A state Office of Policy and Management official testified before the General Assembly that ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft require more than just increased insurance regulation. He wants to see their drivers held to higher standards, including fingerprint and background checks.
Garrett Eucalitto, OPM’s undersecretary for transportation policy and planning, testifying on proposed House Bill 5523 — An Act Concerning Insurance Requirements for Transportation Network Companies — said Connecticut should take a comprehensive approach to ride-sharing companies that will address pertinent legal issues, in addition to insurance requirements, to insure public safety. He said ride-sharing drivers should be fingerprinted like taxi drivers.
An Uber representative testified her company would be in favor of the insurance components of the proposed bill because it mirrors what 29 other states are currently doing. Nicole Benincasa, Uber’s Northeast counsel for regulatory and public policy, said mandating minimum levels of insurance would create a vibrant marketplace for insurance brokers marketing to the drivers.
An attempt to regulate ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft, which offer a mobile app that allows customers to call for a driver, failed in the Senate last year. Soon after, in August, Uber won dismissal of a lawsuit filed by Connecticut taxi and livery companies, which argue that such services are unfair and unregulated competition.
Eucalitto would also like to see mandatory registration of the vehicles used by ride-sharing drivers, as well as requiring them to get a public passenger transportation endorsement on their licenses. He said without those requirements the state has no concept of who is picking up passengers.
He added that this requirement has been enacted in other jurisdictions. CTRideSafe, an advocacy group comprised of state taxi companies, said in a statement ride-sharing companies like have left a number of markets, other than the most lucrative, when forced to follow standing safety rules.
In New York City, which the group calls a “market too lucrative to leave,” even with fees far higher than Connecticut’s, Uber opened five offices and complies with all Taxi & Limousine Commission safety rules.
