By PETER GUINTA
peter.guinta@staugustine.com
Publication Date: 02/10/09
Checker Cab of St. Augustine on Monday asked the City Commission to examine the fairness of how taxicab fares inside the city are calculated, which could mean that eventually all taxis may be required to install meters.
Right now, four cab companies charge a flat rate by using a zone system, such as charging $4 to go from Point A to Point B, with a 50 cent surcharge for fuel.
Checker, perhaps the largest company in town, uses meters.
City Comptroller Mark Litzinger said a total of 36 cabs from five companies operate in the city.
"(The fare system) is a balancing act," Litzinger said, explaining that a driver must charge enough to cover costs and make a living wage, but not charge so much that customers are gouged.
Vice Mayor Errol Jones said customers won't know what they are being charged until they are sitting inside the cab and suggested marking the outside of the car somehow.
"I'm opposed to the way rates are now. I think we need to have one system," Jones said.
Michael Pomar, operations manager for Checker, said it would be a hardship on his drivers to "maintain a standard of living with flat rates. Customers want a clean, comfortable ride at a fair, decent price."
A customer can go anywhere inside the city for $4, he said. "With meters, it stops a lot of confusion."
But meters, the commission learned, aren't always cheapest.
Litzinger said that at the furthest distance in the city, eight miles, a flat rate customer would pay $6.50 plus the surcharge of 50 cents. A metered cab would cost $13.50, approximately double.
However, at about four miles, both cabs would charge about the same.
"Some people it will affect more than others," he said.
Pomar said that the higher expense of the longer trip means that the meter is running while the cab is stuck in traffic, at lights and during the entire duration of the ride, extras that a flat rate driver isn't paid for.
Brian Jeffo of the Jacksonville Transportation Group, an umbrella organization of cab companies, including Checker, said zone rates are "per person," meaning that another person in the cab doubles the fare, while meter cabs carry more than one person for the same rate as one.
In Jacksonville, they pay $1.85 per mile; in Tampa it's $2.35 per mile, he said.
"St. Augustine is lower than almost anyplace in the country," Jeffo said.
He explained that drivers lease the vehicles for $74 per day for six days -- the seventh one is free, he said -- and whatever money they make over the rental cost is theirs.
"The zone system promotes people making up their own prices," he said.
Robert Harry Hunter of St. Augustine, a cab driver, also supported meters.
"It's in everybody's self interest (to have them), the customer and the driver," he said.
Litzinger said the commission is authorized to regulate taxicab rates and the last time it did so was in 2005.
The commission took no action on Pomar's request. Jones then asked that the commission meet representatives of the other cab companies to discuss the issue.
Mayor Joe Boles said, "We could at least invite them."
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/021009/news_021009_048.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
COMMENTARY BY ED SLAVIN -- So what did Vice Mayor ERROL JONES a/k/a ERRONEOUS JONES and Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. receive in the way of campaign contributions (or otherwise) that would explain the pathology of their wanting to raise the fares on taxicabs (potentially tripling them)?
Mainly poor people in St. Augustine ride taxicabs, as in most of the South.
Those cabs are too often stinky. They are not well regulated by the City, as the St. Augustine Record's investigation showed (below).
Meanwhile, Flagler College graduate MARK LITZINGER and plutocrat/apologists like Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. and Vice Mayor ERRONEOUS JONES kick cab riders in the teeth, in the midst of the worst economy since 1933. How gauche.
Anything any regulated corporation ever asks the City of St. Augustine, it allows.
Remember when the Sebastian Inner Harbor project's lawyer (GEORGE McCCLURE) claimed a Radisson would be built on the site?
MAYOR JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR. and his captive colleagues wouldn't even ask for a copy of the so-called "Letter of Intent," let alone put GEORGE McCLURE and his clients under oath.
How supine and superficial these City burghers are -- they can't think, can't write, can't understand the needs of the people, can't regulate, and can't speak for two minutes without uttering trite tropes and "Cliches by DeCarload."
The City of St. Augustine's right-wing staff has no more idea of regulation than a hog -- no more clue about regulatory economics than a Republican Congressman (like JOHN LUIGI MICA, who voted against the President's economic stimulus package.
Raising cab fares by as much as 300% would fatten corpulent capitalists, but hurt the poor. Rather than ask for accounting records, these lugubrious goobers (eating high on the hog) know not that they know not that they know not.
What unmitigated arrogance.
Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR.
Photo credit: Greg Travous (and Hans Holbein the Younger)
People who live in glass houses shouldn't try to help corporations rip off the poor, Vice Mayor ERRONEOUS JONES and Mayor JOSEPH LEROY BOLES, JR.
See the St. Augustine Record article by Diane Rodgers, below:
Still no new law requiring checks on cab drivers
By DIANE RODGERS
Special Projects Editor
Publication Date: 07/20/03
On Jan. 19 Jovonna Jefferson, 17, grabbed a cab in Jacksonville to go to the grocery store. But she never returned.
Within a month, Surita Cohen, 19, was reported missing. Police believe she was targeted as a cab fare. They found both bodies in a vacant lot in northwest Jacksonville Feb. 5.
Four months later, a grand jury indicted Paul Durousseau, 32, in the slayings of the teens as well as three other Jacksonville women. He has also been charged with the slaying of a Columbus, Ga., woman.
"What is it about us that we have to wait for a horrible emergency?" asked Cathy Brown, executive director of the Council on Aging, noting many cab customers are elderly or poor. "What will it take to get our attention?"
