Ryan Ray
A compromise between Republican lawmakers and ride-hailing firms like Uber was on thin ice Friday afternoon as Session raced to a close, until finally, the bill hit a brick wall.
Sen. David Simmons, the Senate Rules Chair, had worked on the bill (SB 1118) for months. It would have mandated minimum commercial insurance requirements for drivers with Uber and similar app-based companies, known as “transportation network companies” in Capitol-ese.
The House — which favors a more Uber-friendly approach — passed its own bill (HB 509) last month that addressed insurance but also included a provision that is anathema in the Senate: Blocking local authorities, such as the Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission, from regulating the services and instead reserving that power to the state.
The two sides, with Uber at the wheel on behalf of the House, engaged in a heated and increasingly personal battle.
Simmons said he met “hours upon hours” with Uber, Lyft, and taxicab companies, insurers, and made “massive amounts of attempts” to come up with language that worked for all. It didn’t happen.
Uber made a last-ditch campaign urging the Senate to take up the House language via a bill sponsored by Sen. Jeff Brandes. They even went so far as to deliver a three-feet-high stack of some 32,000 petition signatures to the desk of Senate President Andy Gardiner on Thursday, but to no avail.
In the end, after Sine Die, neither Simmons’ nor Brandes’ bill passed the Senate.
Meanwhile, the state of Florida continues to operate on a patchwork basis with some local governments allowing so-called “ride-sharing” apps, and other prohibiting or limiting it.
The issue is practically guaranteed to come back in Tallahassee next year.
