Members of the City Council on Thursday continued to explore Honolulu’s nascent paid ride-sharing industry and openly asked whether it should be up to the city or state to impose regulations similar to the rules required of the city’s 1,500 taxicab drivers.

The Council’s Transportation Committee onThursday requested the creation of a working group made up of police and taxi representatives, among others, then heard from app-based ride-sharing companies Lyft and Uber, who said they each currently use "hundreds" of independent contractors to drive passengers around Oahu after starting operations only this summer.

Committee Chairman Breene Harimoto was clearly surprised at the scope of the operations.

"Hundreds?" Harimoto asked. "Hundreds, huh."

Lyft representative Chrystn Eads told the committee that Lyft faces "pushes for regulation in every city we enter."

"We’re not exactly a taxi company," she said. "We’re looking to forge new ground, really."

From Alaska to Chicago to Washington, D.C., state, county and city officials have — or are — looking at Lyft and competitor Uber "trying to ensure there is competition and to ensure this new entrant is not shut out," Eads said.

She called Lyft a "real-time, ride-matching community."

But Howard Higa, president of TheCab, told the committee that "ride-sharing" operations need to follow the same rules as taxi companies and taxi drivers.

"If you’re a duck," Higa said, "say you’re a duck."

Both Lyft and Uber rely on unregulated independent contractors who drive their own vehicles without the fare meters that taxicabs are required to have.

It does not matter that Lyft and Uber consider themselves ride-sharing companies, Higa said.

"I don’t know why the city is allowing this," he told the committee. "In my opinion, this is certainly going against the law."

Lyft and Uber both use smartphone technology to connect passengers with drivers, but differ in how they collect fares.

Lyft calls its fares "donations" based on its app that calculates time and distance for both drivers and passengers.

Nothing prevents a passenger from not paying the suggested donation, Eads said. But bad reviews of drivers and passengers can get them barred, she said.

No money changes hands for an Uber ride, said Brian Hughes, Uber’s Honolulu general manager.

Passengers input their credit card information when they book a ride. GPS-tracking technology then sends the ride data back to servers in San Francisco that measure the time and distance and charge the riders’ cards, Hughes said. Passengers can also add a tip that the driver will see later.

Both companies screen drivers using local, state and federal databases, and insist that drivers keep their vehicles damage-free and looking nice. But Hughes and Eads told the committee that they do not conduct foreign background checks on immigrant drivers.

Nothing prohibits drivers from dropping off passengers at Honolulu Airport. But both companies said they are working to get permission to pick up passengers there.

Two of Uber’s independent drivers received violations at the airport but were not cited, said Hughes, who added that one of Uber’s higher-end services involves drivers who are allowed to pick up airport passengers.

For new mother Leilani Arif of Waikiki, Lyft has provided a second, part-time job that offers her the flexibility to take care of her 8-month-old daughter, Siona, while Arif’s husband works a graveyard-shift security job.

Driving for Lyft as an independent contractor, Arif said, allows her to work "when I want, how long I want. It’s just a really great thing to have here in Honolulu. I ask the members of the Council to embrace ride-sharing and keep it going."

"Lyft creates jobs," she said.

Higa then countered by telling the committee that jobs for unregulated Lyft drivers hurt opportunities for his 800 taxi drivers who have to follow driver and vehicle rules mandated by both the city and the state Public Utilities Commission.

"It’s tit for tat," Higa said. "Whose livelihood is on the hook?"