What Wes Sakamoto likes about being a driver in the new age of ride-hailing is the simple independence.

“Whenever you want to quit, you quit; whenever you want to start, you start,” said Sakamoto, who drives for Uber and Lyft, the two best-known “ride share” companies. “Nobody’s telling the drivers they have to be there.

“You have control of your time,” he added. “That’s the nice thing.”

There are others who could not disagree more, especially for the legacy taxi industry. There are numerous companies, but those in the classic taxi-dispatch model are Charley’s Taxi, TheCab and EcoCab Hawaii.

The latter company is owned by David Jung, who has decided to refocus his business on what he describes as “non-emergency medical” rides and service to the lower- income and elderly markets.

These businesses — ranging from taxis as well as the “transportation network company” (TNC) such as Uber — are part of the transportation industry, Jung said, in which personal injury is a very common occurrence.

“If any industry should be regulated,” he said, “the transportation industry should be.”

Hawaii has been late to the game where ride-hailing regulation is concerned, and it’s a still-evolving landscape. The state recently cleared the way, long-term, for TNCs to serve routes to and from the Daniel K. Inouye International Airport, following an extended pilot project there.

And the City Council and administration, having rejected a proposed bill to bar ride-hailing companies from imposing “surge pricing” for the most in-demand drive times and locations, are taking another look at the overall regulatory scheme.

Two bills are in the hopper but not yet scheduled for a hearing (see sidebar at left for more details). One (Bill 43) introduced by Councilman Trevor Ozawa would require all private transportation companies, including taxis, to disclose the set fare for a ride on the rider’s mobile device before the rider accepts, as well as a receipt with contact information at the end.

The administration of Mayor Kirk Caldwell submitted the second, Bill 44. This legislation is intended to consolidate rules now codified in the city’s taxi ordinance with new regulations that would encompass both forms of transportation companies, the mayor said, “making sure we’re not overburdening cabs in an industry where the other ride-shares aren’t as regulated.”

“I put in the bill hoping we could find some middle ground, where they (taxi companies) don’t face as much regulation and costs, and where Uber and Lyft, their impacts on traditional taxis are not as dramatic,” Caldwell said.

“I’m not taking one side or the other,” he added. “But I’m not trying to keep new technology out of our city. I think any 21st century city adapts and brings new things. … To say, ‘No, we’re sticking with the old model that I had when I was 25’? No, we’ll change with the times.”

Skepticism over changes

However, the changes don’t really sit right with Dale Evans, president of Charley’s Taxi, who said the regulations are being flattened too much in accommodating the new business models.

“In the last 2-1/2 years, the taxi operators have been inundated with 11 bills. Two are pending and we’ve lost nine,” Evans said in a meeting with the Honolulu Star-Advertiser editorial board. “And in all nine, our position has always been consumer protection.”

Among Evans’ concerns is that insurance requirements won’t sufficiently cover injuries that could happen while a driver is working but before the customer accepts the ride, for example.

There is also the issue of dropping the requirement for a Hawaii driver’s license for all drivers, which would diminish customer safety, she added. A driver’s license that’s accepted in Hawaii would be needed, accommodating new arrivals to Hawaii, or military personnel and spouses who sometimes drive with an out-of-state license.

Evans also raised the standing complaint about surge pricing, even with the mayor’s veto of a bill to cap those high-demand fares. The customers are not always in a position to find an alternative carrier, she said.

Surge advocates often point to this market-driven pricing scheme as a means of boosting revenue for drivers. But there’s a down side even there, driver Sakamoto said.

“I don’t wait for a surge to drive,” he said. “There have been huge surges by Pearl Harbor, but there were so many requests, all of them might be taken. Drivers will all go there, and then you (a competing driver) don’t get a ride. Sometimes it’s better to get a non-surge request.”

Striving to find balance

Rates of pay are an issue with Uber and Lyft, nationwide. The battle between taxis and ride-hailing competitors reached a fever pitch in New York City, where conventional cabbies have gone into debt to purchase a cab medallion, the permit required to drive a taxi. Suddenly, because of ride-hailing, the medallions plummeted in value, along with the driver income.

The city responded, ultimately, by restricting the number of ride-hailing drivers allowed in the jurisdiction. That’s a step that other municipalities, including Honolulu, could consider. Caldwell said he would be open to considering some kind of Uber/Lyft driver cap, too.

The new Council that takes over after the election may be more amenable to changes that protect legacy taxi companies, he said.

“I’m hoping the bill I put in becomes a vehicle that can generate more discussion, to see if we can deal with the negative impacts of Uber/Lyft,” he said.

For their part, Uber executives take issue with a number of the complaints lodged against the ride-hailing business. For example: Uber does have a service level for those needing special attention, said Tabatha Chow, senior operations manager for Uber in Hawaii.

“We have UberASSIST, with drivers specially trained to work with people who need assistance,” Chow said. “You can see on the app who is available, and you can get that ride.”

Uber is “generally supportive” of the proposed regulatory reform, although it’s mostly focused on changes to the existing taxi ordinance, said Jon Isaacs, who handles public affairs for eight western states, including Hawaii. In particular, he said, it favors the elimination of the requirement for the Hawaii license as being more fair to military drivers.

“We think the mayor is taking the right approach,” Isaacs said. “We are in favor of a level playing field … we support taxi companies having similar flexibility that rideshare does.”

There is also a “scheduled rides” feature, appealing to riders who want the security of advance planning. Isaacs acknowledged that there are some differences between conventional cabs and ride-hailing, especially for anyone who wants a ride waiting for them. Taxis are permitted to accept a hail from the street, whereas a TNC driver must wait to be summoned through the app.

“Both are needed to have a healthy transportation service in cities, which is why both will always be there,” Isaacs added. “We know there is a much greater demand for on-demand transportation than was available (from taxi service).”

Labor vs. employer concerns

The company has noted the criticism about driver earnings; the new management is developing better driver outreach and feedback, said another Uber spokesman, Nathan Hambley.

Still, said EcoCab’s Jung, there is reason to be wary of services that have a less custodial relationship with the labor force than do conventional employers. Ride-hailing does enable independence but, Jung said, the rewards accrue more to the proprietors of the companies than to the labor force.

“The ‘gig economy’ is largely driven by multibillion-dollar companies,” he said.

Jung described himself as a libertarian who more than gets the market-driven ethic. But transportation also would benefit from oversight and some island-style concern for the worker, he said.

“In Hawaii we have a tradition and history of progressiveness … and yet, we are allowing a company to come in and not be subject to our tradition of progressiveness,” Jung added. “We are basically selling ourselves out.”