Need a ride? Call Uber.

Foley looking to bring Uber to the city

By Jessica Vaughn / jessica@gulfcoastmedia.com
Posted 9/6/17

FOLEY – When will Foley bring Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft, to the community? This is a question that the council at Foley is familiar with, and a process that …

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Need a ride? Call Uber.

Foley looking to bring Uber to the city

Posted

FOLEY – When will Foley bring Transportation Network Companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft, to the community? This is a question that the council at Foley is familiar with, and a process that they have been considering for some time. During both the July council meeting and the August meeting, the possibility of Foley citizens being able to enjoy Uber has been coming closer and closer, as the City of Foley has reached out to Uber and is currently working on plans to possibly bring the TNC to the area.

But why has it taken so long for the process to go through?

“We have drafted an ordinance for TNCs, however some of those TNCs have been pushing a state level oversight,” said City Administrator Mike Thompson. “This is something that our state has looked at over the last few months, and we do anticipate that there will likely be further progress on this.”

Along with City Revenue Officer Meg Hellmich, Thompson has been going back and forth on whether the city should move forward with a TNC ordinance for the council to consider on their own, or if they should stand back and see how the situation plays out at a state level.

While initially Thompson and Hellmich were leaning towards waiting on a state level decision, due to input they received back from Uber that they were unwilling to work in many cities based on personal ordinances, they have recently drafted up an ordinance that Uber has responded to positively.

“This one is from the city of Trussville, Alabama,” said revenue officer Hellmich. “They were okay with it, they said it was a good one, but they are currently reassessing what they are even going to do in Alabama as Mike (Thompson) was saying, because they have so many municipalities that have put ordinances in place that they won’t comply with.”

However, the council is planning to continue discussions with Uber along the lines of the Trussville ordinance in the hopes that if everything aligns, they may not have to wait for the state before Foley can bring the TNC service to the city. Not only would TNCs be a great benefit to the citizens, they would also be beneficial to the city.

“From our perspective, we believe that some of these TNCs are doing good things for us,” Thompson said. “For example, when it comes to taxis, we’re the ones doing the decals, we’re the ones looking at the vehicles, we’re the ones checking out the drivers. Most of these national TNCs like Uber or Lyft do all that internally, that’s part of their standard corporate process, so in many respects they’re taking that workload off the municipalities by doing those types of things in house.”

The next decision from the state concerning the fate of TNCs is not going to be until spring of 2018, and may not even bring any progress depending on if the state votes yes or decides to wait another year to work out the details.

“If Uber is okay with the ordinance that we’re offering, I say we go ahead and do ours, and give our citizens the right to use Uber,” said councilman Ralph Hellmich.

As of the August 8 council meeting, Uber has received the ordinance from the City of Foley, which mirrors the one the company has already accepted in the City of Trussville, and they are interested in initiating it. The only change that now needs to be made is relating to insurance, as the legislature has recently passed an act setting forth the requirements for insurance that was not in place when Trussville passed their own TNC ordinance. Besides that, Uber is interested in bringing their services to the City of Foley, and the council hopes to have more information on the process come September.