TAMPA ROADS ARE UBER-ROCKY FOR RIDE SHARING COMPANIES

It's all the rage for transportation in 60 countries around the world, and in 180  cities in the United States and here in Tampa that rage has turned into the bureaucratic version of road-rage.

It is the San-Francisco based company, which started up in 2007 and has ballooned into a 50 billion dollar company supplying smart phone app-driven transportation services with vehicles owned by private citizens.

Uber -and its competitor, Lyft- have been operating in Tampa since April of 2014, and has, for all of that time been driving down that rocky bureaucratic road in an effort to drive home the message that their company is not a 'taxicab' company, it is a ride-sharing transportation networking company, thus, a communications company, and thus not subject to the rules and regulations of the PTC.

That would be the Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission, which is the entity responsible for the rules and regulations covering  the use of taxis and limosenes throughout the county including  the Tampa Bay Area.

At issue is basic math.  The average Uber or Lyft ride totals approximately one-fourth of  a regular taxi charge.

For instance, a trip from Tampa General Hospital across the Bay to St. Petersburg Bayfront Hospital: Taxicab - $73      Uber - $23

In addition the many Uber and Lyft  customers are unanimous in saying the private driven vehicles are on time, are cleaner, safer and the drivers more friendly.

But those friendly  drivers only  have to prove insurance and pass an internal background check.  Minus the fingerprinting and level II FBI background check required of drivers by the PTC .

The Uber executives and the 2,000 Uber drivers in Tampa Bay argue that the rules and regs set down by the PTC not only do not apply to them -a communications company, remember? - but that also that those rules and regs are outmoded.

All of this disagreement has boiled into what amounts to a street fight between the PTC and the Uber and Lyft drivers.

Throw in the vehement objections to the Uber and Lyft services from the thousands of   taxicab drivers in the Tampa Bay area, who are fighting for their right to dominate the streets and that street fight escalates into a brawl.

The PTC has been issuing tickets to the Uber and Lyft drivers..when they can find them.  And when they can't find them, they set up a sting operation to entrap them.

The PTC went so far as to demand an injunction to shut down the company, and in early August Circuit Judge Paul Huey refused to issue an order to shut down Uber and encouraged both sides to sit down and 'work things out'.

But County Commissioner, Victor Crist - who also serves as chairman of the taxi regulating Public Transportation isn't going away that easy.

He and the PTC defied the court order and continued to issue tickets and  devise more 'sting' operations.

The PTC is appealing to the 2nd District Court of Appeals, which also happens to be the court where Uber attempting to overturn all of those tickets which they are dutifully paying in order to keep their drivers on the street.

Both sides insist that the other is not sitting down and working things out as Judge Huey ordered, and take turns issuing statements regarding their take on the situation.

Uber spokesman Bill Gibbons says he is disappointed about the continuing ticketing and views it as a form of harassment and intimidation.

And Victor Crist, the Chairman of the PTC, sort of put the old foot in  the mouth when he, in an attempt to raise the level of discourse stated:  "I was in a regular taxicab recently, it was late, the car smelled like puke and the driver had no personality."

Crist is once again attempting to get an injunction to shut down both Uber and Lyft in all of HIllsborough County.

And Uber is still paying for all of the tickets until this is all resolved.

All we need now is somebody to start a horse-drawn carriage business right downtown.