Private rideshare services that compete with traditional taxi companies have been gaining traction in recent years. You've probably heard of one or more of them: Lyft, Uber, Sidecar. But if you were looking to one of these companies for a ride to LAX in the near future, you may be out of luck. Sidecar and Uber recently announced that they would no longer be picking passengers up from the airport.
The issue for these companies is the "aggressive" ticketing they accuse LAX authorities of engaging in while citizen-drivers wait to pick up passengers for the airport. Uber spokesman Andrew Noyes said the citations issued to Uber drivers constituted an "unwarranted action" during his announcement that they would temporarily suspend airport pickup by their citizen-drivers, who work under the uberX banner. UberBLACK and UberSUV, which both utilize licensed commercial drivers, will continue to provide LAX pickup services.
Meanwhile, Sidecar has advised its citizen-drivers to avoid making LAX pickups because of the increased enforcement.
Airport officials have denied singling out rideshare companies like Uber and Sidecar for special enforcement.
These companies work by connecting passengers with ordinary people willing to act as unlicensed cabbies. More and more people are turning to services like these over traditional cab companies. However, this recent issue with LAX pickup highlights the limitations of services like these.
This story makes us thankful to be able to provide our customers with free shuttle service to and from the airport. For our customers, there's no need to call, wait, or worry about your driver getting a ticket. Instead, you can just sit back and enjoy the ride.
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