INDUSTRY IN REVIEW

By Don McCurdy

Take this brother, may it serve you well.

Well, it seems that the business model that Houston and many other cities utilize for their taxicab industry is not yielding the results the city desires. It seems that issuing a license to any warm body that applies isn't attracting the highest quality applicants. It is true that applicants have to pass a drug screen and a "geography" test. No one suspects that the companies teach test. Since the same test has been used for years instructors know the questions and answers.

Of course, as both question and answer are taught what value does the test have anyway? Let's face it, companies are going to do what's most convenient for the company. Who can blame them for that? That is what companies do. The pattern has been going on in cities across the nation for decades. The city issues medallions to the companies, the companies train the drivers the city licenses and the public gets served. Well, not so anymore.

With the advent of independent contractor drivers the company has no stake in the quality of service it provides to the public. Companies in Houston, or elsewhere, rarely have anything resembling a quality control program.

Now close your eyes and think real hard. What other industries have no quality control? Having trouble with that one? Well, you don't have to think about it because a successfully run industry must have quality control measues implemented in it's organization.Being a devout capitalist I say let the market (the operation) decide!

Well, that's not really quite how this (taxi & for/hire) industry works. You can't just start up a taxicab company. You have to have medallions. If you're going to limit entry into an industry you have to decide in advance who is responsible for quality control. The city of Houston thinks that a qualified test is going to produce better drivers which will produce better service. I don't agree.Yes, improving the training and knowledge of the driver will improve the industry.That does not necessarily equate to better service.

Who is in charge of quality control and what are the standards?

Raising the bar for the drivers is only one small part of the equation. Raise the bar for the companies and the regulators and you will be on the way to a better industry.

It's a big deal for taxicab inspectors in Houston to ticket a driver
for being the third cab on a two cab stand, but that kind of "quality control" does nothing to improve the industry. For decades the city of Houston couldn't have cared less about the drivers or the industry and now they're looking to improve the quality of drivers.

Cities across the US have been creating indentured servants who must serve the will of the taxi companies with no hope of ever getting their own medallion. How do you attract quality candidates to an occupation that has no possible career advancement? If Houston, or any other city, is looking for ways to improve the industry I suggest a quick look in the mirror for starters.

No, it didn't work last time, but this time..

A wise man once told me that the true definition of insanity was doing the same thing over and over and expecting different results. The city of San Francisco has decided that it may have to increase the number of taxicabs to improve service.You can't swing a dead cat in the central business district without taking out two cab windshields, but they say they need more cabs, nonetheless.

Pretty creative thinking. They tried that the last time one of the mayor's friends couldn't get a cab It didn't seem to help.

I guess if you flood the streets with enough taxicabs you will finally get drivers desperate enough to go to any neighborhood for a fare. Every business I've ever encountered has wait times associated with their peak demand periods. Go to a department store during the Christmas season and you have to wait in the checkout line. You might even have to wait to find a parking space.

Go to a restaurant during the lunch or dinner rush and you will probably have to wait in line. Nobody likes it, but that's just the way it is. Well, that just isn't good enough for the taxicab industry. When a citizen needs a cab it should just pop up out of the sidewalk with a smiling, well trained, college educated driver in a spotless, well maintained, late model sedan.All that should happen despite the fact that half of the driver's lease money goes to people with no stake in the industry.

Let's be frank, the San Francisco taxicab industry has some problems. Perhaps, when the mayor gets out of rehab he can get with the taxi commission and work on what the real issues in the industry are. Until then, how about working on the long lines at the deli during lunch.

So that's why they call it the Philadelphia PARKING Authority.

Well, I have always wondered why the Philadelphia taxicab industry is regulated by the Parking Authority. As a former Philadelphia resident that even seemed odd to me. A recent story in the Philadelphia Weekly pointed up some explanations.

While I expect a city that bombs it's own citizens to be a little weird,still, why the "Parking Authority"? It's finally clear to me, the duty of the "Parking Authority" was to park the city's cabs. It sounds like it's working fairly well. I've been a student of computerized dispatch for a decade or so and I've not heard of any major city in the US that has installed aTaxitronic dispatch system.

Jim Ney of the Parking Authority says "This is normal". Gee Jim, I've been involved in installing a half dozen or so systems and I don't remember any system crashing routinely. Well, perhaps it's that whole brain not wanting to remember catastrophic events thing.

The part I really like is that the system can automatically ticket drivers for infractions, real or cyber generated. That's got to be a lot of fun. One of my favorite parts of the story is the part about the plain clothes inspectors looking for drivers on their cell phones. While I disagree with drivers talking on their phones with customers in the cab, it's often future customers arranging a ride. Perhaps, future customers that have experienced the full joy of the new city mandated dispatch system.

I laughed out loud at the idea that one cab company is taking calls that end up being dispatched to another company for no consideration (money). Who but the Parking Authority would deem that fair? If I were a small company owner I'd just forward my phones to them right off.

Ney said that "Taxitronic offered the best product at the best cost" which translates to them being the cheapest. Everyone in the taxi industry knows that Digital Dispatch Systems in the premier dispatch provider in the North American market. Yes, their prices are a little steep, but they, at least, have the experience to pull off the install without the major uproar that's now occurring.

Every now and then I have a consulting job for a customer wanting to purchase a dispatch system, and the very first thing I tell them is to visit a location where the system they want is installed and functioning. I'd have to ask Jim who made the trip for the "Parking Authority" and for which city was the system designed? It would seem to me that if you're going to ram something "better" down an industry's throat it should at least work.

It seems to me that this month's column is devoted to regulators. It certainly wasn't intentional, I just comment on the news. It is plain to see, though, that an industry being regulated by people who know little or nothing about the industry is a key ingredient in the industry's problems being misunderstood or just blown out of proportion.

The taxicab business is just a business. Make the regulations too onerous and you will create problems.

—dmc

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