Uber, Lyft in Vegas, D.C.: It’s complicated!

After being blocked from Nevada operations last fall by a court injunction, Uber said in an email blast this week that it has finally started picking up UberX riders in Nevada following state approval. An Uber spokesperson told TravelSkills that Uber airport pickups are currently not allowed at McCarran or Reno-Tahoe airports, but airport drop offs are. 

Meanwhile, a decision on ride-sharing operations in the nation’s capital is expected this week as well.

According to the Las Vegas Sun, the Nevada Transportation Authority on Monday approved ride-sharing in the state by both Uber and Lyft, and Uber said the following day that it had started operations in Las Vegas. That announcement came on the same day that the Clark County Board of Commissioners introduced a new ordinance to impose a  special business license requirement on ride-sharing operators; the commissioners scheduled an October 20 hearing on the proposal.

So is Uber operating legally? According to lawyers for the state, Nevada law bars local and county governments from imposing special license requirements on ride-sharing firms — an opinion Clark County clearly disagrees with. In any case, Uber apparently isn’t waiting for further bureaucratic clarification and its drivers hit The Strip today.

Meanwhile, a vote is expected Wednesday at the Metropolitan Washington (D.C.) Airports Authority on a proposal to allow ride-sharing operators to legally access Reagan National and Dulles airports. The companies would pay a one-time fee of $5,000 to access the airports, and drivers would be assessed $4 for each passenger pick-up and drop-off.

In other developments, Uber has added an enhancement to its Uber for Business platform — which companies use to track and pay for employees’ rides — by making it possible for users to switch seamlessly on the app from their business profile to their personal profile without having to log off and log back in again.

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