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What Do California’s Ride Share Regulations Look Like?

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Based on the comments following a meeting between the Mayor of Pittsburgh and the chairman of the Public Utility Commission on the entrance of ridesharing companies into Pittsburgh and the opposition by incumbent taxicab companies there seems to be some enthusiasm that the PUC is open to change.  The chairman noted that “These applications force us to get outside our 1960s regulations and come into 2014…We as a commission need to get out of our own way and embrace and work with these carriers…My advice and counsel to [incumbent cab companies] is: You need to innovate, and you can’t expect to have exclusive, territorial rights anymore”.

One way to do that would be to place the rideshare concept into its own class of regulation under PUC guidelines, much like what was done in California.  According to a Forbes article “Under terms of the ruling, first proposed officially in July, [ride share] services will be required to obtain a license from the CPUC, have a minimum of $1 million in insurance, vehicle inspections, driver training programs, a ‘zero tolerance’ policy on drugs and alcohol, and criminal background checks. The CPUC also said it will review the rules in one year to evaluate how the system is working.”

Where the PUC could make strides in Pennsylvania is to do away with the language in PUC regulations that allow for new entrants into the taxicab market (and, preemptively, not to exist in what could be a new chapter on ridesharing regulations) that competition is a good thing “…unless it is established that the entry of a new carrier into the field would endanger or impair the operations of existing common carriers to an extent that, on balance, the granting of authority would be contrary to the public interest”.

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Allegheny Institute
Allegheny Institute

The Allegheny Institute is a non-profit research and education organization. Our mission is to defend the interests of taxpayers, citizens and businesses against an increasingly burdensome and intrusive government.

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