Drive for Uber, Go to Jail in One Alabama City

CULLMAN, Ala.—Tuscaloosa residents who offer rides to others through the ridesharing service Uber soon could find themselves in handcuffs.

A Tuscaloosa city spokeswoman confirmed this week the city will follow through on an ultimatum issued last week and put drivers behind bars for violating Tuscaloosa’s vehicle-for-hire ordinance, a misdemeanor.

“The city has decided to step up and possibly arrest drivers,” spokeswoman Deidre Stalnaker said. “We could have done that from the start.”

The start she references is shortly after Uber began operations in the home of the University of Alabama on Aug. 28, when Tuscaloosa police officers began issuing warnings to Uber drivers that they could be violating the city’s vehicle-for-hire law.

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Unlike hailing a cab from the street or calling a limo service and setting up an appointment, ridesharing companies such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar work strictly through the free smartphone apps they offer to customers.

The app allows potential passengers to find the location of nearby drivers, track the length of the trip in distance and time and calculate the cost of a ride. Since the app transfers the fee from the user’s credit card, no cash changes hands.

Stalnaker said the city’s vehicle-for-hire ordinance has 11 points, and city officials were willing to waive seven of them. But four must be met: required vehicle inspections, background checks of drivers, the requirement of a business license and sufficient liability insurance.

“For safety, to meet state law, we can’t [waive the others],” Stalnaker said.

The business license, she said, would cost less than $100 per driver and is “not a money-making aspect for us.”

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Billy Guernier, Uber’s general manager, told AL.com the city had indicated an unwillingness to negotiate with the San Francisco-based company. Tuscaloosa officials said the opposite.

“I don’t think any person who is rational will think that [arresting drivers] is the right choice,” Guernier said. “But if they do, we’re going to have to figure out what to do next. There’s a possibility that Uber will no longer be available in Tuscaloosa.”

Uber also started operations in cross-state college town Auburn in August, and while there’s been no threat of arrests there, City Manager Charlie Duggan said the city will require Uber drivers to pay city taxes and obtain licenses to operate.

Read more at Watchdog.org.

Disclosure: An executive of Heritage Action for America, a sister organization of The Heritage Foundation, is married to an executive of Uber.