Report: TNC Fee Revenues Would Surge Under Bill Before Baker

The bill would also add an additional 20-cent fee on each ride that starts and ends within the 14 cities and towns in the MBTA's core service area.

Using data covering all rides on the app-based platforms in 2019 as a baseline, MAPC projected that the new system could generate significantly more revenue that would be shared by municipalities, the MBTA, regional transit authorities and the state.

If Massachusetts commuters take only half as many TNC rides in a year as they did in 2019 -- a pandemic-influenced estimate MAPC said is based on Lyft's third quarter earnings report -- the new fees would generate a total of $56.2 million annually, more than three times as much as the 20-cent flat fee produced in 2019.

The jump in revenue could be even larger if travel patterns loosen up again once vaccine rollout continues: if ridership rebounds to mirror 2019 levels, the new fees would generate $112.4 million, MAPC projected.

That money would be divided between several destinations. Municipalities where the trip started are in line for about 23 percent of the revenue, while the state's Commonwealth Transportation Fund would get the most at about 45 percent.

The MBTA could receive $5.9 million from the low-ridership 2019 projection and $11.8 million from the full-ridership projection, while the state's 15 regional transit authorities would share an identical pool of revenue, MAPC said.

Some lawmakers have been pushing for several years to hike the charges on TNC platforms, arguing both that the state needs the additional revenue to invest in other transportation infrastructure and that greater costs would encourage riders to seek other forms of travel that contribute less to traffic congestion.

Uber and Lyft have pushed back against proposed fee increases in that span. In 2018, Uber's head of transportation policy called instead in a Boston Globe op-ed for reforming roadway tolling to a so-called "congestion pricing" model that would use different prices at varying times of day to incentivize off-peak travel.

Asked for comment on the latest potential fee changes, Uber spokesperson Alix Anfang replied, "Massachusetts won't solve congestion or fully fund mass transit without ensuring that all users of the road pay their fair share."

Anfang had previously flagged concerns that the bill keeps in place a ban on surge pricing during states of emergency, saying its "last minute drafting resulted in unintended consequences for drivers."

"While we appreciate the months of productive conversations with the Legislature, we believe that last minute drafting resulted in unintended consequences for drivers," Anfang said after the new bill emerged. "Frontline rideshare drivers will continue to be barred from earning more money during busy times and hundreds of livery drivers will be at risk of losing work."

A Lyft spokesperson could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The fee increases on Uber, Lyft and others emerged suddenly in the closing hours of the 2019-2020 lawmaking session, months after the Senate appeared to kill a House-approved package of tax and fee increases aimed at generating more money to invest in transportation.

Baker has until Sunday to act on the $16.5 billion transportation bond bill (H 5248), which would fund a wide range of investments in roads and bridge maintenance, rail expansions, and train maintenance.

He proposed his own $18 billion transportation bond bill in July 2019, before the COVID-19 pandemic upended the transportation landscape, cratered transit ridership and pushed a large chunk of the workforce into remote work.

The governor has already expressed support for increasing TNC fees, but at a lower level -- a bill he filed in filed in January 2020 would have increased them from 20 cents per ride to $1 per ride.

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01/14/2021