Cabbies say commission is trying to drive them out of business
By Bill Beene
Of the St. Louis American
Some St. Louis cabbies gripe that the three-year-old Metropolitan Taxicab Commission is driving them crazy with new regulations that drivers say are meant to drive them out of business.
Drivers point to newly imposed fines, increased airport exit and insurance fees, additional cab inspections by the Taxicab Commission, and a uniform policy.
“You have to pay to get a trip nowadays. You pay everywhere,” said 49-year-old driver Brian Parks standing outside of the Metropolitan Taxicab Commission on Tucker.
“They made us buy newer cars. The airport is a public entity, but they charge us $3 to go to the airport to pick up people and they get away with it.”
Harry Haggart, owner of Allen and Autolivery Cab companies, said the fees and prices are making it harder to get and keep drivers.
“They can hardly operate from the money they make, and there really isn’t enough money out there,” Haggart said.
The Metropolitan Taxicab Company began in 2002 after first being killed as a bill in the Missouri Legislature.
Then-62nd District Rep. Charles Quincy Troupe said he killed the bill because he viewed it as hostile takeover of the cab industry.
“It is another layer of government that was created to eliminate the small mom and pop cab company owners and drivers,” said Troupe, now the 1st Ward alderman.
“That was our perception, and that was why we killed the bill for two years and convinced the legislature that it was an effort to gobble up the cab industry.”
Opponents of the commission and its new standards say fining drivers for violations is illegal, according to Missouri Constitution Article I Section 31.
The article states, “That no law shall delegate to any commission, bureau, board or other administrative agency authority to make any rule fixing a fine or imprisonment as punishment for its violation.”
“They’re right. We can’t charge a fine,” said Metropolitan Taxicab Commission board member Dave McNutt, who owns Laclede Cab Co. “But when the Taxicab Commission was instituted that allowed us to apply administrative penalties of up to $200.”
Opponents also say that McNutt’s position on the board represents a conflict of interest and that the policies of his company have been leveled against all cab companies.
McNutt disagreed, saying that the board needed taxicab representation on it and everybody, including most drivers and riders, agree with the new regulations.
“If you have nine people (on the board) who don’t understand the cab industry, that wouldn’t be good,” McNutt said. “Some of them wanted drivers to have a million dollars worth of insurance and cars no less than 3 years old, but we convinced them that the cars shouldn’t be more than nine years old.”
McNutt pointed to the presence on the board of James Harris, an African American who owns Harris Cab Company, and an independent driver to dispel charges of conflict of interest.
As to the charge that the larger companies are trying to take over the smaller ones, McNutt said it’s groundless and that the new rules and administrative penalty fines and regulations affect each company.
“If they would abide by the rules, they wouldn’t have to pay,” McNutt said. “But it’s the only way they’ll stop breaking the rules.”
McNutt said the rules are reasonable and universal.
“No one want to get in a dirty cab. No one wants to get into a smoky cab. No one wants their mother to be driven by a driver who has tested positive for drugs. And we want people who come through the airport to have a good image of our city.”
Allen Cab driver Jeaneatte Culpepper said her problem is the uniform policy.
“I’m not Driving Miss Daisy,” she grunted. “I shouldn’t have to wear a uniform when I’m not on duty. And if they want us to wear them, they should pay for them.
Culpepper said she was threatened a ticket by a police officer at a Seven Eleven store while she was off-duty and scoffed officers’ and commission agents with red lights writing tickets.
McNutt responded: “How would an agent know if the driver is off-duty or not. If they want to get an off-duty sign, that’s fine. But if a guy is truly at the grocery store with his family he wouldn’t get a ticket. The only other option would be to suspend them – then they would lose even more money.”
