Decatur, AL Mobility & Curb Rules: TNC Pickup Zones (2026)

Division 3 of Chapter 24 governs transportation network companies (TNCs) in the City of Decatur, Alabama, and Sec. 24-146 is the section that limits where and how a driver picks people up. Subsection (a) bars a driver from accepting or responding to a request for service through traditional street hail, expressly including hand gestures and verbal statements. Subsection (b) bars picking up or discharging any passenger in a designated taxicab stand. Subsection (c) defines soliciting as an appeal by a driver on a public street, using words or gestures, to draw immediate patronage by directing people to a TNV that is parked, stopped, standing or moving, and then prohibits it outright.

The section does not draw a numbered TNC loading zone of its own. It pushes every trip into the app instead. Sec. 24-121 defines a transportation network vehicle as an unmetered vehicle with an original seating capacity of eight or fewer that carries passengers on a pre-arranged basis, meaning a written or electronic reservation made in advance of boarding. Sec. 24-147 makes it unlawful for a TNC or driver to fail to show proof of pre-arrangement, such as a copy of the reservation or an electronic record made before pickup, when the director of parking and public transit or the chief of police asks for it.

Out-of-town companies get no shortcut. Under Sec. 24-157 a TNC certified by another jurisdiction can bring passengers into Decatur from its home jurisdiction but cannot pick up any passenger or accept any business inside the city unless it also holds a Decatur certificate. Every TNC must keep individual trip records with pick-up and drop-off information, the driver's name and the time of pickup and delivery for at least two years (Sec. 24-151).