AUSTIN, Texas, Oct. 02, 2018 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Over the last decade, tech companies have launched services that have disrupted a countless number of industries, including cable television, retail and, perhaps most notably, transportation. While rideshare companies like Uber tout their services as a step forward in the evolution of commercial transportation, skeptics are quick to note the downsides of this so-called innovation.
Chip Evans, a personal injury attorney in Austin, Texas, said that the conversation around Uber is too often centered around the disruption of an industry’s norms and not its impact on consumers and workers.
“We know that rideshare companies have dealt a blow to the taxicab industry, but what’s more alarming is how companies like Uber are creating gaps in public safety,” Evans said.
Evans said he notices the effect of these gaps on two groups - consumers and drivers.
“Rideshare services are seemingly convenient and affordable,” Evans said. “But the standards these companies use to hire drivers simply don’t meet the bar for public safety, and the pay they’re offering drivers is increasingly inadequate.”
Uber and Lyft have given the green light to thousands of drivers who should have been denied because of criminal records. In Austin, allegations against rideshare drivers have included several instances of sexual assault.
Austin previously required rideshare drivers to be subjected to fingerprint background checks until statewide legislation banned the requirement. CNN reported that Uber and Lyft spent up to $2.3 million on 40 lobbyists in Texas and that both companies aided in the creation of the legislation.
Drivers also face their own challenges when working for rideshare services, Evans said. He pointed to the rideshare driver strike in Austin in August 2017 as an example of driver dissatisfaction.
The protest was born out of complaints that Uber was collecting an increasingly larger percentage of the amount drivers were paid. In some cases, the company’s share was over half of the amount paid by the passenger, as reported by KXAN.
Evans said he isn’t advocating for the elimination of rideshare services in Austin. Rather, he believes that both passengers and drivers can be better served by stricter hiring guidelines and better compensation for drivers, neither of which he expects to occur of Uber or Lyft’s own volition.
“The positive steps these companies have made owe a lot to external pressures, whether from local governments passing ordinances, individuals taking legal action or workers mounting a protest,” Evans said. “There’s reason to believe that rideshare services are here to stay, but we must keep the pressure on them to do right by their customers and drivers.”
About Chip Evans:
Chip Evans is the owner and lead lawyer at the Evans Law Firm. He has more than 15 years of experience as a trial lawyer representing plaintiffs. He is licensed in all the Texas State Courts and in the Western District of Texas Federal Court. He is also a member of the Million Dollar Advocates Forum and the American Board of Trial Advocates.