The HCPT and Hillsborough County public commission today affirmed Uber is an illegal taxi company and bared them from operating in the Tampa area. This is wonderful news to longtime drivers like me.
An Uber attorney asked Hillsborough County to make new rules to fit the trendy ridesharing movement pioneered by his company and Lyft, but was told flatly on Wednesday that Uber is an illegal taxi service.
The county's Public Transportation Commission unanimously affirmed that an appointed officer had enough evidence to fine Uber, based in San Francisco, for providing hiring and public taxi services without proper licensing.
Uber attorney Drew Sorrell held to the company's argument that it isn't in transportation. As a technology company, it doesn't need to follow transportation regulations as they are written.
"There's a perfectly good way to do this, and that is to write the rules so that they fit," said Sorrell, of the Lowndes Drosdick Doster Kantor and Reed law firm in Orlando. "They just don't fit here."
A county attorney rebutted with Hillsborough's argument that Uber has all the parts of a taxi service except that a phone replaces the traditional taxi meter.
"There is no question they are transporting people in this county and profiting from it," Rob Brazel said.
posted from Bloggeroid
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