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Get ready for some mustache rides.
This Thursday, San Antonio City Council will mull approving a proposed operating agreement with ride-share company Lyft (and other transportation network companies).
If the deal to bring ride-share back to the Alamo City passes, a nine-month pilot program will ensue. Lyft has
already signed off on the agreement.
However, it's unclear whether Uber — a company facing a
class-action lawsuit filed by drivers in California, along with news that it hired a driver with a fake license
who allegedly sexually assaulted a rider in Dallas — will participate in the pilot program (Lyft is not without legal woes
and has also been sued).
Both companies
pulled out of San Antonio in March in protest to the city's amended vehicle-for-hire ordinance.
With all that said, here's what Lyft has to do to participate in the nine-month pilot program:
• Drivers can voluntarily submit to a 10-point fingerprint identity verification criminal background check. Riders will have an option to choose drivers that agreed to the additional background check and drivers that are veterans.
• The pilot-program is designed so the city can gather performance data on ride-share company operations in San Antonio, with intent to inform any additional changes to the city's vehicle-for-hire ordinance.
• Requires ride-share companies to conduct initial and annual third-party criminal background and driver history checks.
• Drivers must comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 and receive related training.
• There's a zero-tolerance policy for drugs and alcohol, any kind of harassment and for discrimination, as outlined in the city's non-discrimination ordinance.
• Ride-share companies, drivers, or both must meet
new state insurance requirements before participating in the pilot program.
• Requires an inspection before a vehicle begins operating.
• Lets the city conduct random visual inspections of active drivers and vehicles.
• The ride-share companies will provide certain operations data to city staff each quarter.
• And they'll have to pay $1 for trips originating at the airport.
• Both parties may terminate the agreement with 30 days notice.
• Suspends provisions of Chapter 33 of the City of San Antonio Municipal Code applicable to TNCs, and Chapter 3, Division 4, and the rules and regulations developed pursuant to that chapter for a period of nine-months from the time the TNC begins operations in the City.
And lastly, there's the operating fee. Lyft will pay San Antonio an $18,750 operating fee for the nine-month period.
Proposed Operating Agreement