The Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) in California has released an advisory that requires companies such as Uber, Lyft and Sidecar to have their drivers obtain commercial license plates for the vehicles that they are driving.
The decision, which was based on an 80-year-old law, would also penalize drivers with a citation once they are found to be non-compliant.
According to the DMV, a law that dates back to 1935 states that any vehicle used in transporting a person for business or commercial reasons must have a commercial license plate. The agency added that the reminder had to be made since the companies had been receiving information on the rules deemed inconsistent.
"Any passenger vehicle used or maintained for the transportation of persons for hire, compensation or profit is a commercial vehicle," wrote the DMV in its advisory.
A spokesman for the agency added that the memo is not meant to implement a new policy but to stress once again a law that has already been existing in California since 1935.
To say that the move was based on the said law is just one part of the story. The other part would have to do with the existing clash between the ride-sharing companies and the DMV.
Last month, Uber and Lyft were sued by the San Francisco and Los Angeles district attorneys for an alleged misrepresentation of the way they conduct the background checks of their drivers.
Another explanation on the DMV's action is based on how Uber treated some of its drivers who registered their vehicles under the commercial category. It was said that these drivers had to be suspended and were only allowed back on the Uber platform when they re-registered their vehicles with personal license plates.
Drivers who obtained their vehicles from an auto dealer, as sponsored by Uber's financing program, initially obtained commercial plates as insisted by the dealer. However, they needed to convert them to personal registrations after Uber barred the drivers from the platform. Uber has denied the allegations.
"Uber does not require a driver to register his/her vehicle as personal, and it is not our policy to deactivate a driver for registering his/her vehicle as commercial," the company said.
In just over two years since they began to operate, Uber and Lyft have enjoyed a quick adoption of their service by both riders and drivers. Uber, for its part, has almost 50,000 drivers in the state; 20,000 of them are in Los Angeles; 16,000 in San Francisco; about 5,000 each in San Diego and Orange County.
For Lyft, however, the move to switch its drivers' personal license plates to commercial ones turns the ride-sharing experience into a regular taxi ride.
"Requiring Lyft drivers, including those who drive just a few hours a week, to get commercial plates would essentially treat peer-to-peer transportation the same as a taxi, undermining the thoughtful work done by the CPUC to craft new rules for ridesharing in California," said Lyft in a statement.
