"It's more complicated than I thought it was going to be," said Ron Klein, director of the St. Louis Metropolitan Taxicab Commission, at its meeting Thursday.
Such an app, which would link all licensed cabs in St. Louis and St. Louis County, would allow passengers to hail taxis the same way they summon an Uber car.
The move comes at a time when traditional cab companies are struggling to be competitive against companies such as UberX, an app-based ride-hailing service in which drivers use their own cars to ferry passengers, heralded for its convenience.
Klein said he has held almost-daily meetings over the last couple of weeks with tech companies, including the ride-hailing app Curb and several local entrepreneurs, about developing a local app.
"The more I get into it, the more questions I have," he told the commission. That includes whether the single app should be the only one allowed, or if cab companies should be able to keep their existing apps.
All new cab companies already are required to have an app, and existing companies must have an app by next year. Many local cab companies — including Laclede Cab Co., St. Louis County Cab, Yellow Cab, ABC and Checker Cab — have been using their own apps for a while. But there’s no app that allows someone here to summon the closest cab, something that other cities — including Houston, Washington, Chicago and Los Angeles — have.
"The general gist of this I'm getting from other cities, and I've been talking to a lot of them, is that it's not a good idea to have one single app. It's better to have more than one so the consumer has a choice, so we are looking at how we're going to proceed," Klein said.
He plans to meet with local taxi companies and hold public meetings to hear what cab passengers have to say.
UberX has been working in violation of local vehicle-for-hire laws for more than a year.
The taxi commission voted on Sept. 18, 2015, to allow ride-hailing services, but it required drivers to be fingerprinted and possess a Class E Missouri commercial driver’s license, also known as a chauffeur’s license. Those terms are dictated by a state law specific to St. Louis and St. Louis County.
That same day, Uber launched UberX, even though drivers had not met the requirements set by the taxi commission, and the company filed a federal lawsuit against the commission alleging anti-competitive practices in violation of the Sherman Antitrust Act.
A few weeks later, the commission filed its own suit seeking to have Uber barred from operating. The lawsuits are making their way through the courts.
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