INDUSTRY IN REVIEW

By Don McCurdy

How much is too much?

The DC Taxicab Commission is hard at work deciding what size raise the taxicab drivers should get. Interestingly, there are several groups opposing the fare increase, none with any real knowledge of the industry, but concerned that citizens will have to pay more. That's a wonderful thing, but how about the taxicab drivers. Who decides how much they pay for rent, groceries, taxes, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera?

DC is, of course, the capital and everybody there gets a raise every year, not just once in a while, like DC taxicab drivers. Essentially, taxicab drivers are small businesses that are being required to subsidize low income riders transportation services.

How many other businesses are required to keep their prices low because low income customers use their service? Not many I can think of right off hand. Grocery stores don't charge taxicab drivers less than everyone else, why should they get shorted on the income side? That's one of the problems with government regulating business, it's not good for the industry and it's not good for the customers.

It's a start.

In response to night time demand for taxicabs, Seattle had initiated several new taxicab stands to serve areas of the city that support an active night life. Good on 'em! Too often downtown "party" areas are heavily patrolled and ticket taxicab drivers pulling to the curb to load. Rarely are there loading zones in front of liquor serving establishments that allow a driver a place to pull over and load so it must be done from the traffic lane which causes traffic and enforcement issues.

I have been to more than one establishment that serves adult beverages as a primary source of income that not only had a large parking lot but had signs announcing that vehicles left overnight would be towed. Now, let's all think about that for a second, serve booze, big parking lot and tow away cars left overnight. That doesn't sound like you're promoting drunk driving, it sounds like you're demanding it. Seattle has made a good start to help their citizens make responsible decisions pertaining to drinking and driving.

Tell it to the judge!

New York, New York is in hot water with the federal courts over their inability to provide wheelchair accessible taxicab service. The plaintiffs contend that the city runs the taxicab industry, and I can't say I disagree with that assessment. New York City has way more rules for taxicab drivers than I've ever seen at any job, employee or independent contractor. I doubt the judge will find against the city, but it wouldn't surprise me.

Don't these people plan for this?

Recently, United Cab in New Orleans had its telephone service interrupted and it was down for a few days. How did this happen? In 1996 we had disaster routing to cellular telephones without even having to call the provider. It was completely handled by taxicab company staff.

While there are eventualities that cannot be foreseen, telephone outages is not one. For a radio dispatch company, whether voice or data, to be down is a disaster and it behooves management to make their communications as bullet proof as possible. It can be time consuming and expensive in some circumstances, but not as expensive as being out of business. Get in the game.

How hard is that?

Portland Maine has a new policy; you have to renew your airport taxi permit in person. You know, kind of like your driver's license. Doesn't sound that serious. Well not so fast there pilgrim. It seems that "Somali immigrant" taxicab drivers find the new policy too onerous. What? Yes, well, it seems that they've relied on their lawyers to file the necessary paper work in the past and the new policy requires them to appear.

There are only 40 permits authorized to operate at the airport, though 49 are grandfathered in. So, the permit has some value. They even shoot us a sob story, there's always a sob story, about a driver who returned to Somalia when it was discovered that his long lost wife was found and that he might lose his permit. So, let me see if I can cut through some of what the article didn't tell us.

The city finds out that drivers have returned to Somalia and are renting out the permits and getting a nice check from other drivers while they hang out on the home front. The city wants the drivers actually holding the permits to be driving the cabs, not absentee permit holders siphoning money from the industry just because they were lucky enough to be permit holders when the new limit went into place two years ago. If they have to actually show up every six months to renew their license then they can't retire to Somalia with their check. Simple solution, put any driver's permit on hold for six months if they can't appear in the time frame allotted just in case they're really coming back.

We're better off.

A recent story out of DC wrote about a man posing as a taxicab driver assaulting drivers from Maryland or Virginia who were in the district. The man was convicted of the 13 assaults and was
sentenced to 24 years in prison.

Less than half way through December it was reported that there had already been 11 robberies and carjackings in the district. This all leads me to wonder what it is that makes our leaders want to prevent taxicab drivers, or any other honest citizen, from being able to protect themselves with a firearm?

You can't read the national news without a story of a driver being robbed, assaulted or killed. How come we can't protect ourselves? Yes, the government can sometimes get revenge for us, but we're still dead, injured or just terrified. It's well past time to have a national right to carry statute to allow US citizens to defend themselves. After all, what does "shall not be infringed" mean?


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