INDUSTRY IN REVIEW

By Don McCurdy

Time orders upheld

In what may or may not be a far reaching decision the state Supreme Court of Wisconsin voted 5-2 to uphold the right of non-permitted cabs to pick up prearranged trips at the Milwaukee airport. The justices distinguished between on demand and prearranged service, upholding a state law which requires the public to have equal access to the airport.

It will be interesting to see if there are other suburban companies that would be interested in retrieving their customers from big city airports and what statutes they might find in their own state, or possibly even federal law to assist in the endeavor.

Is that father clause or grandfather clause?

Elizabeth City, NC City Manager Rich Olson explained recently in an article in the Daily Advance that the reason that two drivers with felony convictions were allowed to drive taxicabs was because they were "grandfathered".

One of the drivers was convicted before the 1993 date of the original ordinance and the other three weeks before the 2005 update of the ordinance.

The question, according to City Manager Rich Olsen, appears to be why a driver with a 2004 conviction for "drug conspiracy" should not be allowed to drive. The question is, Mr. Mayor, why should he? In fact, the driver with the 2005 conviction for probation violation was convicted twice for breaking and entering (multiple counts on each), and once for attempted breaking and entering all since 1999. Now that's the guy I want taking me to the airport.

I don't know how this guy is not in prison, let alone allowed to drive a taxicab. Perhaps, it's because his daddy is on the city council. We'll forgo the discussion on how breaking and entering was charged on his cases instead of burglary since I don't know the particulars of the case, but it appears that one set of laws apply to us and one set apply to politicians and their kin.

Driver criminal records are a serious issue facing regulators around the world and I understand the comfort passengers may take in knowing that there are guidelines. What passengers can take no comfort in is spineless city officials that won't enforce those guidelines.

People do reform, so I can see a time limit being an acceptable feature of laws that balance the rights of the passenger and the rights of the would be driver. The ordinance in Austin, which I was involved in creating, has time limits on some things, no limit on others and a requirement that you complete half probation or parole before being eligible. Interestingly enough it applies to all drivers, not only the ones who aren't related to politicians.

Yo, Eleven!

The Frederick, Maryland Cab Commission recently released eleven more taxicab permits via a recent lottery. One of the contestants put in twenty two applications for the eleven permits. Huh? How do you allow someone to put in twenty two applications for eleven permits?

A former alderman turned radio talk show won two of the permits. He's talking about "joining forces" with an existing company, which sounds like a lease scheme to me.

What's the lesson here? Well in my opinion the lesson is that it doesn't matter how long you've been serving the public. In this business we're not smart enough to figure out a way to reward those who service tthe community.

Don't feel bad there in Frederick, they do it all over the country. Cities routinely issue permits, licenses to print money to existing franchises instead of to people who actually utilize the permit. Often this scenario gives the driver no choice for which company to drive, what type of dispatch system they're stuck with or how much they have to pay to stay in business.

If you assign those permits to the drivers who have demonstrated a commitment to the industry you allow them to decide which company will grow or if a new company is needed to be established to create needed competition or even if a cooperative is possible or desirable.

If our radio talk show host decides to "lease" his permits to the existing company you end up with someone who put nothing into the industry getting to take something out of it. You should at least make him buy a hybrid or something.

Of course they care!

A recent article in the Denver Post regarding the city increasing regulation of taxicabs if the state relaxes regulation brought the comment of the month from State Representative Buffie McFadyen:

"I would hope that you do not mean that to infer that we do not care".

It's not the caring that scares me. I think I have a pretty good idea what politicians care about. It's the not having a clue what you're doing that turns my hair gray. Despite how many times deregulation has completely trashed the industry in various cities, it still gets proposed by clue free politicians based on some philosophical desire to "help the little guy" or "foster free enterprise".

The fact of the matter is that open entry creates a situation that requires substantially increased monitoring by regulatory authorities. I actually believe that open entry is a workable concept, with tight controls.

The problem I've observed in various regulatory jurisdictions is that the regulators rarely know what controls are appropriate and necessary. When the shouting and whining starts cooler heads rarely prevail. But what to do?

Take your time. Recognize agendas and weigh their input accordingly. Evaluate what the unintended consequences of various regulations were in other jurisdictions. Get outside help. Perhaps you can avoid stepping on some of the regulatory land mines that have blown up the industry in other areas. Good luck.

Progress, not perfection!

Washington DC has a new zone map and it's actually laid out like every other map, north south oriented. The mayor is trying to decide if DC will opt out of the federal law that requires meters in DC taxicabs or to compel DC cabs to install them like most of the civilized world.

Every major city in the United States requires their taxicabs to have meters except DC. In a way it sort of points up how really different things are inside the beltway. No small wonder the drivers aren't required to wear powdered wigs.

Missing the real story, as usual.

Generally, the news media never seems to get the story straight, or misses the story all together. A recent article by Dena Levitz in the Washington version of the Examiner.com blared the headline:

"Criminal pasts not stopping Montgomery taxi drivers".

The article points out that 5 times in the last eight months temporary licenses have been issued to drivers that had criminal records. The licenses were "snatched" back when the county learned of the criminal infractions.

One of the drivers had committed assault in another state! Assault? Not aggravated assault? Not sexual assault? You mean he got convicted of punching someone in the nose which is what assault is, and for that he is banned from driving a cab forever?

Was it felony assault? Assault with bodily injury? Was it last month or twenty five years ago? The real story, Dana, is that Montgomery County's licensing regulations are so oppressive that they have all but put out of business the largest company in the county. The other missed story is that a cop from Jerkwater USA can get a NCIC on a suspect in around 120 seconds but it takes the county 30 to 60 days?

I notice the omission of the total number of temporary licenses granted during the eight month period you speak about and other details that would point up what a phony story it really is, Dana. Pretty poor reporting there, Dana, but isn't that the real story?

This just in!

ABC 7 in San Francisco just broke the story that there might be fraud in the San Francisco taxicab industry. Really? It's pretty much been common knowledge that a large percentage of the medallion holders in San Francisco don't meet the driving requirement.

Heidi Machen, the recently fired and rehired Executive Director of the Taxi Commission put the number at around 50 percent. Gee, Heidi, isn't it your job to bring these situations to the attention of the commission? What's the hold up? Especially disgusting is the Police Commander Steve Tacchini's wife holding a permit that she acquired when he was the head of the police taxi detail.

Hello, internal affairs? If a commander in the San Francisco police has been knowingly benefiting from the lease of a permit that was not being used in compliance with the law it pretty much defines the department. What makes it worse is that everyone's been looking the other way on that one since 1987.

The fact of the matter is that absentee permit holders have been a blight on the San Francisco industry for decades. They siphon off millions of dollars each year that they do nothing to earn.

The citizens of San Francisco voted to fix the matter with proposition K but no one in authority in San Francisco is willing to enforce the law. Other shenanigans involving taxicab permits have made the news over the years, enough to know without asking that something is rotten in San Francisco.

—dmc

© 2015 TLC Magazine Online, Inc.