Uber, Lyft suspend service in Austin, could be usurped by smaller ride share company

Uber and Lyft threatened to leave Austin on Monday after voters this weekend soundly defeated a measure to overturn an ordinance requiring fingerprint background checks for drivers of ride-hailing companies.

But Get Me — a startup with Dallas roots — said it’s staying and recruiting drivers left behind.

“We have a platform where we could actually — and we already have this in place and ready to go — sign up conceivably 5,000 drivers in a month, if not more,” Get Me chief experience officer Jonathan Laramy told the Texas Tribune.

Get Me drivers are called “go-getters.” They offer rides and also pick up and deliver items like coffee, dry cleaning, even lumber, according to the company’s website.

Though it launched in Dallas last year with a billboard campaign that asked #whatsyoursos, Get Me moved its headquarters to Austin this year.

“The startup- and technology-friendly culture of the city, as well as the warm reception we have already received about our multipurpose app, is what convinced Get Me to move our headquarters to Austin in 2016,” Laramy said in a December news release.

The company is much smaller than its big-name rivals. Laramy told the Texas Tribune that it has six corporate employees, a few contractors and 10,000 drivers across the four cities where it operates: Dallas, Austin, Houston and Las Vegas.

eddie wrote:Uber has its roots in corruption

Miffs2 wrote:

eddie wrote:Uber has its roots in corruption

Uber has recently moved into the same building as us. See them coming and going I'm telling you the only thing missing is the violin case under the arm.