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SALT LAKE CITY — The recent arrival of driving service Lyft has been met with general enthusiasm from Salt Lake residents, drivers for the company said. But the service is receiving pushback from Salt Lake City government officials, who said the drivers need to undergo the same regulations as any transportation company in Utah.
Lyft launched in Salt Lake on April 18. The car service calls itself a “ridesharing program.” People looking for rides download an app on to their smartphones that allows them to summon a car without having to make any phone calls. A local driver receives an alert that a ride is requested, and picks up the passenger from the designated location.
Ashley Scharr is a Lyft driver working in the Salt Lake area. She recently started an online petition to fight what she calls a misunderstanding from local officials over how Lyft operates.
“Ridesharing is like a carpool — we have places all over Salt Lake and up the I-15 for people to do just that,” Scharr said. “We're just making it more efficient using an app.”
In Salt Lake City, taxi companies and other services that charge money for rides are regulated and drivers must go through a screening process. They are also restricted from taking passengers to the airport until licensed to do so. Scharr said Lyft drivers are more like volunteers, and the service they provide is vastly different from that of a regular commercial taxi company.
“We drivers are here to potentially assist riders as if a friend needed a ride home from drinking at a party rather than driving drunk,” Scharr said. “Or if someone runs out of gas with their family in the car, we could assist them with obtaining gas.”
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Lyft ride sharing to launch in Utah
The ride sharing app Lyft will launch a fleet of local drivers Friday night in Salt Lake City.Payment is considered a donation, and is arranged through Lyft and not paid directly to the driver, Scharr said.
“The price at the end of the ride is an option to give a donation and or a tip to the driver,” Scharr said.
The services provided by Lyft are currently under review by the city. If the city government decides Lyft is indeed a transportation service and not a ridesharing platform, the company could be required to cease operation in Utah until properly licensed, Scharr said.
“I am not speaking in behalf of Lyft, Inc., only for myself, a driver of Lyft in Salt Lake City. I would like to come to some term of agreement between both Lyft and (the city of Salt Lake).”
The petition asks Mayor Becker, City Manager Larry Bowers and those running airport ground transportation services to “recognize that rideshare platforms are not Taxi services.”
So far the petition has received over 150 signatures.
