Taxi drivers seek level playing field with Uber

entrepeneurial growing local economies and creating tens of thousands of entrepeneurial opportunities for texans. our success is largely dependent on driver partners.” jorge delgado: “w pay property taxes, we pay taxi permit. we pay three percent annually, every year. we pay airport sticker. we pay commercial insurance. that’s a lot of money and every two years we have to renew this license.” “old school” taxi drivers in e paso — fighting for their livelihood. they’re upset because they say they are heavily regulated and have to pay taxes and fees … while uber drivers show up — unregulated — and take a piece of their pie. today, uber joined the discussion by sending its reps to speak before city council. good evening and thank you for joing us on abc- seven at six tonight. i’m estela casas. and i’m rick cabrera. taxi drivers are urging city council to regulate uber just the way it regulates taxis. uber saying it’s apples and oranges. abc-seven’s maria garcia is live with new information. for those of you still now familiar with uber – it’s an app on your smart phone. that connects you with drivers when you need a ride. and the company says it’s not a taxi – so it shouldn’t be regulated like one. uber has fought against regulations because it says it’s not a taxi. but a technology company that connects drivers with riders. taxi drivers say they could pay up to 8- thousand dollars a year in permits and fees to the city to be in business. uber doesn’t. and it has increased in popularity here in el paso – with hundreds of drivers in the city – who get paid by the company. taxis say it’s not fair that its drivers have to pay fees and pass background checks that uber drivers don’t. uber says it does safety checks on its drivers but taxis say that should be done by a government agency, not the company. a taxi cab company owner says he doesn’t want fewer regulations on taxis – but the same regulations on uber: 12:46 i don’t want the bar lowered. the bar is set that high for a reason, for safety reasons. we need to make sure that everyone else comes up to that bar not lower the bar 01:01 innovation will thrive and bring about new ways of doing things 10;13 we’re going to get some pushback 06:04 rider safety is of the utmost importance. city council voted unanimously to have the city manager either update or write a new ordinance for the industry -which hasn’t been changed since 1997. we’ll have to wait to find out if that will either loosen regulations on taxis or attempt to regulate uber. damage caused by a storm forces the closure of the post