If you’ve had trouble catching a luxury ride around the New Orleans area, good news: the city will be doubling their Uber Black fleet this year. Mayor Mitch Landrieu’s administration will be expanding their fleet of on-demand limousines and luxury SUVs by approving 150 permits for for-hire vehicles. Last week NOLA received hundreds of applications, and those who are approved will then be entered into a lottery for the opportunity to obtain one of the few coveted permits. Of course, this leaves drivers open to work for the ride-sharing company of their choice, be it Uber, Lyft, taxis or other on-call services.
Uber hopes that despite the potentially long application process, the new fleet will be ready in time for Mardi Gras on February 17. But some worry that unless Uber scoops up the majority of newly-approved drivers, the sudden influx of cars available could undermine the reason the car service was legalized in New Orleans to begin with. In September of last year, after seven months of red tape, Uber was allowed to conduct business in the NOLA area—due almost entirely to the fact that there were not enough cars available to meet the demands of weekend and holiday traffic. "A lot of these [applicants] were already on our radar and expressed interest in doing this," Uber's general manager Tom Hayes assured the press in a statement.
Thankfully it seems that most of the city’s government is on their side, agreeing that the area is in desperate need of car services, even with 150 new vehicles on the road. "We still cannot, in certain parts of the city, command taxis at certain times and in certain neighborhoods, particularly if you're not in the downtown area," Council President Stacy Head said in December.
Uber is also currently lobbying for more lax city codes which would allow them to introduce their less expensive service Uber X—a direct competitor to the area’s local taxis. "Absolutely we're pushing for that, and we know from the interest that New Orleanians [are] excited," Hayes added.
