D.C. Cabbies Feel The Pinch as They Prepare for Meters

"I don't like to come here," Mulugeta said. "We got to."

Fed up with hearing gripes about the flat-rate zone system from riders who find it confusing and fear they are being overcharged by unscrupulous drivers, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) added a provision to D.C. legislation last year that led Fenty to order the switch to meters. The city said it will issue warnings to drivers without meters starting Thursday and will impose $1,000 fines beginning June 1.

Most of the District's roughly 7,000 cabbies put off getting meters while a coalition of drivers sought to overturn Fenty's order with a lawsuit, an effort that failed in D.C. Superior Court last week. Now meter installers are bracing for a last-minute rush, even as the coalition takes its case to the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Yitbarek Syume, who owns Jet Cab, had four installers working Friday while others were being trained. The four put in 135 meters last week, said Syume, who plans to have 15 installers at the shop this week. "If people are coming, we will continue to be here until after midnight," he said.

Killing time at the garage, drivers spoke anxiously about the transition, describing how fragile their finances are, how narrowly they get by week to week.

"I wish the District, since they're forcing this on us, would give us some kind of help paying for these things," Person said. He meant the Pulsar 2030R meters that Syume installs, one of three models approved by the city. "Anything we make, we have to take care of our operations, our expenses and whatnot. How are you supposed to save up $400 for a meter?"

Person, 68, who lives with his wife in Mitchellville, said his Mercury Grand Marquis burns about $45 in gas during a six-hour workday. There's also insurance, about $130 a month. He said he considers it a good week if he finishes with a $500 profit, before taxes.

"To be honest, I've always been in favor of meters," said Person, who went on to describe yet another delicate variable in his hyper-competitive livelihood.

"Say a guy's coming down Connecticut Avenue, and I'm trailing him, and I'm empty, and he's got a fare," Person said. "Then someone's hand goes in the air who's going the same way that his first fare's going. He'll pick up that fare, too. And I'm without a job. Now with the meter, he has to pass up that job. It's my job."

Cabbie economics: The reason hailing a taxi in the District is so easy is the huge supply -- 13 cabs for every 1,000 residents, dwarfing the ratios in other big cities. Only New York has more cabs (13,000, or 1.6 per thousand people). And except for New York, Chicago (6,700) and Houston (2,200), no city has even a third as many taxis as Washington.

It's cutthroat out there.

"Yes, of course!" said Hassen, 50, of Northeast Washington, who has two daughters in college. His Chevy Malibu was in the garage, and he kept peering into the dimness of the grimy repair bay, grumbling. "Look, I'm not working now, see?" He bristled, throwing up his hands. "I have to come and put the meter! So I'm wasting my time."