By Sue Anne Pressley Montes
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, October 19, 2007

D.C. taxicab drivers reacted with anger and resignation yesterday to Mayor Adrian M. Fenty's decision to switch from zones to meters. Some called for a 24-hour Halloween strike, but others urged drivers to work with the city as fare rates and other details of the new system are negotiated.

William Wright, who heads the Taxicab Industry Group, one of several associations representing drivers, said a strike will begin at 6 a.m. Oct. 31 and end 24 hours later. He said he is asking the city's estimated 7,500 drivers "just not to work" that day.

"This strike is a desire for one thing only: to say to the mayor, 'We're going to fight you on this issue,' " said Wright, a cabdriver since 1943.

But others said a strike is not the right approach. Abdulkarim Ahmed, chairman of the United D.C. Taxicab Drivers Association, called the changeover "a done deal" and said drivers should concentrate on helping city officials devise a plan for implementing meters.

"I wanted to keep zones, but if you demand something and you don't get it, you have to compromise," said Ahmed, a driver for 17 years.

After months of study, Fenty (D) announced Wednesday that he would replace the District's decades-old zone system with time-and-distance meters like those used in other major U.S. cities. Although many cabdrivers said they wanted to preserve the zones, Fenty said he was heavily influenced by riders who in a recent survey expressed widespread dissatisfaction with the current system. Fenty was under pressure from Congress to make the change because of a provision added to legislation a year ago by a longtime critic of zones, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.)

D.C. Taxicab Chairman Leon J. Swain Jr., who will work with the mayor's office on the switch, said yesterday that the most basic details of the new system are unsettled. "We're looking at everything across the board," he said, adding that meters could be running in D.C. cabs within months. "We're shooting for spring."

Swain acknowledged that the coming of meters will mean more regulation for the industry. Most drivers in D.C. are independent contractors who pay companies a fee to use their names and colors, and accounting is minimal. The only passenger records are the drivers' handwritten manifests.

"Anytime you do what we're doing, and this is a large change, you figure there have to be new regulations," Swain said. "We have to build the infrastructure to service this industry."

Swain said he understands drivers' anxiety. "Change is always fearful to everybody, but guess what, every day, something changes," he said. "My position is simply this: The taxi industry provides service to the community, and the community dictates the type of service they want. The community is only asking for a transparent fare system, and what's wrong with that?"

Swain said critics are floating "false information" about possible rates but that "it's far too early for criticism. Specs for the new equipment haven't even been established."

Ahmed said drivers are concerned about the flat rate, the amount that will register on the meter as soon as a rider enters a cab and before charges are added for distance and time. Under the current system, drivers can count on a minimum fare of $6.50 within one zone.

"A flat rate of $2 would not work, but $3.50 would be a good flat rate," Ahmed said. "We need to sit with them and tell them what we want."

But Wright insisted that the controversy is far from over.

"D.C. is the second-most congested city in the United States," he said. "Do you think poor people who now pay $12 or $15 can afford to sit in the cab and let the fare go to $20 or $25? It's not too late to stop this. We've got plenty of time to stop it."