New Jersey legislators want to create statewide standards for ride-hailing services like Uber and Lyft, but a new bill that is rapidly moving through the state legislature could put a permanent halt to both services.
The bill in question requires that Uber and Lyft drivers be fingerprinted as part of a criminal background check. Currently, Uber and Lyft rely on computer-based criminal background systems that they claim are as effective, if not more so, than fingerprint searches.
In the past, both Uber and Lyft have resisted fingerprint checks. Earlier this month both companies suffered a major loss in Texas and withdrew their respective businesses from select cities that required fingerprint checks.
“Any inclusion of fingerprint requirements would kick Uber out of New Jersey, just as similar measures have forced Uber out of Kansas; San Antonio, Texas; Broward County, Fla.; and most recently Austin, Texas,” Uber spokesman Craig Ewer told The Record. Currently, limo and taxi drivers in New Jersey have to be fingerprinted as a requirement of obtaining a license. —The Record
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