A ride home isn’t always a simple thing to procure. This friend may be busy, this one could have her car in the shop and not everyone is able to pay cab or bus fare — or find a bus route that actually goes where you need it to go.
On July 10, the rideshare service Uber launched uberX in four South Carolina cities: Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Greenville and Columbia. As of right now, if you download the free Uber app, it will locate the nearest available driver in Columbia.
The app is available on iPhones as well as Androids, and the user is able to see a picture of the driver, the car in question and can even track the progress of the driver via the app.
Users also pay via the app, using their credit cards. On their blog, Uber gives example fares; a trip from the USC campus to Williams-Brice Stadium is $7.
The company says that its drivers undergo a “stringent” background check, a look into their driving history, as well as “ongoing quality controls.”
It may seem like a dream come true, especially in a city like ours, where the popular opinion of the public transit system is that it leaves much to be desired.
But according to the South Carolina Office of Regulatory Staff, the company is operating illegally because it isn’t regulated by the state.
Charleston has even issued an advisory warning regarding the company, telling travelers about the risks of riding with a service that isn’t state-regulated. The city is saying that unless Uber drivers are licensed in the same way taxi drivers are, they could face a $1,097 fine and 30 days in jail.
Since Uber drivers are private individuals who drive their own cars, safety concerns are certainly valid. Anyone could sign up to drive for Uber, and it’s unclear just how “stringent” their background checks are.
It’s also important to note that the app utilizes “surge pricing”, which means that prices will go up when cars are in short supply — like gameday, for example, where more people were calling for cars, the price would be higher than normal.
And insurance is also a little tricky. The company has recently added a $100,000 plan which will kick in if the driver’s insurance can’t cover the fees from an accident, and it already has in place a policy which covers the driver from the moment they pick up a passenger to the moment the passenger exits the car.
Still, the push for the company to be regulated more likely than not has its roots firmly planted in the fertile soil known as “taxes.” If a company isn’t regulated by the state, its tax revenue isn’t at the level South Carolina would like it to be.
People in Columbia are already using the app, and are praising it on Twitter — one user said it was an “awesome service,” and another used the hashtag “5stars.”
If the people of Columbia, who have lived for so long in a city whose public transit system has been notably subpar, are getting so much use out of this app, then the state itself should take note of that.