After New Year’s Eve, which Uber proclaimed would be the ridesharing app’s busiest night of the year, the company revealed perhaps the most detailed information it ever has disclosed about itself. For being able to provide more than two million NYE trips, in a blog post Uber thanked “more than 2,000 employees and hundreds of thousands of incredible driver partners.”
So how many of those hundreds of thousands drive for Uber Boston?
No one knows. Still.
And maybe we’ll never find out: Uber is a private company; the trip revenue it collects and the number of drivers it partners with – among other things – are considered proprietary information; Uber isn’t obligated to provide answers to prodding reporters and city officials about such matters.
But recently-filed regulations in the state of Massachusetts, which formally recognize ridesharing as a model of transportation, would impose new rules on Uber, Lyft, and other rideshare companies and drivers. The state Department of Public Utilities (DPU) would oversee and carry out those regulations – and even it doesn’t know how many Uber drivers there are.
Read the regulations.
Uber Massachusetts Regulations
The DPU doesn’t know how many Lyft or Sidecar drivers there are, either. “DPU does not have figures on the number of transportation network company drivers for any of the companies,” says Amy Mahler, an assistant press secretary in the state executive office of Energy and Environmental Affairs, in a email to BostInno. There’s a legitimate reason for this: “The DPU does not yet have legislative authority to regulate [rideshare companies],” adds Mahler.
The Boston taxi industry, which is regulated by the Boston police hackney unit, is a little easier to keep tabs on – but that’s because it’s monopolized and there’s a cap on the total number of cabs allowed on the streets. In 2015, there are 1,625 Boston taxi medallions in circulation, and 6,400 licensed taxi drivers.
We can only guess at the number of Uber drivers currently operating in this city. But judging by how easy – and cheap – it is to get a ride, at any time of the day, in Boston, it seems like more than the 1,625 cabs that are available. Hundreds, maybe thousands more.
The DPU didn’t immediately respond when asked in a follow-up email whether it would require rideshare companies provide the total number of drivers they have on their platforms; this post will be updated if we hear back.
Related:
Boston uberX drivers will be recognizable
Uber is no longer hiring UberBLACK drivers in Boston.
Uber Safety Crackdown in Mass.
