City Council passes bill on ride-hailing firms and taxis

A new bill aimed at treating Uber and Lyft drivers more like traditional cabbies was approved 9-0 by the Hono­lulu City Council on Thursday.

And while the drivers on both sides appear to support Bill 55, at least on the surface, Mayor Kirk Caldwell’s administration voiced objections to it, raising the possibility that the measure could be vetoed.

The Council voted 8-1 in August to pass an initial bill aimed at placing Uber/Lyft and cab operators under the umbrella grouping of “private transportation companies and drivers.” Caldwell let it become law without his signature.

That measure was designed to address two separate but related concerns: criticism by traditional taxi operators that Uber, Lyft and other ride-hailing or transportation network companies did not need to follow the sames rules as they did; and the public perception that all private transportation drivers — both of the cab and ride-hailing variety — needed to pass more extensive background checks.

The ordinance required that drivers and vehicles of private transportation companies needed to be certified, and placed the responsibility for conducting the certification on the companies themselves. Current taxi and taxi driver certifications are done by the city Department of Customer Services.

Bill 55 was designed to shore up the original ordinance and further ensure public safety and create a more level playing field for drivers operating under both the Uber/Lyft and traditional taxi models, said Council Budget Chairwoman Ann Kobayashi, the bill’s author.

“We didn’t want to regulate the companies because we’re not trying to be anti-business,” Kobayashi said after the vote. “But on the other hand, we also wanted to protect the local taxi companies that have been there for years. And so we looked at the common denominator, and that was protection of the consumer, so we thought we should work on the drivers and the vehicles.”

Specifically, the bill passed Thursday:

>> Would make clear that Uber/Lyft drivers, like cab operators, would have to be certified, and would place the responsibility for certifying drivers and vehicles on the transportation operators themselves, not the city, as is the case with current taxi regulations. “If they don’t do a good job, they’re the ones liable,” Kobayashi said.

>> Would insert rules on how the companies should go about doing that certification, rather than leave that up to the administration.

Deputy Customer Serv­ices Director Randy Leong said the administration opposes the insertion of rules into the ordinance, arguing that rule-making should be the responsibility of his department, not the Council. In fact, the department last week held a public hearing on a draft of proposed rules based on the original ordinance.

“We believe the director must retain the flexibility and discretion to modify or change rules in the implementation of the ordinance,” Leong testified Thursday. “Rules can be efficiently and quickly changed through the rule-making process.”

The administration also raised objections to the requirement that drivers need to have a Hawaii driver’s license instead of any license valid in the state. A good portion of Uber/Lyft drivers are military or otherwise from out of state.

Kobayashi, after the meeting, said she was baffled by Leong’s opposition, especially because it relieves his department of the responsibility of certifying drivers.

Both Uber and Lyft representatives said they support the latest bill.

Taylor Patterson, an Uber representative, said it “provides a forward-thinking framework that will allow thousands of dedicated Uber drivers to continue moving Honolulu’s residents and visitors safely around this great city.”

Timothy Burr Jr., Lyft senior public policy manager, thanked Kobayashi for working with the parties to advance “a well-balanced set of regulations that will help ensure safety for residents and visitors alike when utilizing ride-sharing platforms, and gives all private transportation companies equal chance to operate and succeed.”

Among the changes in the new bill that the ride-hailing companies favor is the removal of language that would allow the director of the Customer Services Department to deny permit renewals when individual drivers have outstanding fines.

TheCab owner Howard Higa said after the meeting that there should be greater regulation of Uber/Lyft drivers, but supported Bill 55 to ensure there would be no further delays in implementation of any laws governing ride-hailing companies.

For instance, Higa said, he doesn’t like that the new bill allows the operators themselves to certify that drivers are physically and mentally fit.

Current taxi rules require the drivers to undergo a examination by a doctor. Higa argued that he’s a businessman, not a physician.