Alabama’s Uber failures showcase big brother bureaucracy over consumer opportunity
First it was Birmingham that refused to accommodate Uber, the popular app-driven transportation service, and then the Tuscaloosa Police Department began enforcing the city’s transportation regulations against drivers working with the company.
While the Birmingham City Council has managed to bungle a badly needed economic opportunity for the city, the Tuscaloosa Police Department is simply enforcing the regulations as they read them and highlighting the need for Tuscaloosa to revisit the issue.
Birmingham and cities throughout Alabama need jobs of any stripe. Not only do Uber and companies like them create employment, but they offer even more value by providing a tech-savvy convenience to move about Alabama’s cities. Many of the state’s cities are less walking-friendly than larger metropolitan counterparts around the nation. These transportation innovation companies sound like the kind of business opportunities politicians would be begging to have.
Instead, the message from Birmingham and Tuscaloosa is that Alabamians need to be protected from the likes of Uber. They claim that public safety is at stake.
Uber and similar app-based transportation services function by contracting with drivers in cities where they operate. Uber, for example, manages a web-based interface that connects passengers and contract drivers. Some of the contract drivers are simply interested in picking up some part-time cash.
That is where city governments start to have conniptions. For many politicians, bureaucracy must be preserved. After all, there is paperwork that needs to be filled out, inspections to be performed, background checks to conduct. Without layers of government, some city leaders apparently feel that Alabamians would not be able to make reasonable decisions.
Never mind the fact that Uber already requires proper insurance, a valid driver’s license and passage of DMV and background checks. City leaders feel that they must protect the taxi industry public from the growing transportation menace.
Since I discovered Uber, I have not taken a taxi in a city where they operate. Safety is a big reason why. My family or I could get into a taxi with precious little information about the fare, route or driver. On the other hand, I could take Uber, where the ride is tracked and information about the driver and passenger is retained. Not only am I able to access my account and see a record of all my trips, but the service radically improves my chances of recovering items I might accidentally leave behind in the car. Most importantly, I am able to focus on getting my family or myself out of the car safely rather than fiddling with a cash transaction.
If private citizens are able to get into a car with a complete stranger at any time, why are they incapable of making that same decision when it comes to a private transportation service?
Alabama’s cities should find ways to expand employment opportunities and choices for consumers, rather than maintaining an unyielding devotion to a one-size-fits-all regulation, especially in a situation where there is no clear and immediate danger to the public.
Taxis should have same opportunities as companies like Uber, but Alabamians, not city bureaucracies, should be able to decide which type of transportation meets their needs, ensures their safety and is more reliable.
