Scott PowersMay 13, 2019
3min397
Orlando mayoral fundraising in April: Dyer $89K, Ings $11K, Simons $2K
Tag: Mears Transportation
Scott PowersMay 13, 2019
Jim RosicaJanuary 11, 2017
7min677
Online car services such as Uber and Lyft got a preliminary win in Florida after favorable legislation was filed Wednesday in the Legislature. The bills (SB 340 and HB 221), which would apply to ridebooking companies like Uber and Lyft, combine parts of previous measures that have been introduced but not passed over the last few years. Still, “transportation […]
Peter SchorschSeptember 13, 2016
3min221
In a significant “get” for the state’s largest government affairs firm, Southern Strategy Group (SSG) will rep global ride-hailing service Uber for its local-level needs. The deal comes as ridesharing services heat up the news again. Most recently, in Tampa Bay, House Republican Leader Dana Young demanded in a letter that local regulators scuttle proposed rules that […]
Ryan RayMarch 10, 2016
3min337
A representative of Uber personally delivered what he said were 32,588 petitions to Senate President Andy Gardiner on Thursday morning, continuing the intensifying fight between Senate leadership and the ride-hailing industry. They have sparred for months over insurance regulations and the preemption of local ordinances. The two parties are locked in a heated debate over whether the Senate should […]
Scott PowersMarch 9, 2016
3min445
Uber is hitting Senate President Andy Gardiner and Mears Transportation in their home turf Wednesday with a mailer accusing him of thwarting ride-sharing legislation in order to help old friends and patrons at a taxi company. The mailer, called “Connect The Dots,” is being sent to homes in Gardiner’s home district in Orlando. It follows […]
Mitch PerryMarch 1, 2016
9min518
Will 2016 finally be the year the Florida Legislature implements rules of the road for ride-sharing companies Uber and Lyft? In late January, the Florida House of Representatives overwhelmingly passed a bill (HB 509) addressing Transportation Network Companies (TNC), but its fate in the state Senate is unknown, and officials with Uber on Tuesday blamed President Andy […]
Jim RosicaSeptember 18, 2015
4min177
State House Republican Leader Dana Young has stood aside while other lawmakers tried to suss out how to regulate hired-car outfits such as Uber and Lyft. But her time on the sidelines is over, she told FloridaPolitics.com on Friday. “I will be putting all my energy into this,” said Young, who has represented her Tampa district […]
Ryan RayApril 27, 2015
3min189
Advocates for ride-sharing firms Lyft and Uber evidently did not reach an agreement this weekend with traditional taxi cab and limousine stakeholders, as a ride sharing policy bill sponsored by Rep. Matt Gaetz was temporarily postponed Monday for the second time in as many appearances on the House floor. HB 817 is generally considered a pro-Uber piece of legislation, but it recently took on […]
Ryan RayApril 27, 2015
12min232
Where things stand on a number of “legislative food fights” is a complicated question in today’s adversarial climate at the Capitol. The $4 billion chasm between the House and Senate budget proposals casts a shadow on every corner of legislative business, both appropriations and policy measures. “Bill aren’t just dying; they’re being massacred,” Rep. Frank Artiles told […]
Ryan RayApril 24, 2015
3min194
As is the case with so many other issues – not least of which is the $4 million budget chasm stemming from inter-cameral differences on hospital funding for indigent services – the House and Senate still seem to be quite a ways off from passing anything resembling a unified ride sharing bill to govern firms […]