More than 100 metro-area taxicab drivers Saturday threw support behind a proposed law that would make it easier for them to part ways with big cab companies and go out on their own.
Cabdrivers packed a little room in a union building in Englewood to support House Bill 1114, which calls for an easier certification process to start new cab companies.
The bill’s backers say it would hasten competition and improve taxi service for the public by allowing more cabbies – and new cab companies – to flourish with less regulation.
Some taxi drivers say they’re tired of giving over hard-earned dollars to big companies just to be able to operate.
For Abdi Buni, who has been driving a cab seven years, this amounts to $25,000 a year – about 60 percent of his fares. “This is too much,” he said.
“Guys, this is our life, this is the land of opportunity,” driver Bushra Saido told the gathering of mostly immigrant cabbies. “We have to have solidarity, we have to cooperate.”
Across the city, at the Denver Yellow Cabs headquarters near Stapleton, a couple of managers and a small group of veteran cabdrivers said that if the proposed legislation passed, people would have chaos and uncertainty when they called for a cab.
Ross Alexander, the company’s vice president, said his staff monitors the condition of the cars, does background checks on cabbies, and puts everybody through defensive driving and passengers-with-disabilities training.
Cabbies pay the company about $300 to $600 a week for this service, which includes insurance and access to a dispatch.
“We don’t hire just anybody with a pulse that walks through our door,” said Alexander, whose company is among the city’s biggest with more than 30,000 dispatched calls a week, not including airport trips.
“In a deregulated environment, everybody is looking to put the big tips in their pocket, but who’s going to pick up Granny at the supermarket?” he said. “Those are not the great trips … but we do them.”
Thirty-four-year veteran cabdriver Lee Williams said that if more cabbies were on the road, the guy getting out of a bar at 2 a.m. may get a cab a “few minutes earlier” but service to Denver’s suburbs would suffer.
State Rep. Jerry Frangas, D-Denver, said he introduced the legislation to improve the taxi system for consumers, especially given that Denver will host the Democratic National Convention, which could draw 35,000 visitors to the city center in August 2008.
Frangas also said he’d heard complaints from disabled and elderly constituents who weren’t getting quality cab service for “short trips.”
Under his bill, which is in the House Transportation and Energy Committee, cabs would still be regulated under the Public Utilities Commission, similar to limousine services.
“If there’s only three companies, then it’s sort of hard to move around,” Frangas said. “I feel that competition will improve the quality of service in Denver.”
Mengistu Legesse said he resents paying a fee to work whether he’s on the road or not.
Legesse said that during the 2003 blizzard, his car was stuck in the snow for several days, and he wasn’t able to drive. He asked his company for a break in his weekly dues, and they said no.
“I had to take out a loan to pay my bill,” he said. “I want to be free from the companies.”
Staff writer Allison Sherry can be reached at 303-954-1377 or asherry@denverpost.com.
