MA Passes Uber, Lyft Regulations Package in Late-Night Vote

BOSTON, MA — In the formal legislative session's waning hours Sunday night, Massachusetts lawmakers produced and passed a final version of much-debated regulations on mobile ride-hailing companies such as Uber and Lyft, imposing a two-tiered background check on drivers and instituting a per-ride tax that will be distributed in part to municipalities.

With T-minus 30 until their midnight deadline, senators passed the Uber-Lyft regulations and other major pieces of legislation late Sunday, while leaving other big bills still on the table.

The so-called "ride-sharing" regulations bill is meant to even the playing field between heavily regulated taxis and their app-based competition. It is also a stab at ensuring safety in a new industry that's been awash in criticism. As expected, the final version of the bill does not include a fingerprint background check provision, which law enforcement representatives in Massachusetts had pushed for.

Hours of tussling in conference committee produced a final version of the bill close to 10:30 p.m. Sunday. The House approved the bill at 11:50 p.m., and Senators, voting to go into overtime, passed the regulatory package at 12:14 a.m., according to State House News Service.

As passed, the bill:

• creates a new division under the Department of Public Utilities to oversee and regulate companies such as Uber and Lyft, funded through an annually assessed surcharge on each company's total revenue in the state.
• allows the state to tax Uber, Lyft and similar companies 20 cents per ride, a cost which must be paid by the company and not passed on to drivers, and half of which will then be proportionally distributed to cities/towns in which it's collected (to be spent on municipal projects, such as maintaining roads and bridges).
• mandates that mobile ride-hailing companies provide "clear and conspicuous transportation fare estimates to riders at all times, including during surge pricing, high volume and high demand times."
• prohibits such companies from raising base fares during a federal or a governor-declared state of emergency.
• creates a two-tiered background check system, first by the companies themselves and secondly by that newly created state division, that determines among other things that a driver: is not on the National Sex Offender Registry; hasn't been convicted of a sex offense or violent crime within the past seven years; and has not been put into a court-mandated alcohol, drug abuse or similar treatment or rehabilitation program.
• convenes a "ride-for-hire task force" that includes representatives from taxi, insurance, disability advocates, mobile ride-hailing and other groups to provide recommendations and proposed legislation on numerous related issues by July 1, 2017.
• temporarily bans ride-hailing pickups at Logan International Airport terminal until MassPort sets its own rules for safe pickups at the airport.
• lets the Massachusetts Convention Center Authority establish its own rules regulating traffic flow and pickup locations, regarding taxis and mobile ride-hailing companies.

Read more from Patch:

• Three Bills That Didn't Make the Cut this Legislative Session
• Here's What That Late-Night Energy Bill is All About
• DeLeo: Court, Not Legislators, Will Assess AG's Assault Weapons Crackdown
• Paid Leave: Passed in Senate, Dead in the House

>> Photo via Tony Webster, Flickr/Creative Commons