Austin’s City Council on Thursday approved a change in the city’s taxicab regulations that the Transportation Department drew up as a way of saving the industry in the city, the Austin Monitor reports.
The most important of the changes is the deregulation of fares. That means each individual taxicab company will be able to determine the rates for its fleet, and different companies can charge different rates during peak usage or when there is high demand, such as during a festival or another large-volume event.
The department requested the change in an attempt to save taxicab companies, which are in danger of being run out of business by low-cost ride-hailing transportation network companies such as Uber and Lyft. Jacob Culberson, acting Mobility Services Division manager, explained the need for such a big change to the Urban Transportation Commission earlier this year.
In October of 2014, the first year that Lyft and Uber offered services in Austin, local taxis provided 418,000 rides. In 2015, that number had dropped to 300,000 rides. In October 2016, after Uber and Lyft left town following a resounding rejection of regulations they put before voters, taxis provided 563,000 trips. But after intervention by the Texas Legislature, the ride-hailing companies returned, and by October 2017, taxi service had plunged 76 percent compared to the year before, to just 137,000 rides.
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