Yellow Cab general manager Roy Spooner discusses the Modern Taximeter System on ABC7
The Taxi Link airs Sat. 7-8 pm on WUST 1120 AM. Listen here:
Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.
By Sept. 1, 42 days from now, all District cabs must install the Modern Taximeter System (MTS), which includes a credit card reader. But it was only Wednesday that the D.C. Taxicab Commission voted (yet again) on permanent rulemakings for MTS, leaving companies and cabbies with insufficient time to successfully make the switch, according to driver and company testimony at this week’s taxi commission meeting.
“You’ve written a regulation but you’re not looking at the facts on the street,” Yellow Cab general manager Roy Spooner told the commissioners. “I got the official go-ahead yesterday [to install MTS] and this morning I got a note that there was a bug with it.”
It’s important to “set a reasonable and realistic time frame if the commission really wants this to be fully implemented,” testified Negede Abebe, chairman of The Small Business Association of D.C. Taxicab Drivers. MTS meters must be specially made, explained Abebe, and some of “those orders come from Asia and it takes time to manufacture [and ship them]; and installation will take more than 60 to 90 days.” Abebe also expressed concern over MTS’s cost, which drivers are responsible for and which he said could be as high as $2,000.
None of the taxi commissioners responded to either Abebe’s or Spooner’s testimony, but the chairman did preemptively address some of their issues in a 20-minute speech before the vote. “We find that the concerns, which are presented with few if any facts to support them, lack merit,” said D.C. taxi chair Ron Linton. “What is presented today is essentially the same as what was first made public at least 54 days ago.”
“That’s a subjective opinion,” said The Taxi Link co-host Tony Norman. “I think that’s something that needs to be reviewed by others whether or not there were substantial changes.”
After its initial approval, MTS was modified in response to objections from Uber, the phone app and luxury sedan service. Uber didn’t like the requirement that all passengers, including its app users, have their credit cards processed through the MTS credit card readers (soon to be installed) in the back of all D.C. cabs.
City officials acted quickly to assuage Uber. In an email to Uber’s lobbyist, Barry Kreiswirth of the City Administrator’s office said, “As Ron [Linton] has previously stated, he is prepared to call a special meeting of the Commission for May 24 in order to vote on the changes on an emergency basis, so the quicker we can get these issues resolved the better… The District values the innovation Uber and companies like it have brought to District sedan and taxi service.”
As Kreiswirth’s email indicated, the commission held a brief meeting on May 24 and modified MTS to allow companies like Uber to process its customers’ credit card payments. This change impacted the District’s approved Payment Service Providers, which then had to make adaptations to their equipment, adding additional costs and delays, Spooner told The Taxi Link.
But Linton isn’t buying it. “[The commission] fails to see how legitimate concerns can be raised about giving stakeholders more options rather than fewer.”
This isn’t the commission’s first go-around with implementing smart meters. City Paper recently noted, “The District’s original plan to have VeriFone equip the entire fleet with ‘smart meters’ fell through last year after the Contract Appeals Board ruled that ‘pervasive improprieties’ were present in the bidding process.”
In other taxi news:
Roy Spooner says implementing the Modern Taximeter System will cost Yellow Cab $2.4 million. (WJLA ABC 7)
Prince George’s County cabbies and the AFL-CIO are scheduled to hold a press conference regarding the treatment of drivers at National Harbor’s Gaylord hotel Monday, July 22 at 10 a.m. at the Department of Public Works & Transportation, 9400 Peppercorn Place, Largo, MD.
Veolia, the French multinational corporation, continues its expansion into the D.C.-area transportation industry with its purchase of EnviroCab of Arlington (citybizlist)
Cabbies are sick and tired of passengers getting sick in their cars, and some cities are taking action. (KSDK NewsChannel 5, St. Louis)
Oct. 1, D.C. will begin what is expected to be a five-year process to pain all District cabs red with gray decals on both sides. (Washington Business Journal)
The Taxi Link airs Saturday 7-8 p.m. on WUST 1120 AM. The show is sponsored by The Small Business Association of DC Taxicab Drivers, volunteer-hosted by TheFightBack’s Pete Tucker and D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission 1B chairman Tony Norman, produced by Will Martin and engineered by Mark Taylor.