Cabbies Down to One Week to Install Meters
Over 3,000 Conversions Done, Taxis on Track to Meet Deadline, Officials Say

By Paul Duggan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, May 25, 2008

With a week to go before the deadline for D.C. cabdrivers to begin using time-and-distance meters, the head of the city's Taxicab Commission said Friday that more than 3,000 cabs have been fitted with the meters and that "we're not going to have any problems meeting the mayor's mandate" to end the decades-old system of zone-based fares next Sunday.

In a city with 5,700 authorized taxis and nearly 7,000 licensed cabdrivers, the figure cited by Leon J. Swain Jr., the panel's chairman, accounts for fewer than two-thirds of the vehicles. But Swain predicted an 11th-hour rush of installations this week and added that the switch to meters could shrink the city's crowded cab industry.

"I'm extremely satisfied with the progress," Swain said, noting that in mid-April only a small fraction of cabs had been fitted with meters. At the time, the commission had licensed fewer than a half-dozen companies to install the devices. With more technicians being trained in recent weeks, the number of approved installation shops has grown to 21.

As for the hundreds of cabs still without meters, which cost $300 to $500, Swain said, "you have people who will wait until the last minute. And I think you have some people who only drive part time who figure they don't drive enough [so] they're simply not going to go through the conversion, and they'll drop out of the business."

He added: "There may be some people who are just waiting because they're hoping there'll be another extension granted. And that is not going to happen."

After years of complaints about the flat-rate zone system from riders who found it confusing and worried that they were being overcharged by dishonest drivers, Sen. Carl M. Levin (D-Mich.) added a provision to a D.C. appropriations bill last year that prompted Mayor Adrian M. Fenty (D) to order the zone system scrapped.

Another reason so few cabs had meters a month ago was that most drivers were awaiting the outcome of a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court that sought to overturn Fenty's order. The lawsuit failed April 21, and two courts have since declined to delay the switch to meters while a group of cabbies takes the case to the D.C. Court of Appeals.

Fenty, who has extended the deadline once, from May 1 to June 1, warned last week that he will grant no more reprieves. Starting next Sunday, officials said, any cabbie caught working without a meter will be fined $1,000.

"We are busy," said Javid Iqbal, owner of Bass & Treble, an auto electronics shop that is licensed to install meters. "And as the deadline comes closer, I'm going to be even busier, I think, everybody grabbing me from every side all day to put the meters in."

A manager at the District Cab Association garage, speaking on condition of anonymity, said installers there have put meters in about 900 cabs in recent weeks. "It's slowed down a lot," he said. "We're taking them, but they're not coming in that fast lately. At first, it was a real rush. Now it's a lull. I imagine this week it'll be another rush again."

At Classic Cab Co., also a licensed installer, owner Evelyn Ruiz said "there will be no problem by June 1."

"A lot of people must have meters, because right now I have nothing to do," Ruiz said. "It was a good two weeks. But nobody comes here now."

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."