Uber car service survives state ban, still angers taxi companies with ‘unfair competition’

Although the Massachusetts government has allowed the luxury car service Uber to operate in the state until further notice, Boston taxi businesses said they face “unfair competition” from a service that does not undergo the same regulations as their cabs.

Steve Sullivan, general manager of Metro Cab Association Inc., said Uber skews the competition between transportation companies.

Because there are no standards or regulations currently in place nationally for the type of technology Uber uses, it creates “unfair competition” between other transportation companies, he said.

“They have no regulations on what they can charge like city taxicabs do,” he said. “They can buy a used car and put it on road, but a cab needs to be new. The expenses to go through all this are high. To do the same business, without the same expenses, is an unfair balance.”

The state government banned Uber’s technology in early August “for using a measuring device not conforming to standards,” according to court documents.

But the Massachusetts Division of Standards later allowed Uber to continue business on a provisional basis while the two parties worked to fit Uber’s technology to national standards, according to a Massachusetts Division of Standards statement.

“We want a dialogue with the government and regulators to help them understand the technology better,” said Michael Pao, Uber’s general manager for Boston. “We want to continue to deliver reliable, consistent transportation to thousands of Bostonians while that is going on.”

The driving service launched in San Francisco in 2010 around a smartphone app that uses GPS technology and its own electronic measuring device for fares and charges, Pao said.

Users of the driving service download the app, register a credit card on file and hit a button on their phones to contact the closest driver to their location for pick up, he said.

“We like to think of ourselves as more of a luxury,” Pao said. “We have black cars with limo drivers versus normal taxi drivers. We’re looking to create a five-star service and give it to everybody.”

Other Boston taxi cab companies, however, are unhappy about Uber’s continued business in the city and prefer the regulations for safety purposes, Sullivan said.

“In the cab industry, the city does criminal background checks for drivers before he or she gets a license. [The drivers] get record checked every year they drive,” he said. “At Uber, there is no city background check on those driving.”

Sullivan said even though taxicab companies must abide by more rules, the regulations in place make traveling in a taxi safer.

“There are more demands on us with regulations, but it’s a safer transportation with those regulations and it’s cheaper,” he said. “I’ve been in cab service over 40 years, and you can save so much money by using a cab service.”

Tiffany Mitchell, manager and co-owner of Top Cab and City Cab, said the competition other driving services such as Uber bring to Boston does not pose a problem for her company and the business she gets.

“I eat competition for breakfast,” she said. “I go after all of them. If you have a strong, solid association, competition means nothing to you.”

While Uber’s fare prices are around 50 percent higher than normal taxicab companies, the driving service aims to show a way of transportation different from others in the city, Pao said.

“We provide a more reliable, convenient experience. Certainly there are other choices, but we want to give the alternative,” he said. “It’s another option out there.”’