NLA, TLPA Push For-Hire Fingerprint Background Checks

NEW YORK—The National Limousine Association (NLA) and the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association (TLPA) jointly announced on June 22  a unified position calling for all drivers who transport passengers for a fee to be subject to national fingerprint-based background checks.

The stance is aimed at ensuring the highest standards in vetting the nation’s hundreds of thousands of for-hire drivers, and to ensure universal practices to maximize passenger safety are instituted and upheld.

Most drivers within fleets operated by NLA and TLPA members in large to mid-sized cities must pass a fingerprint-based background check before they can transport passengers. However, in nearly every market, services such as Uber and Lyft do not use a fingerprint-based method to vet their drivers. 

“For years, many sectors of business, from daycare centers to commercial airlines, have relied on fingerprint-based background checks to verify the accuracy and authenticity of security screenings,” said Gary Buffo, president of the NLA, in a statement. “The TLPA and NLA believe we must exhaust all feasible avenues to make certain the people behind the wheels of commercial ground transportation vehicles are indeed who they claim to be. Thanks to recent technological advances, fingerprint background checks are more widely available and accessible than ever before, and it is time we establish a new nationwide standard.”

Dwight Kines, president of the TLPA, said, “There simply is no substitute for a fingerprint-based background check. You can fake a name or a social security number, but fingerprints don’t lie. The  numerous news reports of dangerous drivers for Uber and Lyft are reason enough to call for common-sense safety precautions, and that starts with fingerprints.”

A study released last year found fingerprint-based criminal background checks have a potential error rate of only 1%, while name-based background checks can have a potential error rate of 43%.

Uber to leave New Jersey over fingerprinting

In a related story, Uber supports letting New Jersey’s attorney general — rather than lawmakers — decide what type of background checks its drivers should undergo, but said it still plans to leave the state if fingerprinting is required.

Spokesman Matt Wing said the San Francisco-based company supports an amended measure in the state Senate that would give the attorney general 100 days to decide the type and method of criminal background checks required of all drivers and applicants.

The company has threatened to leave the state if lawmakers require fingerprinting, and it has aggressively lobbied against those requirements in New Jersey and elsewhere. A competing measure in the state Legislature would require fingerprint checks if the ride-hailing companies don’t use a check approved by the New Jersey state police.

Arkansas Online article here

Keywords

background checks   Gary Buffo   national limousine association   new jersey   NLA   state regulations   TLPA   TNCs   Uber   

 

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Dashride Enables Limo, Taxi Services To Farm In Real Time

Dashride, a provider of dispatch, reservation software and other proprietary technologies that improve the processes of limousine and taxi companies, announced June 16 it has launched Dashride Connect, an on-demand affiliate network.

Dashride Connect allows operators of livery companies to communicate with one another so they can better satisfy the ground transportation needs of their customers. With Dashride Connect, companies can instantly farm-in and farm-out rides to swiftly fulfill requests no matter where a customer is located. Dashride Connect is available to all taxi and limousine companies, regardless if they are using Dashride as their back-office software. Fleets from across the world are opting-in to Dashride Connect and leveraging the affiliate network to grow revenues, increase customer satisfaction, and gain global coverage.  

“Since starting Dashride two years ago, our primary mission has been to empower livery operators by increasing their digital capabilities and improving their internal systems,” said Nadav Ullman, founder and CEO of Dashride. “With Dashride Connect, we are unifying fleets worldwide. The technology is an industry changer that strengthens legacy operators facing competition from ride services like Uber and Lyft.”

Dashride Connect is the latest offering of Dashride, a company with more than 250 member operators of limousine and taxi companies across the world. Dashride allows these established businesses to provide today’s consumers with the mobile tools they demand. The technology also serves as a comprehensive back office tool, modernizing a livery company’s daily operations by improving everything from dispatching and billing procedures to vehicle management.

“There are more than one million established livery companies operating across the globe today, and these organizations service millions of loyal customers,” Ulman said. “Dashride Connect is the first and only platform with the ability to link each and every one of these livery operators. We are providing the largest affiliate network in the history of the taxi and limousine industry, and we’re doing it at no cost to the operators.”

While Dashride Connect links operators globally, the technology also helps companies satisfy customer demand closer to home. In periods of high demand, an operator of a modest sized fleet may have trouble servicing ride requests. Even those with large fleets admit they occasionally abandon requests due to the labor involved with managing those rides. Dashride Connect technology allows operators to instantly farm-in and farm-out customer calls. This increases revenues for the operator while advancing customer retention.

“We’ve worked hard for years to become a highly trusted transportation provider, but we are constantly evolving and improving to ensure our clients receive the service they desire,” said Abe Amer, the owner of Angel Elite, a growing corporate and private chauffeur service in NYC. “While we enjoy strong loyalty in our home city of New York, our customers often ask for our services when they’re traveling out of town or arriving in their home cities. Dashride Connect has expanded our affiliate network allowing us to compete at the highest level. Whether our clients are traveling domestically or internationally, we’ve got them covered.”

Keywords

affiliate networks   Dashride   Dispatch Software   farm-in   farm-out   networking   reservation management software   technology   

 

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