Adding more ammo to the growing fight against Uber in New York, just over 50% of the cars the Taxi & Limousine Commission seized in a crackdown on illegal rides were affiliated with the app service. The New York Daily News reports that out of 938 cars towed off the street and at the airport in the past 6 weeks, 496 had a relationship with Uber.
The sweep is due to the TLC’s new policy, established April 29, which says that any vehicle suspected of an illegal street pickup can be taken off the street. Guilty car owners are subject to a fine between $400 and $1,000 in addition to the towing fee.
That so many Uber cars, specifically, were seized has critics doubling down on their concerns regarding the app service, which is slowly killing off the city’s taxi industry:
“The alarming amount of Uber cars that have been seized in such a short period of time only further proves the need for stricter regulations,” said Tweeps Phillips Woods, director of the Committee for Taxi Safety. “Regulations are vital to the health of for-hire transportation by ensuring the safety and comfort of passengers, preventing price gouging, and establishing uniform standards in the industry.”
Uber responded with the following statement:
“Street hails are not permitted on the Uber platform — period,” Matt Wing, a spokesman for Uber, said. “This is a small group of bad actors and the violations add up to less than one hundredth of one percent of our rides over the same time period.”
(Photo: koborin)
