INDUSTRY IN REVIEW

By Don McCurdy

Who pays?

Various articles out of Ottawa report that drivers are unhappy with the idea of paying for the installation of security cameras in their taxicabs. The driver's union voted to refuse to install the cameras despite the small increase in fares they received to do so in the spring of 2006.

Over the years I've heard many drivers complain the companies were more interested in money than driver safety so I was a little surprised when the driver's union rep. Al Mezel was quoted as saying "economically it's bad". I guess that brings us to the question of who is supposed to pay for taxicab driver safety?

Apparently drivers don't want to, the city doesn't want to and the companies don't want to. It seems to me that we have another everybody wants to go to heaven but nobody wants to die scenario. It will be interesting to see if the Ottawa drivers go the way of the NYC Taxi Workers Alliance or if some compromise is worked out.

An age old discussion.

If you are a reader of this column you already know that I believe that some reasonable method of entry into the taxicab market is preferable to none. Halifax, Nova Scotia is currently wrestling with this idea. There are the usual "end of the world" and "it will be taxicab nirvana" sides of the discussion, but there also seems to be a moderate viewpoint that something is wrong with the industry there and that something must be done.

If the system they have is working there would be no discussion. Like anything else, keep doing what you're doing and you'll keep getting what you've got. There are problems in the taxicab industry in many cities and often they originate from excessive regulation and poor enforcement. Good luck to the city in striking a balance.

Court rules on union.

It has been reported that the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has ruled that Oakland's Friendly Cab Company drivers have the right to organize since they are employees based on the amount of control the company exercised over the drivers behavior and business development. Now that the court has ruled one has to wonder what will become of Friendly Cab when the IRS asks where their part of the SSI is.

There is certainly a lesson in this ruling for other companies to learn. If you want your drivers to be ruled independent contractors then you have to treat them as independent contractors. If you exercise too much control over driver behavior you can expect them to be ruled employees. You can't have it both ways. You can't exercise control and simply call them independent contractors. You have to give them the independence the name implies.

Many drivers cherish their status as independent contractors because it gives them the ability to develop their own business. Control that and you take away the incentive for good drivers to remain in the industry.

Well that's just sad.

Myrtle Beach is reported to have required their taxicab drivers to attend "charm school" in advance of political debates to prepare them to handle VIP's. I guess the good citizens of Myrtle Beach aren't important enough to require a training class to carry them as well.

It seems to me that if your taxicab industry is in order you don't need training classes for special occasions. If it's not in order then, perhaps, you should get it in order for those ordinary citizens sometimes referred to as voters.

Personally, if I were a citizen of Myrtle Beach, I would be asking my elected officials why it was that drivers had to be trained to handle a one time visit by some politicians but didn't have to be trained to handle me. It's just sad, that's all.

City whacks three cab companies.

It has been reported that the city of Alexandria Virginia has revoked the certificates for three of the city's local cab companies for not being in compliance with the two dispatched trips per cab per day rule. The best part of the story for me was the comment that the rule was unconstitutional.

Huh? I guess I'll have to reread my copy of the constitution since I don't recall taxicabs being mentioned. Alexandria, like many cities is struggling with the service being provided to the local citizens as opposed to the service being provided to the airports and central business districts. One has to wonder why some of the city's companies can meet the requirement and some can't.

I could speculate that the good citizens of Alexandria know who will provide them reliable service and who will not, but I've only been there once. I've encountered numerous companies that provide little or no service to their communities and drivers, so I just can't be sympathetic. Of course the drivers are concerned about their jobs, but my experience has been the other companies will absorb them and all will be as it was. Well, expect for the companies that refuse to comply. If it were me I'd be moving to another company sooner rather than later.

Just a quick question.

I recently read an article from Savannah Georgia reporting a taxicab driver being shot on his first day on the job. Now, taxicab drivers getting attacked is common news in general, but this case begs the question, who trained this driver?

I attended and taught taxicab driver training classes and I can report from my own experience that safety is often glossed over or minimized to avoid freaking out the new recruit. City requirements vary from nothing to the vaunted "knowledge". City regulations are rife with punishments for refusal to convey but are often totally devoid of training requirements or safety exceptions to refusal to convey rules.

This certainly could have been an unavoidable situation for the new cabby, but my experience has been otherwise. To cities not requiring any safety practices I suggest that you issue a bull's eye t-shirt to new drivers with their license. Maybe that way they'll know how important they are to you.

Hey, I said "a recent article reported".

Two months ago I wrote a paragraph regarding the request for a fare increase in Chicago. In the paragraph I qualified my comments with one of my usual lines confirming that I had gleaned my information from reading articles on taxi related subjects, a pastime my wife would be happy if I dropped, I can report, without fear of contradiction.

Since my editor refused my request for an open ended expense account I will have to continue to glean my information from the press. Sorry if your local paper doesn't get the facts straight, but they won't finance my investigative junkets either. I received quite a few nastygrams from disgruntled Chicago drivers and I can only say that if you supported the reported 24% increase you are as foolish as whoever the culprit was who thought up the idea.

—dmc

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