Fort Worth takes different path on paid ride market

Houston requires Uber drivers to display a company logo while picking up passengers and have a city-issued registration sticker that includes a fingerprint background check on the driver. Houston requires Uber drivers to display a company logo while picking up passengers and have a city-issued registration sticker that includes a fingerprint background check on the driver. Photo: Gary Coronado, Staff Photo: Gary Coronado, Staff Image 1 of / 29 Caption Close Fort Worth takes different path on paid ride market 1 / 29 Back to Gallery

Lately Texas cities and app-based ride companies such as Uber have been having a bumpy ride, sparring over background checks and the need to fingerprint drivers.

Fort Worth on Tuesday went a totally different direction, allowing for Uber and Lyft, along with cabs, to conduct their own background checks, rather than a city-conducted one. According to the Star-Telegram, all companies have to do is register with the city.

Here’s what Forth Worth Mayor Betsy Price said about the decision to essentially craft rules as they are sought by the companies that connect willing drivers and interested riders via smartphone:

“We just must embrace all forms of transportation to avoid gridlock in our city and allow our citizens to get around. Part of our job is to not cause undue burden on businesses or citizens," Price said. "Unlike other cities that have gotten so hung up in the hot potato politics of this, Fort Worth is going to do it the right way.”

Predictably, the companies cheered the decision, referring to them as “modern ride-sharing rules.”

“This thoughtful approach to regulating ridesharing can serve as a model for other major cities across the state of Texas,” Texas-based Uber spokeswoman Debbee Hancock said by email.

Proponents of the companies also applauded the decision.

"In too many Texas towns, city governments are driving out companies like Uber and Lyft with heavy-handed and duplicative regulations," said James Quintero of the Texas Public Policy Foundation's Center for Local Governance.

Taxi business owners in Fort Worth opposed doing away with the background checks, according to the Star-Telegram.

Photo: Jon Shapley, Houston Chronicle The Uber app is seen as Shirley Fuller drives during her shift on...

Don’t expect Houston officials to put much stock in what Fort Worth decided, however. Officials have showed no sign of budging on their requirement that those dropping off and picking up in Houston be fingerprinted for a state background check.

"While we often bring recommendations to City Council... we will not recommend any changes that would adversely impact public safety," said Tina Paez, director of the Houston Administration and Regulatory Affairs Department. "We do not believe public safety is burdensome. We do believe government has a fundamental duty to protect its citizens and to balance the wants of industry with the needs of the riding public and our duty to protect the public."

Galveston also is getting along after Uber split over a fingerprint requirement there.

Austin, where the fingerprint decision reached its zenith in Texas with a costly decision by voters in early May to require the background checks – driving Uber and Lyft to leave --- is still feeling its way through replacing the companies. A recent report showed drunk driving arrests are up in the city since the companies bailed because of the new rules, compared to when they were present.

Still, Houston resident and frequent Uber user Veronica Hamlisch, 26, said it is a tough balancing act between offering the option for an easy ride and making sure those drivers are properly screened. Hamlisch said everyone seems to make a good point, but ultimately rules have to be followed.

“Nothing’s perfect,” she said. “If it’s a choice, I think the companies should have to protect (riders). It just doesn’t seem like that big of a deal to get fingerprinted.”

Uber, meanwhile, announced Wednesday it was improving some of its own internal tracking, in cooperation with the Governor’s Highway Safety Association and Mothers Against Drunk Driving.

Drivers in 11 cities, including Houston and San Antonio, will receive daily reports comparing their driving patterns to those of other drivers and reminders about safe driving practices. The driver’s portion of the app also will show drivers the speed of their vehicle, company officials said.