Category Archives: sharing economy

Local Ride Share Rules. Red State. 4 Pieces Informed Intel.

 Hillsborough County, Florida is proposing new ride share rules over the objections of Uber. The new rules include:

  • $7 fare minimum
  • 7 minute maximum wait time
  • Ride Share firms would have to conduce regular vehicle inspections
  • Mandatory fingerprint background checks for drivers

Tampa Bay Times | Proposed rideshare rules move forward over objections of Uber/Lyft

INTERIM. TREND. Sharing Economy. Ride Share for Carpooling to Soccer AKA Football.

The Company: HopSkipDrive

The company’s objective: To be the Uber for kids and requires secret passwords for drives and the kids are followed via GPS

Founders: 3 mothers who needed to get their kids to soccer, football, ballet etc…

How it differs from ride share: it schedules rides and is not on demand ride service

Tech Crunch | HopSkipDrive wants to be the Uber for kids

INTERIM. Sharing Economy. Taxing Ride Share Apps. 3 Pieces Informed Intel.

Massachusettes ride share legislation will tax ride share transactions via app.

What you need to know about taxing an app:

  • 20 cents per trip tax, with a breakdown of:
    • 5 cents to taxi industry
    • 10 cents to local governments
    • 5 cents to a designated state transportation fund
  • The app tax revenue will be given to the taxi industry as a subsidy for the purposes of:
    • new technologies
    • advanced service safety
    • operational capabilities
    • support workforce development.
  • Its the first…

INTERIM. 2016 Comprehensive Ride Share Texas Report.

What entity produced a ride share report? Texas A&M Transportatin Institute

What are the report highlights?

  • Defines ride share or transportation network companies
  • Defines the 5 Servies ride share provides:
    • ride sourcing
    • ride splitting
    • car pooling
    • taxi/car service
    • other: food delivery, courier, helicopter…
  • Lays out the 6 state policy areas that cover transportation network companies:
    •   Permits and fees.
    •   Insurance and financial responsibility.
    •   Driver and…

INTERIM. Self Driving Ride Share Launches.

Where: Pittsburgh

When: August 2016

Who: Uber and Volvo, the wonder twins, have joined forces to form of self driving ride-share

Why Pittsburgh?

  • Carnegie Mellon Robotics Program has produced the biggest names in the field. 
  • A leader in their pack joined Uber in early 2015

Bloomberg | The autonomous cars, launching this summer, are custom Volvo XC90s, supervised by humans in the driver’s seat.

Local Trend. Robot Delivery. Traffic Trends. Sharing Economy

Which city is testing robot delivery systems on sidewalks? D.C.

The company: Starship Technologies

Did it require a city ordinance? Yes to rolling permit the delivery devices to operate on the sidewalks

Will it lessen traffic? Yes, it can reduce the number of delivery trucks

Should we be paying attention? Yes, D.C. was one of the first cities to embrace the sharing economy

Governing | Coming Soon to D.C. Sidewalks: Delivery Robots

TREND. 3 Points. Ride Share Favored Bill Failed in the West

The death knell issue: No commercial license plates for ride share drivers

The issue got squashed in substantive committee chaired by sibling to taxi industry: AB 828, which flew through the Assembly had a somber death in Senate Transportation, the chair’s brother is in the taxi industry

Will there be immediate impact to ride share? No. California’s DMV, which has adopted ride share rules, does not require commercial license plates for ride share drivers

The Recorder | Uber-Backed…

INTERIM. Ride Share and Drunk Driving. 3 Points from New Study.

Where was the new study published?  The July 2016 edition of The American Journal of Epidemiology

Did the study conclude ride share reduces drunk driving? No.

What reason did the authors give for ride share not impacitng drunk driving rates? Not enough ride share drivers yet

Washington Post | Is Uber reducing drunk driving? New study says no.

INTERIM. Sharing Economy. West Coast Statewide Regulation.

Which state is considering statewide regulation of ride share? Oregon

What does the statewide regulatory proposal look like? 

  • Preemption. override local regulations that cause ride share comapnies to leave some cities
  •  Indepdendent Contractors.  Codify the employee status of drivers.
  • Commercial Insurance
  • Annual background checks.

The Oregonian | Uber wants Oregon Legislature to allow ride-hailing apps statewide