Aldermen Reach Compromise To Allow Ride-Sharing Drivers To Make Airport Pickups
CHICAGO (CBS) -- In a compromise worked out today, drivers for ride-sharing services like Uber and Lyft will be allowed to serve Chicago's airports and the city might be able to hire a few more police officers, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore.
Ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft would pay the city an additional two cents a ride and could pick up passengers at O'Hare and Midway and Alderman Anthony Beale, who was fighting to level the playing field with traditional cabbies who serve the airports, says any revenue well over estimates would go to public safety.
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"Potentially, we could get a few more million out of the ride-share companies, which will in turn get us between 20 and 60 additional officers per year," Beale said.
Beale and others wanted ride-sharing drivers to obtain chauffeurs licenses as cabbies do but Business Affairs Commissioner Maria Guerra Lapacek says that is neither necessary nor practical.
"We really don't have the capacity to license 20,000 drivers, especially because these drivers are of a transient nature," she said. "Most people drive a couple months and then don't drive again."
Still, the taxi industry has a pending federal lawsuit underway against the administration's plan.
Cab Drivers United/AFSCME Local 2500 released a statement saying, "This amendment fails to level the playing field between professional Chicago cab drivers who work hard to provide for their families, and giant corporations like Uber that profit from providing the same service without following the same rules."
