Although San Francisco-based ride-sharing company Uber passed six months of operation in Bloomington over the weekend, the company’s legal status in the city still remains as uncertain as the day it rolled out local service here in Monroe County.
And one local cab company says they’re a little worse for the wear.
Uber first launched its ride-sharing services in Bloomington on Aug. 28, 2014, despite objections from city government and local taxi companies. Uber chose the IU community, along with Purdue University and the University of Notre Dame, alongside 19 other college campuses for its nationwide rollout phase.
The grand debut came some months after the city delivered a cease-and-desist letter to Uber co-founder and CEO Travis Kalanick in San Francisco, as well as Avram Rampersaud, Uber’s Indianapolis operation manager.
The city’s legal move, according to assistant city attorney Patty Mulvihill, came with the belief that Uber’s business model would violate the city’s established ordinance regulating taxi services.
Join the club: Bloomington’s request is not unlike ones issued by governments in Portland, Las Vegas and even its hometown, San Francisco, among dozens of others within its 150 cities of U.S. operation.
Bloomington’s letter was not rescinded after the August rollout, nor has it been pulled in the six months since. It’s not being enforced, either.
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