Across the country city leaders are being pressured by Cab companies to require fingerprint background checks for Uber drivers, especially for pickups at airports. Airports have become the battleground because it is a lucrative concentration of customers and it also services customers from afar where pissing contests between new-age and stone-age business have been settled. In favour of new-age.
Publicly the stone-age argument is about a level playing field. The hidden argument allies the Cabbies and the Politicians and, no surprise here, is about money starting with medallion fees. Political fundraising is significantly easier when hitting up a few big donors, cab companies and unions, than it would be going after an ever-changing bunch of Uber drivers.
Big money almost always keeps operations in business long after their use-by date so it is quite possible the stone-agers will win. But suppose Uber extracts a compromise--that a Georgia Weapons Carry License, which requires fingerprinting and an FBI background check, satisfies the requirement. After all, don't the anti-Constitution Nutsies always try to equate gun rights with driving "rights?" Maybe that should be a two-way street.
Publicly the stone-age argument is about a level playing field. The hidden argument allies the Cabbies and the Politicians and, no surprise here, is about money starting with medallion fees. Political fundraising is significantly easier when hitting up a few big donors, cab companies and unions, than it would be going after an ever-changing bunch of Uber drivers.
Big money almost always keeps operations in business long after their use-by date so it is quite possible the stone-agers will win. But suppose Uber extracts a compromise--that a Georgia Weapons Carry License, which requires fingerprinting and an FBI background check, satisfies the requirement. After all, don't the anti-Constitution Nutsies always try to equate gun rights with driving "rights?" Maybe that should be a two-way street.
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