In July 2002, The St. Augustine Record conducted a study of taxicab drivers with St. Augustine hack licenses. It found that of the 63 drivers, 39, or more than half, had histories of criminal and/or traffic offenses.
It also found the city had a law requiring criminal background checks on drivers, but that the law was not being enforced. At the time City Attorney Jim Wilson said the law was outdated.
And in July 2002, the city and county said they were working on new laws.
However, a year later, neither the city nor the county have enacted these laws.
Meanwhile, more drivers with criminal records have acquired hack licenses. In July 2003, of the 124 drivers, 79 or 64 percent had histories of criminal and/or traffic offenses.
Jacksonville has a law requiring criminal background checks. It prohibits drivers with certain histories -- murder, assault, kidnapping, rape, theft, DUI, etc. -- from driving taxicabs. In the Durousseau case, his history involved kidnapping and rape charges in Georgia. Jacksonville issued him a temporary permit based on a local background check.
Collectively, the 124 St. Augustine drivers have been charged with 216 misdemeanors, 135 felonies and 91 traffic violations. The records of 23 drivers would fall under the prohibited Jacksonville criminal histories.
The delay of enacting a law here was no surprise to Brown or City Commissioner Errol Jones, an activist in West Augustine, where cab companies say many of their customers live.
It sat on the back burner for a year because no one has pushed it, he said.
"The tragic side of that is you hate to have an oops," Jones said. "We do need to look at it and find out what is the delay."
Assistant County Attorney Michael Hunt was out of the office last week and City Attorney Jim Wilson did not return calls to determine the status of the proposed taxicab laws.
City commissioners face so many issues -- such as restoring the Bridge of Lions and re-evaluating street performer laws -- that other issues get pushed aside.
"The squeaky wheel gets the grease," Jones said. "Those who are most affected are the ones who speak up less."
Brown agreed.
"Perhaps they don't complain," Brown said.
Maybe they don't believe they have choices or deserve quality service.
"They tend to accept things," Jones said.
At West Augustine town hall meetings, attendance was fair.
"But it was by no means packed," he said.
That doesn't mean there aren't a lot of issues affecting those residents. And those issues don't include the Bridge of Lions and street performers.
The most common issues at the town hall meetings have been daily grind issues such as trash pickup.
"They are issues that affect their daily lives," Jones said.
Although the Council on Aging operates the Sunshine Bus company, Brown said she doesn't see cabs as competition. Cabs are a continuation of the transportation service of the county, she said.
"I think there's room for all methods of transportation in this county," she said. "It needs to be good quality, and it needs to be safe."
Minor infractions shouldn't prohibit cab drivers from driving, but there should be some guidelines, Jones said.
"I certainly know the background check is needed," he said.
Insurance companies check drivers' records before employment. But Jones said there should be interim checks.
Of the 18 drivers who renewed hack licenses from a year ago, eight have been charged with criminal or traffic offenses within the year.
Also, two drivers with hack licenses a year ago have since been arrested for DUI, one while driving a cab.
Jones, a School Board employee, has seen parents send cabs to pick up their children at school.
"They're putting others in danger, in particular, their passengers," Jones said. "We certainly have to have some checks and balances ... We need to control this as much as possible."
Brown said she understood that driving a cab is going to appeal to certain people. People need to work, and people can change, she said.
But the city needs to establish minimum standards.
Most businesses would see quality employees as improving their bottom lines.
But with the cab drivers being independent contractors, there may be a lack of motivation.
"Their bottom line will not be improved, so what's in it for them?" Brown said.
And the city should be concerned about its economic tourism base.
Cab drivers are ambassadors of the city. Unattractive cars or unsafe service relays a message to visitors.
"I think the city is the only one with any authority," Brown said.
Jones said he plans to contact his county counterpart representing West Augustine, Karen Stern, and bring up the issue at the city/county meeting on Aug. 6.
"I will make a point in following up," Jones said.
And it may be up to the city. Jones said the destination of most cab rides takes riders through the city.
"I'll probably have to enact an ordinance," he said. "I'm going to work to make this thing happen."
"Most of the people who travel in cabs are the less fortunate," Jones said. "They need a voice."
July 2002
63 St. Augustine hack licenses issued
39 or more than half of drivers have a history of criminal and/or traffic offenses
30 drivers have a felony or misdemeanor criminal record
30 drivers have a record of traffic tickets
6 drivers are on probation
4 drivers have suspended licenses
3 driver's licenses are listed as soon to be suspended by the state
January 2003
112 St. Augustine hack licenses issued
73 or 65 percent of drivers have a history of criminal and/or traffic offenses
61 drivers have a felony or misdemeanor criminal record
46 drivers have a record of traffic tickets
6 drivers are on probation
4 drivers have suspended licenses
8 driver's licenses are listed as soon-to-be-suspended by the state
July 2003
124 St. Augustine hack licenses issued
79 or 64 percent of drivers have a history of criminal and/or traffic offenses
72 drivers have a felony or misdemeanor criminal record
44 drivers have a record of traffic tickets
8 drivers are on probation
15 drivers have suspended licenses or are listed as soon to be suspended by the state
1 driver is listed as a fugitive by the Florida Department of Law Enforcement
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more Cab Driver Controversy online
Click here to return to story:
http://staugustine.com/stories/072003/new_1668342.shtml
© The St. Augustine Record
No comments:
Post a Comment