Day-Long Strike Disrupts Taxi Service

About 350 Cabdrivers Protest for Higher Fares

Taxi service in Prince George's was significantly disrupted yesterday as several hundred drivers took part in a day-long strike to protest what they say are low fares.

Organizers said they think about 350 of the county's estimated 700 drivers took part in the strike. More than 100 gathered around the County Administration Building in Upper Marlboro yesterday morning to lobby the local government to raise fares. They then caravanned to a satellite county office building in Largo that houses the agency with taxi oversight, forming a long, multi-hued procession of cabs streaming on central county roads.

John Lally, a spokesman for Silver Cab, which runs the countywide dispatch service for more than 20 taxi services, said customers waited more than an hour yesterday morning for cabs. Usually, he said, the company can get a taxi to a customer within seven minutes of a call.

Laura Bonilla said she called for a taxi at 7:05 a.m. to take her from her home in Hyattsville to the College Park Metro station so she could get to work. When the car hadn't arrived at 7:45 a.m., she asked a cousin to drive her. Even so, she was late to work.

"I was very angry," Bonilla said.

Another customer, Kim Tate, said she's been taking cabs for a few weeks to get her two children to day care because her car broke down. She had to borrow her sister's car yesterday when the cab she called never came. "It would have been nice to know about," she said.

The drivers announced the strike Thursday. They say county-set meter rates lag those in surrounding jurisdictions. Until recently, many drivers added a $2 fuel surcharge to cope with high gas prices. County officials told cab companies last week that permission for the surcharge lapsed last year. Customers had complained recently about the surcharge because gas prices have dropped.

Without the surcharge, the initial fare a driver can charge when a customer sits down in a taxi dropped from $3.50 to $1.50. In comparison, the base rate is $4 in Montgomery County and $3 in the District.

Drivers in the Prince George's County Taxi Workers Alliance said they have been hurt by the loss of income. "We're here to address the economic burden and ask for help from the county and the company," Abay Gedey, who has been driving a county taxi for five years, said at the rally outside the Largo office. "This is the holidays. When you have family, it's very difficult."

James Keary, a spokesman for County Executive Jack B. Johnson, said the five-member taxicab board has been examining fares and will soon propose to the County Council that the base fare rise from $1.50 to $4. Rate adjustments require legislative action by the council. Johnson (D) has the authority to allow drivers to raise prices by charging a fuel surcharge, but Keary said the charge cannot be justified with the lower gas prices. Keary said customers asked to pay the fuel surcharge should complain.

"We understand their plight, and that's the reason the taxicab board has been reviewing the fee structure and has been working on legislation to increase it," he said.

Aurora Vasquez, a senior attorney with the civil rights group Advancement Project, which is working with drivers, said they had not been aware of the taxi board discussion about raising the base fare and would like the opportunity to provide input. Drivers asked Johnson to allow them to impose the fuel surcharge until the council can act.

"It's another example of how the decision makers completely leave drivers out of the loop," she said.