a bill that would regulate Uber, Lyft, and their rivals in the state. Among the new rules: ridesharing services would have to run background checks on their drivers and keep a roster of active drivers; vehicles would need to have some external marker indicating that they're a ridesharing car; and drivers would need to hold at $1 million worth of insurance when transporting passengers.

5 of 193 comments (clear)

  1. Yeah.... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Interesting

    As if they will give a damn any your regulations... If they did, they would be a proper taxi service.

    1. Re:Yeah.... by Dutch+Gun · · Score: 5, Interesting

      I saw no mention of rationed or limited licenses when skimming through the article and law. The provisions seemed rather common sense to me when reading through them: Maintaining a list of drivers, criminal background checks, sufficient insurance for commercial purposes, visible external marker on the car, yearly safety inspections, minimum age of 21, and a license fee for the privilege of this oversight, of course.

      I don't think this is a bad thing at all. Every other business that deals with transporting the public is licensed and regulated in order to adhere to reasonable safety standards. Uber is apparently supporting this legislation as well. I think they feel that it's a good thing to be officially recognized by the state as a legitimate business. It's certainly better than existing in a grey area and getting fined or having lawsuits tossed at you.

      --
      Irony: Agile development has too much intertia to be abandoned now.
  2. Similar bill in many states by Bamfarooni · · Score: 4, Interesting

    A quick web search shows that similarly worded legislation is being considered in Arkansas, Kansas, Utah, South Carolia, and New York.

    While I didn't do an item-by-item comparison, a quick glance suggests that most or all these were crafted by a common hand. Anyone want to guess who that might be?

  3. Re:Why? by CronoCloud · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Or you can move to Texas like the best and brightest are currently doing.

    Texas is a shithole dependant on Federal dollars. Sure, businesses love a place that lets them do whatever they want at the expense of the actual workers and populace. But it's a race to the bottom that even Texas can't win.

    Get good weather

    100 degrees in summer?

    AND good government.

    Wannabe theocrats?

  4. Re:Banning by regulation by tlambert · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Well, if it walks like a taxicab and talks like a taxicab, how is it not a taxicab? Because you signal it with a hep and cool app instead of making a phone call?

    No $300,000 buy-in for a medallion in San Francisco or Chicago?

    They actually show up when they're supposed to, rather than taking whoever flags them down instead on their way to you?

    They don't blow you off and lie to the dispatcher about it?

    Let's see... how else are Uber and Lyft different from taxis?

    Modern cars instead of a 20 year old Ford Crown Victoria or Dodge Diplomat?

    Lack of vomit smell/stale cigarette smoke smell?