Ready to Help Uber and the Free-Market?

What’s wrong with requesting a ride from Uber or Lyft? That’s a question the Virginia Department of Motor Vehicles needs to answer. On June 5, the VA DMV sent a cease and desist letter to both companies. These ride-sharing services provide a great and convenient alternative to taxi cabs. Whatever your reason for requesting an Uber or Lyft, it’s your right to engage in a voluntary service, isn’t it?

We all know that government regulation is often times more overbearing than useful. But occasionally, it takes a good dose of government hubris to get us fired up about the free-market. After all, plenty of Uber and Lyft users in Virginia are outraged by this erroneous decision by faceless government bureaucrats.

But there’s good news! We can actually do something about this! All of us can tweet, call, and message the "powers that be" in the Virginian government and tell them to butt out of our lives. In an email to customers on June 6, Uber said the following:

You may have heard that Uber received a cease and desist letter from the Virginia DMV yesterday. We wanted to write to let you know that Uber will operate as usual, and we plan to continue full-speed ahead with our commitment to providing Virginians access to safe, affordable and reliable rides.

If you want continued access to the safest and most affordable rides on the road, we need you to email, call and tweet your policymakers and tell them #VAneedsUber. Let Virginia policymakers know that banning ridesharing not only harms the countless riders who use the platform to connect with safe, affordable and reliable rides, but it also hurts thousands of small business entrepreneurs who rely on the platform to make a living, create new jobs and contribute to the economy.

So do your part and tell YOUR government to back-off: