去年背景调查领域最大的故事之一是 Uber 和 Lyft 离开德克萨斯州奥斯汀市，以响应该市严格的背景调查规定。德克萨斯州首府通过了一项法令，要求所有拼车司机提交指纹背景调查。根据覆盖范围，该条例还通过数据报告要求和其他旨在提高乘客安全的限制，以其他方式对拼车服务进行了监管。现在，根据一项新的州法律，这些规定已被推翻，该法律将规范拼车的责任交到州政府手中。
报道指出，优步和 Lyft 最初与奥斯汀的规定进行了激烈的斗争。两家公司辩称，他们现有的背景调查政策足以发现危险信号并确保乘客安全。他们声称指纹识别需要的时间太长，并且可能成为希望通过接受票价赚钱的司机进入的主要障碍。根据《洛杉矶时报》的报道，优步和 Lyft 在奥斯汀共花费了 900 万美元，试图让选民批准一项可以取消指纹背景调查要求的替代法令。选民不为所动，优步和 Lyft 最终停止在奥斯汀运营。
《洛杉矶时报》指出，德克萨斯州州长格雷格·阿博特 (Greg Abbott) 签署了一项法案，剥夺了当地市政当局在他们认为合适的情况下监管拼车业务的权利。展望未来，德克萨斯州政府将决定如何监管 Uber 和 Lyft 等公司。该法律取代了去年的奥斯汀法令，使这些要求无法通过法律执行。
新法律并不意味着拼车公司根本不会受到监管。正如报道所解释的那样，希望在德克萨斯州运营的拼车企业必须获得州许可，支付年运营费，并在州和国家层面对所有司机进行背景调查。然而，德克萨斯州立法机关——一个保守的投票机构——认为奥斯汀的法令超越并干扰了自由市场。《洛杉矶时报》称奥斯汀得克萨斯州是“最自由的城市”，并将这场争端描述为不同政党意识形态的斗争。
由于奥斯汀选民批准了该市的法令，投票赞成对拼车司机进行更彻底的背景调查，这一事实使问题变得复杂。去年填补优步和Lyft留下的空白的拼车公司之一提醒选民这一事实，敦促客户即使在更大的鱼又回到池塘的时候也坚持他们。这家名为 Fare 的公司向其客户发送电子邮件，写道：“向您的代表表明，当您要求对司机进行更严格的筛选和背景调查时，您是认真的。”
正如报告所示，该国至少有 40 个州通过了全州范围的拼车业务法规。
Uber and Lyft initially fought hard against the Austin regulations, reports note. The companies argued that their existing background check policies were enough to spot red flags and keep passengers safe. They claimed that fingerprinting takes too long and could prove a major barrier to entry for drivers wishing to make money by accepting fares. Per a report from the Los Angeles Times, Uber and Lyft collectively spent $9 million in Austin trying to get voters to approve an alternative ordinance that would have eliminated the fingerprint background check requirement. Voters were unmoved, and Uber and Lyft ultimately ceased operating in Austin.
The L.A. Times notes that Texas Governor Greg Abbott has signed a bill that strips local municipalities of the right to regulate ridesharing businesses as they see fit. Going forward, the Texas state government will decide how companies like Uber and Lyft will be regulated. The law supersedes the Austin ordinance from last year, rendering those requirements unenforceable by law.
The new law doesn’t mean that ridesharing companies won’t be regulated at all. As coverage explains, ridesharing businesses wishing to operate in Texas must obtain state licensing, pay annual operations fees, and conduct background checks of all drivers at the state and national level. However, the Texas legislature—a conservative voting body—believed that Austin’s ordinance overstepped and interfered with the free market. The L.A. Times called Austin Texas’s “most liberal city” and framed the dispute as a battle of differing political party ideologies.
The issue is complicated by the fact that Austin voters approved the city’s ordinance, voting in favor of more thorough background checks for ridesharing drivers. One of the ridesharing companies that has spent the last year filling the gap left by Uber and Lyft reminded voters of this fact, urging customers to stick by them even now that the bigger fish are coming back to the pond. The company, called Fare, emailed its customers, writing, “Show your representatives that you were serious when you asked for stricter screening and background checks on drivers.”
As reports indicate, at least 40 states in the country have adopted statewide regulations for ridesharing businesses.
