Officials to Hold Roundtables on Ridesharing this Fall

State Legislators this fall will host a series of hearings and roundtables to discuss the legal and political obstacles e-hail companies like Uber and Lyft face as they move their on-demand ride services into markets in upstate New York.

Ridesharing legislation failed to pass in year, but in preparation for the 2016 legislative session Assembly and Senate Insurance Committee Chairs Kevin Cahill and James Seward plan to host roundtables of stakeholders in both upstate New York and New York City.

“The chances are that the hearing and the roundtable will be held in October, or mid-October,” Cahill told City & State. “Certainly, we’re not going to be back in Albany to do any legislation until January anyway, but it is our intention to air out some of the issues as exists with transportation network companies.”

A recent high-profile fight between Mayor Bill de Blasio and Uber in New York City has spurred discussion about the company’s future in the state.

On July 23, Gov. Andrew Cuomo called for a “statewide regulatory framework” for Uber on the Capitol Pressroom.

“If they’re going to be operating statewide, I want to make sure we have a regulatory structure: insurance, taxes, vehicles, they want access to the airports.” Cuomo said.

Seward said he would like to include all of the Legislature’s relevant committee chairs in the discussions. 

“With the insurance coverage [for Uber cars], there seems to be general agreement there, but there are other outstanding issues. There’s crossfire regarding who will regulate these TNCs, taxi and livery service see this as unwanted and, I guess, unfair competition,” Seward said. “We’ve got to work out those issues in terms of having them co-exist going forward.”