OCEAN CITY – Ocean City stepped out in front of Uber this week to make sure when or if the car service arrives in the resort the town is ready for them.
Uber, a smart-phone enabled car service, has hit the streets in over 200 cities nationwide as close to Ocean City as Annapolis and Baltimore and in 54 countries. A smart-phone app links a passenger to an Uber driver and one of the company’s signature vehicles. The app provides many user-friendly features including fare estimations and the option to share a fare but since the company’s inception in 2009, Uber has met resistance from local, state and national governments usually backed by frustrated taxi industries.
According to Kaitlin Durkosh of Uber, the company currently does not have any immediate plans to expand to Ocean City.
However, the Ocean City Police Commission jumped out in front of the issue this week discussing the implications Uber could have on the local taxi industry.
According to City Solicitor Guy Ayres, Uber is currently working with the Public Service Commission of Maryland to form state-wide regulations for Uber, due to problems that arose when the service became available in Baltimore.
“If they do adopt it state-wide, they would be exempted under our code as it is, and we would be pre-empted under state law to try to exercise any other jurisdiction over them,” Ayres said. “My understanding is that might not happen until 2016, or well beyond this summer.”
Ayres asked the commission if they wanted to make some kind of action to prevent any kind of impact if Uber were to come to the Ocean City prior to state-wide regulation being passed.
“The regulation of Uber itself I think is a separate issue. The drivers however, in my opinion, are definitely ‘Vehicles for Hire,’ and we merely include this service under the definition of vehicles or a taxi, and then they would be subject to have a medallion on their vehicles, inspections and everything else that is required,” he said.
There are a total of 175 taxicab medallions in Ocean City — up to 85 percent to be issued to fleet holders and up to 15 percent to be issued to independent holders. Most recently a medallion sold for over $7,000.
The ordinance also requires medallion holders to have their vehicles inspected annually, vehicles are to be kept in good shape, cab owners must obtain a business license, and drivers must obtain a permit, as well as are subject to background checks and drug tests.
Ayres recognized local regulations would be difficult to enforce for Uber due to the nature of the company’s unmarked vehicles.
“It will be difficult to enforce. If someone is driving a vehicle and they drop people off at Seacrets, how do you know it isn’t the father or a friend of these people dropping them off at Seacrets,” Ayres said.
Ayres added the Police Commission nor the council have subpoena powers and would not be able to subpoena Uber for a list of their drivers in Ocean City.
Mayor Rick Meehan, who has used Uber in Baltimore and Washington D.C., recognized the service is the way of the future but it needs to fall in line with town laws to be fair to the local taxi industry.
“We have an excellent taxi industry in town, and they certainly work with us with the medallion program and the ordinance. They have invested in the medallions in order to operate their business in Ocean City and it would be unfair to that industry for us not to regulate Uber, or their drivers, in the same way,” the mayor said. “They will also have to comply with other laws. They stop in the middle of the streets to pick people up, which we don’t allow anybody to do, so they would have to be aware of those regulations as well. To make sure they would have to be a part of this ordinance.”
As far as difficult enforcement, the mayor felt it would be better to be in the forefront of the issue.
“If we don’t try to address this and all of a sudden it is happening and then we are reacting,” he said. “Instead let’s at least discuss how we can make it work.”
Councilman Dennis Dare felt like it was déjà vu all over again with the problems the town was experiencing prior to the taxicab ordinance being put in place.
“The problem before taxi medallions was everybody made their car a taxi and as a result there was plenty of service but nobody was making a living out of it. As a result, we had questionable drivers and dilapidated vehicles, so the discussion was when we went to the medallion system was how many medallions would we have and how many taxis can make a living in Ocean City to attract good personnel and maintain good vehicles,” Dare said. “We selected a number and seem to have made an improvement. We are going to go back to where we were if we have an unlimited number of vehicles coming in to work as taxis in addition to the medallion fleet, so this approach will not only protect the Uber drivers but the medallion drivers as well.”
Commission Chair Councilman Doug Cymek agreed it would be in everyone’s best interest to protect Ocean City’s taxi industry.
“We need to step out in front of this one and show our taxi operators that we support the system and we are going to try to protect them as much as we can. It is important for the state to see that as well,” he said.
Dare made a motion to incorporate the Uber service and its drivers into Ocean City’s taxi cab ordinance for the full council to consider. The commission voted unanimously to approve.