
California Operators Close Out A Breakthrough Year
The Greater California Livery Association’s annual holiday event took on a more festive tone as the industry stands to benefit from measures that will ease business operations.
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The National Limousine Association’s lead lobby team outlined the national political picture Nov. 13 during LCT-NLA Show East and later followed up with LCT for an overview of possible regulatory efforts coming in 2017.
Trump’s 306-232 Electoral College victory over Hillary Clinton was one of the biggest political upsets in U.S. history, and could likely shake up political agendas and priorities across many business sectors, including ground transportation. Republicans will have 52 seats in the U.S. Senate and at least 239 seats in the House of Representatives.
“In general, across the issues, the Trump Administration is expected to be more pro-business, more supportive of small business,” said Louie Perry, a partner at Cornerstone Government Affairs, the Washington-D.C. lobbying firm that has been retained by the NLA since 2009. “One could argue all the little things that drive businesses crazy — such as overtime rules, employee misclassification, gas guzzler tax, emissions requirements, etc., — a more pro-business Trump Administration might make it a little easier for small businesses to operate without burdensome regulations.”
The major political question is how a populist-Republican-business tycoon who campaigned on helping the working class “forgotten man” will view the regulatory need for transportation network companies (TNCs), such as Uber and Lyft, which have dominated industry agendas for the last several years. The NLA and state and regional industry trade groups are fighting to establish a permanent framework for regulatory fairness on safety, insurance, airport access, and driver background checks among the primary ground transportation sectors, such as TNCs, chauffeured services, and taxicabs.
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For the NLA and its lobbyists, the first order of business was to reach out to the Trump transition team and look for opportunities to meet with incoming Department of Labor and Department of Transportation officials to present the industry and its regulatory positions. The NLA drafted a position paper and has shared it with the Trump team along with news articles detailing the issues with TNC companies. Aside from TNC-related matters, Perry summarized some NLA priorities and speculated about possible federal changes related to industry concerns:
State Level Focus for NLA
While TNCs could be universally regulated in some respects at the federal level, the real battles and breakthroughs are more likely to occur among state legislatures and executive branches. “Uber and Lyft are active in all states, trying to get exempted from local regulations and have some kind of weak state regulation,” Perry said.
Uber and Lyft will also try at the margins to legitimize the TNCs in as many places as they can via federal statue, Perry said. “They’ll push for standardization and be part of ride sharing and carpooling legislation. The problem is they provide commercial transportation for pay. They will try to do everything in their power to include what they do and define what they do as carpooling when it is clearly commercial transportation service.”
Uber has spent $970,000 on federal lobbying in the first three quarters of 2016, and Lyft about $140,000, according to Cornerstone figures. Among states, Uber has 19 registered lobbyists in Texas, with Lyft using six; Uber spends about $1 million on lobbying in California; and it spent $1 million on lobbying in New York during the first six months of this year alone.
Two-Party Approach
That’s why regardless of which party prevails in an election, groups such as the NLA are careful to find bipartisan allies in Congress and state houses. Among key Congressional representatives who have either supported NLA efforts or been receptive to the industry’s agenda:
“We work with members’ offices who know or who have shown interest in working with our membership,” Perry said. “We look for anyone listening to our message of fair competition.”
Related Topics: chauffeur pay, Cornerstone Government Affairs, federal regulations, LCT-NLA Show East, legislation, limo associations, lobbying, Louie Perry, National Limousine Association, regulatory enforcement, state regulations, TNCs, Uber
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