TIJUANA – According to the city's head of Roads and Transportation Office, José Luis Hernández Silerio, any Uber cars that are reported or identified by the public, will be impounded.

Last december, the Office carried out several operations against unregistered forms of public transit, like taxis and even new ride-sharing services, which resulted in the very first Uber being impounded in the city of Tijuana, about three months ago, and the only one so far.

The Roads and Transportation Office has said that, since then, there haven't been any other official complaint against an Uber unit, so "we act under flagrancy or under someone's request… if we see a vehicle that is not authorized to provide the public service, we impound it", assured Hernández Silerio. But they don't have the manpower to sweep the city for any unregistered vehicle, so they can only act based on an official complaint.

The City Council made an amendment to Article 58 to the public transit guidelines back in November of last year to ban unregistered units that offer their services through digital platforms.

Hernandez stated that Uber hasn't gotten in touch with them to apply for a public transit permit (it officially doesn't fall on them to hand out permits, but they can refer companies to the proper authorities), and doesn't know if it's still negotiating with the City's Office of the Interior or the City Council in order to establish a clear way for Uber to apply for a transit permit, required by municipal authorities towards any company looking to offer a ride-sharing service, especially since the approval of those guidelines last year.

The director highlighted that any unit that doesn't have the necessary operation permits will be impounded: "We are going to continue to act against all units that offer a public service and that aren't authorized by Tijuana's City Council."

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Translated by: edgar.martinez@sandiegored.com