Cabdrivers: The Road’s Rodney Dangerfields

Cabdrivers from Los Angeles to New York have become a coast-to-coast fleet of Rodney Dangerfields. From tourists and business travelers alike, they get no respect.

Boston and New York have too few cabs to meet the demand. Seattle has too many. City after city has declared war on unlicensed “gypsy,” “outlaw” or “bandit” drivers who are taking business away from licensed cabbies.

In the District of Columbia, a confusing rate structure has thrown the cab regulatory system into a tizzy. Residents and visitors alike tell of long waits--sometimes stretching into hours--after telephoning for a cab, wild rides and muddled brains in figuring fares.

There are moves afoot in some cities to dress up drivers with either uniforms or dress codes. At the same time, passengers are dressing down drivers for rudeness, shabby cabs and--the cardinal sin of cabdom--not knowing their way around.

Have Problems

“We’ve got problems with drivers who don’t know what they’re doing. In some cities, anybody can buy a cab and put it on the road,” said Steve Sheehan, editor and publisher of Boston-based Taxi News Digest, a 4,000-circulation magazine.

Sheehan, a cabby for 15 years who still drives on occasion, said there is little incentive to be a cabby anymore.

“You work for 12 hours, through the worst traffic conditions in the world. You get no respect from the industry, from your passengers, from the other drivers on the road. You’re a loner out there by yourself,” Sheehan complained.

“You get beat up, you get shot at, you get no protection. You get a crummy cab to drive, it breaks down and you lose money while it’s being fixed,” he added.

Booming City

Cab regulations vary from city to city, and so do rates. The passenger who pays $3.40 for a three-mile ride in Baltimore will have to shell out $5.65 to travel the same distance in San Francisco.

Boston, a booming city whose hotel and office space and convention business have increased 50% since 1980, has the same number of licensed cabs it had in 1940. There are only 1,525 medallions issued in Boston. The Police Department’s Hackney Division will decide this fall whether to recommend an increase.

“During peak hours, between 3 and 6 p.m., when a lot of businessmen have to leave the city, they find it difficult to get a cab. The cabs are caught in the same gridlock as the rest of the traffic,” said Capt. Donald Devine, head of Boston’s Hackney Division. “It’s no different than going into a restaurant and having to wait 20 minutes because the tables are full.”

In New York, where hailing a cab is an art form, the number of licensed taxis has not changed in 50 years. There are 11,787 yellow medallion cabs in the Big Apple, making an estimated 800,000 trips a day, 200 million trips a year.

Study Impact

The City Council recently approved legislation to add 1,800 more cabs to the fleet. The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission has 18 months to study the impact and make a recommendation to the council.

In July, a minimum dress code went into effect for New York cabbies. It requires a shirt with a collar and sleeves, hemmed pants or jeans or shorts no higher than mid-thigh. It bans cut-off shorts and open-toed sandals. It is similar to rules Boston imposed a year ago.

New York’s major fleet owners are considering summer and winter uniforms for cabbies. In Chicago, Checker Cab Co. President Jerry Feldman would be happy to see cabbies in uniform.

“Once people put on a uniform they act better. They look better and drive better. I’d love to see them in the same uniform as a bus driver,” Feldman said.

Stolen Decals

In Dallas, the biggest cab problem is outlaw drivers--those who have been fired from companies but who continue to work using stolen decals.

“Business is slow. Our economy is slowing down. There has been a lot of turnover among these companies. By working as outlaws, the drivers make a lot more money, and they are hard to catch,” said Rick Ramirez, investigator with the city’s Transportation and Regulation Division.

Dallas implemented an education program two years ago to improve its cab system. Drivers must pass a written test and attend nine hours of classes covering the use of maps, city regulations and public relations.

“We still have a problem with rudeness. We’re trying to get cabbies to be aware of the importance of courtesy, but it takes time,” Ramirez said.

Chief Complaint

In Dallas, a car-driving city with lots of new streets and subdivisions, a chief complaint is drivers who do not know their way around.

“Some of these guys from Nigeria can’t read a simple map, much less the English on street signs,” Ramirez said.

As Joshua Miller, a salesman who relies on taxis to get to Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport, explained: “More often than not, I end up doing the navigating. I say, ‘Turn here,’ and, ‘Turn there.’ These guys don’t know their way around.”

The Washington Taxicab Commission is considering reforms that include use of meters instead of a zone map to determine fares. It has imposed a 120-day moratorium on licensing taxis and heftier fines for unlicensed gypsy drivers.

Taxi Commission Chairman Arrington Dixon estimates one in four of the city’s 11,000 cabs are unlicensed. During a recent crackdown on unlicensed drivers, police and cab inspectors impounded 30 of the 1,000 taxis they stopped at roadblocks.

Licensed cabby Paul Davis was glad to see it.

“We have a very small market here, and these people are essentially taking business away from me,” he said.

Maximum Rates

In Seattle, things are better for riders these days, but not for cabbies. The cost of a ride has gone down since maximum rates were imposed several years ago on a previously unregulated industry that had exorbitant, varying and confusing rates.

King County recently prohibited new licenses for taxi drivers to try to ease a glut of cabs--600 in the city and 400 in the county--that often has 100 or more cabs waiting up to four hours each for a fare at Seattle-Tacoma Airport.

The Los Angeles cab scene is as wild as a cloverleaf at rush hour, mainly because all 86 area municipalities in the Los Angeles County have different taxicab regulations. And riders beware: Los Angeles cabbies like to cruise the freeways with the window down and the meter running. A three-mile trip just is not hip.

The situation may improve, however, if Los Angeles County municipalities agree to a proposed countywide system for licensing the area’s estimated 3,000 cabs and drivers.

Test Drivers

The proposal, approved by the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors, would test drivers for their knowledge of local geography and ability to speak English and deal in U.S. currency. Cabs would be inspected to see that the tires and engine are in good condition.

As it is now among the 60 cab companies and hordes of bandit taxis, there are drivers who speak only English, only Spanish or both.

Many firms have started upgrading their service to get an edge on slipshod competitors. The City Yellow Cab Co. advertises “respectable English-speaking drivers,” and L.A. Taxi requires its employees to wear a black tie, white shirt and black pants.

Bill Anderson, who leases a cab from L.A. Taxi, said the better cab companies attract quality workers because the money and working conditions are good.

College Degree

“There’s a story on the bulletin board at work that the average California cabdriver has 14 years of education and 37% have a college degree,” Anderson said. “People assume cabdrivers don’t make much money. Well, in this particular company, you can earn $700 a week.”

But just 400 miles away, San Francisco cab owner Marv Gralnik said drivers of the 761 cabs in his city are barely making a living. Co-op drivers there pay a $60 “gate fee” to the owner of the cab for each 10-hour shift.

And therein lies one of the most frequent complaints--drivers refusing short hops downtown in hopes of picking up a $22 fare to the airport, police spokeswoman Mary Stasko said.

Atlanta’s cab industry takes a public flogging even though it is not a primary transportation source.

‘Bad Shape’

“The first thing you notice is the air conditioners don’t work in most of them,” said Deborah Manser, a New Jersey consultant on a recent business trip to Atlanta. “The cabs are really in pretty bad shape. It seems odd to find cabs in worse shape than those in New York.”

Sheehan of Taxi News Digest said cabbies will get no respect until they organize. He said that may never happen in most cities.

“It is the hardest thing in the world to organize people. They are loners who want to drive when they feel like it. They are not joiners. Organizing efforts have failed dismally,” Sheehan said.