LAS VEGAS—The popular ride-sharing app Uber, widely used in major cities throughout the world, is using its technology to gather support in Nevada with an online petition drive.
The company—which views itself as a technology platform, and not a transportation company—has taken widespread action, circulating its online petition in advance of its hearing date with the Clark County District Court on Wednesday, Oct. 29.
In a letter to current Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval and Attorney General Catherine Cortez Masto, the San Francisco-based company wrote, “Nevadans have been demanding better, more innovative ways to move around their cities for years. On October 24, Uber answered their call and launched uberX in Reno and Las Vegas. But on that very same day, Nevada state regulators attempted to shut Uber down and deny Nevadans’ access to the safe, reliable transportation options already available to people in over 220 cities across the globe.”
The company blames Nevada lawmakers’ ties to the “Big Taxi Cartel” for its shut-down. “Instead of standing up for Nevadans, regulators are standing on the side of special interests,” the online petition reads. “This, despite the fact that countless Nevadans have downloaded the app and hundreds of drivers are ready to partner with Uber and start their own small business.”
The petition says regulators shouldn’t block consumer choice “simply to enrich a deeply entrenched taxi industry.”
An Uber spokeswoman said 3,000 people have already signed the online petition during the first hour it was posted. By mid-afternoon, the total had climbed to over 9,000 signatures.
Critics have been quick to point out that Uber is operating outside the bounds of the law, by providing public transportation without a legal license.
Representatives of Clark County’s taxi and limousine industries have met with Uber officials in a bid to get the mobile-friendly company properly licensed in Nevada. However, industry representatives say Uber rejected their overtures, saying they wouldn’t be able to “be profitable under the state’s regulatory system.”
Law enforcement officials swiftly cited Uber drivers with fines up to $10,000 per incident and impounded their vehicles. The company responded by vowing to back its contracted drivers and providing legal support and rental cars for them until their own vehicles were freed from impoundment. They also said that so far, 11 drivers have been cited for “violating transportation statutes.”
The Uber spokeswoman also said that the transport service has already provided “thousands” of rides throughout Clark County, all from outside of the Las Vegas Strip and away from McCarran International Airport.
Uber is using the hashtag #NVneedsUber to call for the government’s immediate attention.
(With reports from the Las Vegas Sun and the Las Vegas Review-Journal)
(www.asianjournal.com)
(Las Vegas October 30 – November 5, 2014 Sec. A pg.4)
