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I don't see why fingerprinting has to be such a hassle. It wasn't for me. I was able to schedule, online, an appointment with my sheriff's department, get digit

I don't see why fingerprinting has to be such a hassle. It wasn't for me. I was able to schedule, online, an appointment with my sheriff's department, get digitally fingerprinted, and background checked all within five days for under $50. Granted, the privacy aspect is the ever-present issue.

BinaryIdiot 10y ago
> I was able to schedule, online, an appointment with my sheriff's department, get digitally fingerprinted, and background checked all within five days for under $50. I think you just described a good part of the hassle. Not everyone driving for Uber / Lyft have $50 to use for fingerprinting services and a similar cost, even heavily discounted, represents a significant cost to the companies if they're covering it. Then you have the whole part where, currently, anyone can pick up people and provide lots of supply for the customer demand but if they all have to wait that introduces a huge amount of friction (so less drivers). Granted this is just in the city of Austin so it's possible to handle it without great difficulty. But if this were to apply across the nation? That would be devastating for the businesses.
- laurentoget 10y ago
  People who drive for Lyft/Uber need a newer car with insurance and registration. The cost and regulatory burden of getting a background check is not significant in comparison to a car payment.
  - BinaryIdiot 10y ago
    You need to have that regardless to drive. You're missing the big part of Uber and Lyft's model: anyone who wants extra cash can sign up and start driving people. If someone wants extra cash for a weekend then realized they need to go get fingerprinting done which could take a week then they're a missed opportunity.
drauh 10y ago
In Philly, the UPS Store does fingerprint checks. There are several locations in the city, and it seems to take under 10 minutes to do. The UPS Store also serves as Notary Public. I assume the same is true in lots of other cities.
maxharris 10y ago
Five days? $50? And you say that's not a hassle? In the rest of the country, things work just fine with zero days, $0.

BinaryIdiot 10y ago

> I was able to schedule, online, an appointment with my sheriff's department, get digitally fingerprinted, and background checked all within five days for under $50. I think you just described a good part of the hassle. Not everyone driving for Uber / Lyft have $50 to use for fingerprinting services and a similar cost, even heavily discounted, represents a significant cost to the companies if they're covering it. Then you have the whole part where, currently, anyone can pick up people and provide lots of supply for the customer demand but if they all have to wait that introduces a huge amount of friction (so less drivers). Granted this is just in the city of Austin so it's possible to handle it without great difficulty. But if this were to apply across the nation? That would be devastating for the businesses.

laurentoget 10y ago
People who drive for Lyft/Uber need a newer car with insurance and registration. The cost and regulatory burden of getting a background check is not significant in comparison to a car payment.
- BinaryIdiot 10y ago
  You need to have that regardless to drive. You're missing the big part of Uber and Lyft's model: anyone who wants extra cash can sign up and start driving people. If someone wants extra cash for a weekend then realized they need to go get fingerprinting done which could take a week then they're a missed opportunity.

drauh 10y ago

In Philly, the UPS Store does fingerprint checks. There are several locations in the city, and it seems to take under 10 minutes to do. The UPS Store also serves as Notary Public. I assume the same is true in lots of other cities.

maxharris 10y ago

Five days? $50? And you say that's not a hassle? In the rest of the country, things work just fine with zero days, $0.