Uber, Lyft set to leave Texas city over fingerprinting background checks
US News
Uber, Lyft set to leave Texas city over fingerprinting background checks
Ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft are set to quit the Texas city of Austin after voters said fingerprinting should be part of driver background checks, reports said. The companies had poured $8.6 million into a campaign to keep fingerprinting, which can be expensive and time-consuming, out of driver checks. Results from the vote on Proposition One — the most expensive campaign in city history — showed 56 percent in favor of fingerprint checks, compared 44 percent against. Uber and Lyft announced after the results of Saturday's vote that they were set to suspend operations in Austin, the capital city of Texas, on Monday morning.
We hope the City Council will reconsider their ordinance so we can work together to make the streets of Austin a safer place for everyone.
Uber Austin general manager Chris Nakutis
The vote came after the City Council passed an ordinance in December that, among other rules for ride-sharing companies, required their drivers to undergo fingerprint-based background checks by Feb. 1, 2017. Currently, New York and Houston are the only U.S. cities that require fingerprinting for ride-sharing drivers, media reports said.
