Rideshare Row Roils Beacon Hill

Ed Davis will always be a hero in Boston for the leading the 2013 Marathon bombing response -- but now that the former police commissioner is consulting for smartphone ride-hailing giant Uber, he heard a decidedly mixed response, with plenty of boos, at a State House hearing Tuesday on how to regulate the taxi challengers.

Members of the Legislature's Joint Committee on Financial Services were reviewing four plans to finally subject Uber, Lyft, and other rideshare companies to at least some of the regulations taxicabs have to deal with. Governor Charlie Baker is proposing a plan requiring more extensive background checks of drivers and $1 million in insurance for people using their cars as rideshare taxis.

Andrew Hebert of USA Taxi in Dorchester said taxi drivers' incomes are plunging, along with the value of city-required license medallions many borrowed hundreds of thousands of dollars to buy under the assumption the city would never allow unregulated taxis to do taxi work. "We are in crisis. The city of Boston has failed to help the driver and to implement reforms."

Boston Police Commissioner William Evans said he's not confident in the background checks uber and its ilk currently require of drivers. "We have to take their word that it's thorough. Obviously, we have concerns about it because we've run into Uber drivers that, when we've done their criminal background checks, they would never drive for the city of Boston."

Evans also urged legislators to require people using private cars for Uber and Lyft driving to put signs on the outside signalling that they are doing rideshare driving. "I hate to say it, but we live in a crazy society where if you want to take advantage of someone," Evans said, "it's very easy to get out there and say, 'I'm an uber,' and lure somebody into your car."

Uber east coast general manager Meghan Joyce said they're comfortable with Baker's plans for stricter background checks and more insurance protection. "This legislation represents a fantastic opportunity to provide clarity to riders and drivers and municipalities and law enforcement across the commonwealth, and it represents an opportunity to provide a standard throughout Massachusetts," Joyce said.

But Uber drivers like Alfreda Lan worry -- will the cost of new regulation kill the profits that have attracted them to driving? Thinking about having to carry commercial insurance that might run $10,000 a year, Lan, a former social worker who's been driving full-time since December, said: "It's a lot of money. It would definitely hurt us as drivers. So I'm really concerned."