WASHINGTON, D.C.— A D.C. Council oversight committee accepted a preliminary investigative report into controversial ride-hailing company Empower today, calling for legislation to clarify, once-and-for-all, that the way the company operates is illegal.
The report recommends an overhaul of the District’s for-hire-vehicle laws to meet the current state of the industry and to hold companies operating as ride-hailing services in practice accountable by making clear who is subject to regulation and how.
“If it looks like a ride-hailing company and acts like a ride-hailing company, it’s a ride-hailing company, no matter how cute they try to be, and the law needs to reflect that unequivocally,” said Councilmember Brianne K. Nadeau, D-Ward 1.
Nadeau, who chairs the Public Works & Operations Committee, which drafted and accepted the report, said she’ll introduce legislation in the coming days.
The report details Empower’s years-long efforts to circumvent the District’s for-hire-vehicle laws, which govern taxicabs and ride-hailing services, such as Uber and Lyft. It also describes efforts by District government to require the company to register as a ride-hailing company and ensure that its drivers have appropriate insurance to protect their passengers and themselves, and the efforts of the D.C. Attorney General to bring the company into compliance.
The report finds that the company has violated at least the intent of the law and recommends legislation to remove any doubt that it should be subject to laws governing ride-hailing companies.
The report also finds that with the rapidly changing for-hire market and emerging technologies such as autonomous vehicles, “laws and regulations are no longer keeping pace with the realities of the industry. Furthermore, there has been very little holistic analysis of the long-term impacts of reforms that are now over a decade old.”
“The need for an overhaul goes beyond just the actions of one rogue company,” Nadeau said. “Those acting legally and in good faith will also benefit from clearer standards and requirements.”
Read the Committee’s preliminary report.
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