Uber Challenging New York’s Ruling to Cap Rideshare Licensing
The one-year freeze on new for-hire vehicle licenses threatens to become permanent.
New York City has announced a one-year ban on issuing new licenses for ride-sharing vehicles, a policy that Uber is fighting in court, citing the need to add more vehicles to meet customer demand.
CNN reports that the ride-sharing company is asking the New York State Supreme Court to lift the temporary ban, implemented over concerns about traffic congestion in the city.
“We finally put caps on Uber and the other ridesharing services so that we could create more fairness and stop this race to bottom with the wages of drivers,” said New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio. “We’re going to put ongoing caps in place on the for-hire vehicles.”
That statement has Uber concerned that caps on licensing could become permanent.
“This is a ‘ban first, study later’ approach where the study is nothing more than post hoc window-dressing for a predetermined outcome,” according to the complaint filed in court by Uber.
“The city chose to significantly restrict service, growth and competition by the for-hire vehicle industry, which will have a disproportionate impact on residents outside of Manhattan who have long been underserved by yellow taxis and mass transit.
“The city made this choice in the absence of any evidence that doing so would meaningfully impact congestion, the problem the city was ostensibly acting to solve.”
The licensing cap is supported by the city’s taxi drivers.
