Long Beach Airport to allow Uber, Lyft to pick up passengers

Source: Long Beach Press Telegram 


Long Beach Airport to allow Uber, Lyft to pick up passengers — for a fee
Uber and other smartphone-based ride-share services will be coming soon to Long Beach Airport.
 
By Courtney Tompkins, Long Beach Press Telegram

Long Beach Airport will begin allowing Uber and Lyft drivers for a fee.

Long Beach Airport is preparing to roll out a pilot program that will allow smartphone-based ride-share services like Uber or Lyft to pick passengers up curbside.

The move would bring Long Beach in line with airports across the country that already allow access, including Los Angeles International Airport and John Wayne Airport in Santa Ana.

Representatives from cab, limousine, car rental and ride-share companies turned out for a community meeting about the program on Wednesday that turned heated as drivers from Uber and Lyft told members of the traditional transportation industry that times were changing and they needed to get on board.

Those comments came in response to calls from cab and limo companies to regulate the transportation providers equally amid concerns that adding so-called transportation network companies, or TNCs, like Uber or Lyft would create an “uneven playing field.”

Airport Director Jess Romo said the industry is regulated at the federal and state level – although, he said, the airport could create additional requirements in their agreements with TNCs.

Marco Soto of Long Beach Yellow Cab said the regulations the company and its drivers have to comply with are more extensive — and costly — than that of companies like Uber or Lyft. The differences include having to carry commercial insurance, having to provide access for the disabled, and requiring drivers to pass a drug screen and clear a fingerprint background check, all of which TNC drivers are not required to do.

Cab driver Bill Lanham, who has been driving in Long Beach for 27 years, said guys like him “are getting killed out there.”

A representative from See Jane Go, a female-only ride-share service, brushed off the claims and said the reason these companies have emerged is because the traditional industry was not meeting the needs of the consumer.

Drivers say they already pick up airport passengers who walk a quarter mile to Lakewood Boulevard rather than catching a ride from a taxi cab inside airport property.

Romo said the goal of the six-month pilot program is to gauge impacts associated with adding such services and iron out a policy that is fair to all parties.

“We need to find a balance,” he said.

The program is slated to begin on April 1, pending City Council approval in March.

If approved, the program would include a $3 fee for all pick-ups and drop-offs in addition to increased permit and application fees, which could double from $50 to $100 and $60 to $120, respectively.

Other airports in California, including Sacramento International, John Wayne Airport and LAX, charge a fee of between $1.35 and $4.06.

Permanent changes to the ground transportation policy could include incorporating the fee-based system for pick-ups and drop-offs and integration of a transponder system, similar to the FasTrak system used on toll roads.

Officials will continue accepting comments from the public through Feb. 10. Comments can be sent via email to LGBarpt@longbeach.gov.