5 Reasons Uber is Not Available in the U.S. Virgin Islands
In 2019, the Taxi Association released a mobile app for residents to summon a taxi on demand. The announcement came on the same day the Virgin Islands Source completed a transportation series.
There are no ride-hailing services like Uber or Lyft in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Current laws regulating the territory’s transportation system would first have to be amended or expanded. There are a few barriers.
Privacy
Ride-sharing has evolved a lot since the global pandemic. Uber says it limits how much information drivers can view about riders.
Introducing ride-sharing and home-delivery services in the U.S. Virgin Islands could put residents’ privacy and private lives in focus. People who live in large, densely populated cities are least likely to receive the same Uber or Lyft driver again.
A ride-hailing service in the territory’s small population would likely need to recycle available drivers multiple times a day.
Population & Size
Uber launched its ride-hailing service in Puerto Rico in July 2016. With the U.S. Virgin Islands approximately 45 miles away, many who traverse both U.S. territories often wonder why the largest ride-hailing company in the world hasn’t expanded operations to other popular seaports in the Caribbean.
Two of Uber’s most popular Caribbean destinations are Punta Cana and Puerto Rico, with its massive population. The company makes most of its revenue from the United States and Canada.
The size and general population and size of Puerto Rico offer Uber drivers a larger pool of potential passengers and opportunities for longer rides. The main island of Puerto Rico is approximately 3,500 square miles compared to the combined 136 square miles of St. Thomas, St. Croix, and St. John.
Uber rides in Puerto Rico are generally longer and more valuable.
Data published by Uber and Indeed shows that Uber’s payouts to drivers in Puerto Rico are 72 percent higher than the national average. The estimated monthly pay range is $2,710–$3,264.
Road Conditions & Street Addressing Initiative
In 2020, Lieutenant Governor Tregenza Roach said the territory’s Street Addressing Initiative would improve the “quality of life of our residents because it touches on the very, very important delivery of services. In some instances, emergency services. How an ambulance may be able to find you if you or a family member or a loved one is in a crisis.”
Roach added that his office’s initiative would improve the way firetrucks responded to emergencies in remote communities. The Street Addressing Initiative (SAI) is a project spearheaded by the Office of the Lieutenant Governor that involves multiple agencies and departments.
Navigating to a residential address in the USVI on Google Maps is hit or miss.
In its early days, Uber was one of the first major taxi companies to partner with Google Maps, using the company’s mapping API to scale its business model. Google Maps owns the world’s largest mobile mapping system, and Uber’s expansion over the years relied heavily on mapping technology.
At the start of his first term in office, Roach said the initiative included contributions from the Tax Assessor, GIS, Public Works, the Department of Planning and Natural Resources, the Virgin Islands Water and Power Authority, Historic Preservation, VITEMA, the VIPD, the Department of Health, viNGN, and others said the Office of the Lieutenant Governor.
Private companies also assisted the government with the project, according to the Street Addressing Initiative's official website.
Roach said his office “partnered with the University of the Virgin Islands—Eastern Caribbean Center, Applied Geographics (AppGeo), and Spatial Focus Inc. to develop the addressing system and to conduct a pilot study” testing methods for assigning address numbers throughout the territory.
The government’s street addressing initiative will ultimately create a street address for every home, business, and other building throughout the territory. According to the Lieutenant Governor's office, the street-addressing initiative is an ongoing project.
Transportation Laws
Residents and visitors currently rely on three fragmented modes of transportation in the territory — personal taxi vans, local safaris, and the Virgin Islands Transportation network.
VITRAN and the Virgin Islands Taxi Association are the only entities that are legally allowed to transport passengers on land; VITRAN also operates at least two catamaran-style vessels between St. John and St. Thomas.
Gypsy taxis are illegal due to current transportation regulations.
The Virgin Islands Taxi Association & Politics
Taxi drivers are vocally opposed to Uber’s contract-based service. Historically, the Taxi Association has opposed the introduction of water taxis and other modes of transportation, which could significantly disrupt the value of land-based taxi rides to the air and seaports connecting each island.
In 2019, the Taxi Association released a mobile app that it said would allow residents and visitors to summon a taxi on demand. The app’s existence was announced on the same day the Virgin Islands Source completed a weeks-long transportation series.
The Taxi Association declined to comment on the Source’s story in 2019 when contacted.
Instead, the body ultimately engineered its own ride-sharing announcement on the same day an Uber-focused article was published, marking the end of the Source’s transportation series.
This is nonsense. Once again, the VI is getting left behind. Uber is not just a means for transportation. It’s also jobs, the ability for businesses such as restaurants to make additional money, and more flexibility for people to travel the islands.