Cabdriver Tips for Doormen Are Targeted

Cabdrivers line the sidewalks outside a downtown Los Angeles hotel. A few play cards in the back seat of a taxi. Others read the newspaper. But all ears are on the hotel doorman, who blows a whistle when business is near.

Driver Chris Harvey is next in line for a customer. He pulls up, ready to load his passengers. But first he hands the doorman a $5 bill.

Don’t forget to tip the doorman, Harvey said, “or you can kiss the rest of your day’s business goodbye.”

Some city officials are considering putting an end to the tipping practice -- what they’ve deemed “bribery” in the taxi business. Tom Drischler, the city’s taxicab administrator, said he suspects that a number of doormen demand tips from cabdrivers in exchange for steering passengers in their direction.

“When patrons of a hotel, restaurant or nightclub desire the use of a taxicab, they frequently will request the service through a doorman,” Drischler said in a city report. “What the patrons do not know is that in many instances the venue employee is selling their trip to a taxi driver.”

On June 15, the Los Angeles Board of Taxicab Commissioners is scheduled to discuss a proposal that would make it illegal for doormen and drivers to exchange money for lining up passengers. Violators would face up to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine.

If the board approves the proposed ordinance, it will go to the City Council for consideration.

Hotel managers originally opposed the ordinance, hoping to quell the practice themselves. But officials for the Hotel Assn. of Los Angeles said they now support the city Transportation Department’s recommendation.

“We’ve been working on this problem for a couple of years,” said Michael Pfeiffer, executive director of the association, at a recent board meeting. “Perhaps something like this may be warranted.”

Still, the proposal has raised concerns from all sides.

Doormen complain that it would deprive them of legitimate tips that make up much of their income. Cabdrivers say the law would punish them for a practice that’s necessary to stay competitive. And the city investigators charged with monitoring taxicab regulations say the measure would be unenforceable and would take time away from their already daunting task of getting about 2,000 unlicensed “bandit” cabs off the streets.

“What is more likely to happen is they’ll become more sophisticated in the ways they exchange money. The driver will say he’s paying the doorman for a bet on the Lakers game,” said Senior Investigator Robert Johnson, who leads a team of peace officers who target illegal cab operators. “It’s going to be very difficult to enforce, and we’ll probably have to set aside a day to deal directly with that.”

Drischler said the ordinance would indeed increase the workload for investigators, but he is proposing a fee program that would require cabdrivers to pay into a fund used for additional officers and overtime hours.

A survey of 30 cities around the nation found 10 with laws prohibiting doormen from taking cabdrivers’ money for business, Drischler said.

One such law, in Miami-Dade County, Fla., has become the foundation of the proposed L.A. ordinance, Drischler said. Miami-Dade’s ordinance, enacted in 1997, is “such a strong deterrent that authorities rarely have to enforce it,” the Los Angeles report said.

But doormen say there’s nothing to enforce.

“I’ve heard that drivers are blasting us, saying we demand tips from them,” said a doorman at the Westin Bonaventure Hotel downtown. “We’ve never done that.”

The doorman, who spoke on the condition that his name not be used out of concern for his job, said an ordinance would instill fear in cabdrivers who would no longer tip him for legitimate services. He said he often gives drivers directions and acts as a translator for passengers.

“They tip me because they appreciate me. If I don’t take their tips, I might as well be working at McDonald’s,” he said. “Right now, I’m happy if I make $25,000 a year. That’s peanuts.”

Doormen say the city is relying too heavily on the word of cabdrivers, who have been known to complain about the businesses they serve.

In 2004, cabdrivers said businesses were arranging exclusive agreements with certain taxi companies. That led the city to permanently ban exclusive arrangements between taxi companies and venues that generate taxicab trips.

Drivers have also complained about working conditions at Los Angeles International Airport, demanding that the city investigate. Among the complaints has been that their waiting area at LAX is not kept sufficiently clean.

“They complain about a lot of things,” the doorman said. “None of it is true. And it’s not right.”