Cabbies Down to One Week to Install Meters

Cabbies wait outside Bass & Treble, a Northeast D.C. shop that is one of several licensed to install time-and-distance meters in cabs. (By Marvin Joseph -- The Washington Post)
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Swain would not estimate how many of the 5,700 licensed cabs in the District might end up off the streets because they don't have meters. But no one involved in the industry is worried about a sudden shortage of taxis in the nation's capital. The cab supply is huge.

Unlike other big municipalities, the District does not limit the number of cabs that are allowed to do business in the city. "It's called an open-entry system," said Alfred LaGasse, chief executive of the Taxicab, Limousine & Paratransit Association, a national trade group. "If you can breathe and pass a test, you can get a [cabdriver] license in the District of Columbia.

"The other cities had open-entry systems, too, once upon a time," he said. "But they all moved away from it eventually. . . . Just as D.C. was the last major city to have a zone fare structure, it's the last major city with open entry."

That's why it is so easy to get a cab in the District. There are about 10 taxis in the District per 1,000 residents. The major city with the next highest ratio is Boston, with about three cabs per 1,000 residents. In most big cities, the ratio is one or two cabs per 1,000 residents. New York, with about 13,000 cabs, and Chicago, with about 6,700, are the only cities with more licensed taxis than the District, and those cities are vastly more populous.

In New York, the limited number of cab licenses, called medallions, are bought and sold by drivers on the open market, usually at prices in the high six figures. That significant investment, often involving a mortgage loan, allows a cabbie to build business equity and provides an incentive for better customer care, industry experts said.

"The open-entry regulatory structure you have now means you have a lot of drivers coming in and out of the business," LaGasse said. "It doesn't favor companies or individuals making a capital investment to build infrastructure and deliver high-quality service."

Whether the District will move toward a "controlled-entry" system remains to be seen.

"Meters are an important first step in bringing reform and better service to our taxicab industry," said commission member Cornelius Baker. "I certainly believe there should be some form of restriction on the numbers. Is that a full medallion system? I don't know. But I do think there are benefits to a medallion system in that it creates investment and capital."

Swain said the District has no plans to limit the number of cabs. In fact, even if the number dips because of the meters, he said, it probably will go up again when the commission eventually introduces a new written test for aspiring cabbies.

To get a cab license in the city, a driver must complete a 60-hour course at the University of the District of Columbia and then pass a test. But the city suspended the test about three years ago because of a security breach, said commission member Stanley Tapscott. "The test got out. It was on the street," he said. "Everybody knew the test. They were passing it 100 percent. So we closed it down."

Yet people have continued to take the $375 course at UDC, hoping for a chance to join the District's taxi industry.

"You have somewhere in the neighborhood of 1,600 people who have spent their money, gone to the class, and they have every right to avail themselves to getting a license," Swain said. "My first priority once we get past these meters is to get the test back up. We're already working on that."