New Rules to Limit Taxi Congestion : Airport Cab Drivers Will Be Fewer and Dressier

In an effort to limit taxi congestion at Lindbergh Field, the Port Commission Tuesday voted 4-3 to limit the number of cabs allowed to work at the airport each day to 150 rather than the current 225.

The limitation is due to become effective March 17 after the commission approves a formal ordinance.

The new ordinance will include a dress code--shirt with collar and long pants. Permit applicants will also have to pass a test to ensure they understand directions and basic English as well as have “geographical knowledge” of the city, Commissioner Louis Wolfsheimer said.

The rules are an effort to quell complaints of rudeness by some cabbies that commission officials say may arise because each driver has to wait a long time as up to 225 taxis compete for the 63 available spaces.

There are 450 taxi drivers who currently have permits to service the airport area, but each permit is assigned an odd or even number to determine the alternating days the driver will legally be able to work at the airport. How to enforce the new regulations will be decided at the commission’s March 17 meeting.

“It is going to hurt independent cab owners, like myself, because if you add it up that is only ten days a month,” said Michael Spadacini who has been in the San Diego cab business for about 45 years. Spadacini is a board member of Orange Cab, an umbrella organization for 125 independent cab owners. “For a lot of us who habitually work the airport, it is going to wreak havoc and leave independent owners like myself out of business.”

Spadacini said the city should not penalize the cab drivers by enforcing stricter regulations because the city “brought this on itself” by deregulation and granting too many permits for the airport area.

The City Council partly deregulated the taxi business about six years ago, abolishing all set rates except for a maximum of $1.40 for the flag drop and $1.66 per mile. At the time there were 410 cabs with permits in San Diego. The permits more than doubled in the next several years, causing the council to set a limit of 928 permits about two years ago. A 1983 lottery determined the current airport permit owners.

Yellow Cab Vice President Anthony Palmeri said the commission’s decision was long overdue and it could only benefit cabbies. The company has airport permits for 203 of its 348 cabs.

“I think the taxi driver is a good-will ambassador and it is very important the cabs are clean and the drivers are satisfied,” Palmeri said. “The important thing is that the airport is close to downtown and not one single cabbie will complain about a short downtown trip if the cabbie gets to make more trips.

“The airport cabbies pay $200 a year for their permits and it’s like paying for a movie and then there is no place to sit. Of course they are frustrated. It will affect independent owners in a good way also. The airport service is a privilege, it is not a domain to make a living at.”

Lindbergh Field Assistant Manager Buck Jones said the commission had several alternatives, but some action had to be taken.

“I am neither for or against the decision,” Jones said. “If that is the way it turns out, then we will have to design a system to accommodate it. We don’t have the physical room to create more parking spaces. The amount of space devoted to taxis is at a maximum. There really isn’t much else we could do.”