Taxi Drivers Don’t Need Dress Code

It must be nice to sit up in City Hall dreaming of new rules, regulations, disciplinary actions and fines for cabbies and cab franchises. When tired of that, one can conceive of such boondoggles as courtesy school, hygiene school, and maybe a class devoted to spotting “designer” jeans vs. ordinary, run-of-the-mill jeans. Down the streets, what might be more helpful is a class devoted to what to do when a customer puts a knife to your throat or a gun to your head.

I’m a taxi driver. I work 60 hours a week. My accountant informs me that I’m making about $3.50 an hour. I have no benefits--medical, dental or disability. I fight traffic all day, all week, all month and all year.

Everyday, I interface with, deal with, and somehow cope with the ills of our communities. I provide service for hookers, pimps, druggies, and drunks. I provide service for the elderly and the disabled. I provide service to and from emergency rooms, bars, jails, street corners and sometimes, at CHP request, from call-boxes on the freeways. No, it isn’t all a white-glove-limo operation to and from “major hotels” and airports. And now, for the lack of a button, a designer pair of jeans or an official franchise shirt, I can be fined, punished and ultimately fired.

Few, I suspect, in the taxi business would argue with the basic intent of a seemingly endless list of rules, regulations and punishment schedules. The problem isn’t with the goals or the intentions. The problem lies with the means and methods. Perhaps, if we could coax the bureaucrats out of their swivel chairs and employ that army of Department of Transportation enforcement officers to work with their franchises, rather than as a threatening adversary, much could be accomplished. Unthinkable as it might sound, the taxi drivers might be invited to share their concerns and make suggestions. But then, I guess, there’s no political hay to be made by legitimate effort and cooperation.

DENNIS G. McGEE

Van Nuys