ASHLAND, Ore-- You can officially get picked up or dropped off in Ashland by Uber starting on March 21st.

Joshua Thompson was at a bar downtown Ashland. I asked him how he got to the bar. He said, "we had to drive ourselves because there's no Uber or Lyft available in Ashland."

The other major ride share company, Lyft has not applied to work in Ashland yet. I did send them an e-mail and ask when and if they would be applying. They sent me back a statement saying in part "we look forward to beginning operations in Ashland soon."

As part of the ordinance both Uber, Lyft and if any other ride share company have to pay Ashland $5,000 a year.

Kelly Madding the Ashland City Administrator says, "we think the fee is appropriate."

She says the $5,000 fee is a street user fee and says everyone pays to drive on the roads and transportation network companies don't have to. Medford also has a fee in their ordinance, but its fee is $1,000 a year.

Madding says, "I heard that there are some cities that had fees that are less and have looked at our fee and thought well in terms of use of the road our goal isn't to subsidize Uber and Lyft it's actually for them to pay what it would cost for those added trips on our roads."

Ride share drivers will also have to be registered with the designated company, be at least 21 years old, have a valid drivers license, proof of insurance and have registration.

For people like Joshua Thompson, "we have a designated driver her name is Kristain." They don't need to have their friend Kristain be the designated driver anymore.