After a long campaign to get permission to operate in New Orleans, the Uber car service app will become available for use locally -- with a minimum fare of $15.
The City Council cleared the way for Uber’s operation with a 4-3 vote on Thursday.
Uber is based in San Francisco, and offers transportation services in about 200 cities around the world, according to its website. Users hail cars-for-hire using a smartphone app, and at the end of the trip the full cost of the ride and an optional tip is charged to the rider's on-file credit card. Only Uber Black, the company's high-end offering of luxury sedans, will be available in New Orleans.
The decision was being closely followed by those in the city’s rapidly growing technology and start-up sector.
Joe Corbett started his own digital design agency in New Orleans in 2013. He began circulating an online petition in support of Uber last year.
“I know a lot of people, in the New Orleans tech community especially, are really focused on how the rest of the country or the world perceives us,” Corbett says. “We want people to know that Silicon Valley or Manhattan is not the only place things are happening. There’s something happening in New Orleans. Come pay attention, come be part of it, come help grow our community.”
Corbett says that allowing Uber to operate in New Orleans sends the message that the city is friendly to new ventures, which will encourage other start-ups to do business here too.
“I know a lot of really talented people in New Orleans who are trying to make that next great application or that next great business model, and bring it to life,” says Corbett.
He names AirPnP as an example. Founded by two New Orleans natives as a bathroom-renting app for Mardi Gras, use of the app has expanded to dozens of countries around the world. Corbett says that blocking Uber’s expansion into the city would have had a chilling effect on other young innovators with similar drive.
“It’s a fear that I could have this great idea or I could put work and passion into something, and have local government come along and shut me down.”
Organizations representing the taxicab and limousine industry have fought hard to impose more restrictions on Uber's operations, like a 3-hour minimum for luxury cars. Some have said the service is unfair competition that will take away income from other drivers.
The council deferred action on two other regulatory actions concerning Uber on Thursday, including an ordinance that would have expressly prohibited Uber from operating its ride-sharing service in the future.
