Olivia Allery, news editor

In light of Uber and Lyft announcing the ceasing of their services in Minneapolis effective May 1, other rideshare companies may be trying to drum up business in their place. According to the Sahan Journal, companies such as Riders Cooperative and Hich have recruited around 200 Minneapolis drivers at a Minnesota Uber/Lyft Drivers Association (MULDA) event on March 29. While neither of these companies have applied for operation licensing yet, MULDA assured they would be in favor of alternative organizations joining the market.

“Rather than being without services, riders will have multiple options, creating a better and healthier transportation infrastructure,” said MULDA president Eid Ali in a quote from the Sahan Journal. 

According to Star Tribune, MULDA members, drivers and activists are also in favor of the City Council’s veto override — which upheld the minimum wage ordinance — seeing the ordinance as a step to reducing exploitation and fair treatment of drivers. The minimum wage ordinance veto was upheld by City Council back on March 14, which would require Uber and Lyft to pay their drivers a minimum of $1.40/per mile and $0.51/per minute. 

The same day that City Council overrode Mayor Jacob Frey’s veto of the ordinance, Uber and Lyft decided to pull services from the city. According to AP News, both Uber and Lyft saw the ordinance as unsustainable from a business standpoint. Instead, the companies are lobbying for a much lower rate of $0.89/per mile and $0.49/per hour in order to continue generating enough revenue. “We are disappointed the Council chose to ignore the data and kick Uber out of the Twin Cities,” said Uber’s senior director of public relations Josh Gold in a quote from AP News. 

According to the Star Tribune, another main concern from the companies is that the ordinance would shift drivers from contract work to actual employees, which would then take away from the independent nature of the company’s work. 

While it seems alternatives are on the horizon, according to the Star Tribune, the Minnesota House and Senate are still negotiating new state rules in order to prevent Uber and Lyft from leaving Minneapolis. While there hasn’t been any set in stone conclusions, House Majority Leader Jamie Long explained in the Star Tribune that the issue of fair base pay for rideshare drivers is the main issue that needs to be tackled, whether Uber and Lyft leave Minneapolis or not. 

According to Sahan Journal, fair base pay for these workers seems possible with the much smaller rideshare organizations coming to or based in Minneapolis/St. Paul. One of these is that the Driver’s Cooperative (Co-Op Ride) co-founder, Eric Forman, spoke at the MULDA event on March 29 and explained how Co-Op Ride would be more of a community shared service as opposed to a corporation. “We’ll be working with drivers here to set up a locally owned Minnesota cooperative entity owned by the people of Minnesota,” said Forman in a quote from Sahan Journal.