SAN FRANCISCO–The California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) issued a decision by an Administrative Law Judge that penalizes Rasier-CA, an Uber Technologies subsidiary that provides Transportation Network Company (TNC) services through UberX, $7.3 million for failure to comply fully with the CPUC’s reporting requirements.
Under the Administrative Law Judge’s decision, Rasier-CA, operator of UberX, has 30 days to pay the penalty and comply with reporting requirements or its operating license in California will be suspended.
If Rasier-CA or the CPUC’s Safety and Enforcement Division file an appeal of the decision, and/or a Commissioner requests review, the Administrative Law Judge will review the appeal and either make changes to the decision or keep it the same. The decision would then come before the Commissioners to consider at a Voting Meeting.
Rasier-CA failed to provide the following required information to the CPUC:
- Accessibility information: the number and percentage of customers who requested accessible vehicles, and how often the TNC was able to comply with requests for accessible vehicles (Reporting Requirement g in D.13-09-045).
- Service information: the number of rides requested and accepted by TNC drivers within each zip code where the TNC operates, and the number of rides that were requested but not accepted; as well as the amounts paid/donated (Reporting Requirement j in D.13-09-045).
- Driver safety information: the cause of each driving incident involving a TNC driver (Reporting Requirement k in D.13-09-045).
In adopting these reporting requirements, the CPUC intended to gather information necessary to its oversight of TNCs on behalf of the riding public: whether TNC services are being provided in a non-discriminatory manner enabling equal access to all, and whether TNC services are being provided in a manner that promotes public safety. Rasier-CA and all licensed TNCs had one year from September 22, 2013, in which to comply with these reporting requirements. Rasier-CA, Uber’s subsidiary, is the only TNC that has failed to comply with the CPUC reporting requirements.
