INDUSTRY IN REVIEW

By Don McCurdy

Unintended results.

In what I would call some form of poetic justice Mayor Bloomberg's attempt to green up the NYC taxicab industry has fallen victim to the environmental laws. The Supreme Court of the US refused to hear the case which deferred it to the original judge's ruling. Federal law supersedes city law on the subject much to the dismay of David Yassky, the chairman of the TLC.

Mr. Yassky's comments regarding the intent of the authors of the Clean Air Act had me laughing out loud. The number of times the Clean Air Act has been used as a club against business is uncountable. This is the first time I can recall it curtailing the "greening" proposed by any governmental entity.

While Mr. Yassky laments the writers of the Clean Air Act intent I only have to glance around at our country's current situation to lament the intent of the writers of the Constitution. The freedoms envisioned by the framers hardly match up with the level of intrusions of government into the affairs of business. Consider that Mr. Yassky! The city has serious issues with their yellow cabs, the least of which is chasing the ghost of global warming. Look at the bright side though; at least you can get refused transport by a hybrid driver much more often now.

The mayor does have a ray of hope. With the 2011 Green Taxis Act the city could get the right to choke the taxi industry to death with "green" mandates. Somehow I just don't see that getting passed in the House of Representatives, but who knows. Perhaps, there has been enough bogus propaganda about global warming to scare the congress into demanding solar taxis by 2012. But then, maybe not.

That makes sense.

The reason I don't like too many market entry hurdles in the taxicab industry is that I find most of them arbitrary and capricious. The Public Utilities Commission (PUC) of Colorado is the poster child for my opinion in the matter in Judge Paul Gomez.

Gomez ruled against allowing Mile High Cab into the industry in Denver because the market was alleged to be saturated already. Shortly after that ruling he did allow one of the existing companies 150 more permits and a new company 150 permits. Now, I know, having lived in Denver, that the air is pretty thin there, but his "reasoning" is even thinner.

While expert testimony, provided in part by one of the subsequent grantees, was available in the first case none was presented in the second two cases. Logic, at least my logic, would assume that if the first company was refused then subsequent requests would also be refused since the court already was of the opinion that the market was overcrowded. Not so it would appear. One can only wonder what the true reason for judge Gomez's ruling was,
but I certainly hold it in contempt.

Drivers in Denver pay pretty high lease fees and with the wisdom of judge Gomez that's not going to change any time soon. Less competition, especially at the government's direction, is never a good thing for the consumer, especially the driver consumer.

Speaking of reasonable regulation.

El Paso Texas is considering changes to their taxicab ordinance. Apparently, El Paso is one of few cities on the earth where taxicabs aren't allowed to cruise for fares. Worse than that there are reportedly only two places you can wait for a fare in the city, the airport and the Paso Del Norte Bridge. Nope, no taxi stands in the downtown entertainment district nor outside of local bars. So, if you stagger out of a bar and on your way to your car you see a cab, don't flag, he's not allowed to pick you up. That would be illegal. I don't know why I have such a hard time understanding that government regulating business is a good thing.

Much ado about meters.

DC flashback moment: Burlington Vermont is considering requiring meters in all taxicabs. While the debate has all the usual whining about going out of business, and such a line has been drawn by one of the larger company's owner, Yellow Cab owner Larry Bushey is quoted as saying he'll abandon the city if they require meters. What do you suppose gets folks so excited about taximeters?

I could tell that Bushey was up on technology solutions to industry issues when he was further quoted as saying that independents were using scanners to intercept his driver's calls. Scanners? With every teenager in the country having the ability to text their friends these guys aren't able to figure out a method of transmitting their data so it can't be intercepted? Larry, do the industry a favor, make good on your threat.

Any driver worth his or her salt had a cell phone twenty years ago. Simply texting the address with verbal confirmation of receipt over the radio solved that issue years ago. I know, it's trendy and all, but I'll bet the vast majority of your drivers already have their own phones and the ones who don't should have retired a decade ago.

Fuel surcharges back in play.

Hey, anybody notice the price of gasoline skyrocketing? As I write the congress just finished their first game of chicken with a government shutdown. There promises to be at least two more coming soon to a congress near you.

They were all kind enough to drop the "policy" issues so they could come to an agreement on how much to cut and where to cut it. That's all wonderful, but who is doing something to solve the problem of rising gas prices? Beyond all of the politicking, spinning and outright lying the US government is choking the life out of domestic energy production. Is anyone paying attention?

While the Middle East is breaking down into various levels of chaos the US is quietly watching our energy sources twist in the wind with no action on the local energy production front. I don't know what kind of game the Obama administration is playing, but congress needs to get on the stick and force this "policy" issue to a head immediately.

This country is being set up for a knee buckling energy shortage that will make the last recessions seem like high times. The old "it'll take ten years to have an effect" dodge is fine, but if we don't start ramping up production right now you'd better start looking for a good place to park your car.

All this lying about jobs being the number one priority is obvious baloney when thousands of energy sector jobs are being killed off by inaction on the part of the government. Either these people are idiots or they are trying to fundamentally transform the US into a third world ghetto. Which is it? I'll let you make the call.

What's the point?

The Charlotte city council recently voted down a new proposal limiting the number of taxicab companies allowed to service the airport. Drivers complained, rightfully so in my opinion, that limiting the number of companies would be detrimental to their jobs. While they could simply change companies, the question I have is what's the point? Why limit the number of taxicab companies servicing the airport at all?

If a company is licensed to do business in the city it should be licensed to do business at the airport. Do customers arriving at the airport deserve better service or nicer cars than the citizens of Charlotte? I wouldn't want to be the politician who explains to voters how it is that their needs are not as important as visitors to the city.

Is there something wrong with the current airport taxi service that requires such dramatic changes or is regulatory change, without regard to consequences, simply the way things are done these days?

DC does it again.

DC is primed to switch to a medallion system, a move which will end up costing both rider and driver if history is any indicator. Any artificial limit on the number of taxicab permits or medallions will suddenly give value to something that has been virtually free forever. Why? What is the gain for the industry? Is this simply a foolish way for the city to get a few extra dollars now that taxi riders will have to pay for in perpetuity? There's no legitimate reason to switch to medallions. The DC system isn't broken. Why are they trying to fix it?

If you have any comments regarding this or any of my articles please feel free to contact me at dmc@mcacres.com. —dmc