Saint Louis — After more than one year of negotiations, court battles, public events, private meetings, phone calls and warring through the press, taxicab regulators and Uber officials will have to continue waiting just a little bit longer to see if the St. Louis region becomes the latest home of UberX.
The Metropolitan Taxicab Commission (MTC) met for their regular meeting today that some suspected might see a vote on new regulations for Uber and the like. Currently Uber’s UberBlack operation currently functions in a limited capacity in the city. But UberX, the ride-hailing system that allows ordinary drivers to become temporary paid-chauffer’s, has been kept from the market until MTC could agree on a set of regulations for the billion-dollar San Francisco based company.
While today’s meeting saw testimony both from taxi representatives and Uber officials, the MTC opted not to vote today on new regulations, citing requests from St. Louis Mayor Francis Slay and St. Louis County Executive Steve Stenger. Representatives for those offices indicated that they were hoping a delay of a week or so would give Uber and MTC officials time to hammer out the last of their differences.
For months, regulators and Uber officials arm-wrestled over insurance for drivers, drug screenings, licensing fees and background checks. Uber has largely resisted being treated like a “traditional” taxicab company and has publically accused MTC officials of stifling innovation in the name of protecting the taxi companies represented on the commission.
MTC regulators have long fired back that Uber’s model for gaining access to a new city is remarkably resistant to compromise.
While there are no new regulations for UberX drivers to begin picking up St. Louis passengers, MTC officials are reportedly weighing changes that would allow just that, but don’t solve the broader problem of drug screening drivers that has plagued the two parties for months. State statute requires the MTC to conduct fingerprint-based background checks through the Missouri Highway Patrol and the FBI. Uber flatly refuses to submit their driver’s fingerprints for background checks and instead uses their own system for the checks.
Uber officials have remained publically critical of the MTC, who have not yet made their UberX proposal public, possibly because changes are coming at the behest of various involved parties, like Slay, Stenger, and officials on both sides. MTC officials continue to voice cautious optimism as they move toward another week of negotiations.
Collin Reischman was the Managing Editor for The Missouri Times, and a graduate of Webster University with a Bachelor of Arts in Journalism.
