Denver officials may tighten regulations on taxi cabs – including possibly requiring cabbies to speak better English and keep cleaner cars – if the state moves to loosen rules.
The state Public Utilities Commission regulates cabs, limiting the number of companies and cars that can be used in each city and county.
In Denver, the PUC limits competition to three companies and about 950 cabs.
But last session, House Bill 1114 would have made it easier for cabbies to break away from their employers and start their own companies.
Denver officials are concerned that a loosening of state control might lead cab drivers to provide inadequate service.
“If the cab industry is deregulated, I would ask Mayor (John) Hickenlooper’s administration to look at an expansion of local regulation,” wrote Helen Gonzales, Denver’s director of licensing, in a letter to lawmakers.
The House bill was stripped. But lawmakers are gathering information and may look at the issue next session.
During the legislative hearing Tuesday, Assistant Denver City Attorney Kory Nelson said that stricter rules in Denver might not be a bad idea even if the state retains its regulations.
“In a lot of communities, taxicab drivers are some of the people who have the first contacts with visitors,” Nelson said, after the meeting. “We want them to be good ambassadors.”
Changes in language requirements could affect Denver’s cab drivers whose first language is not English.
The discussion is just in its early stages, Nelson said.
Dozens of cab drivers told lawmakers that they were upset that last session’s legislation did not free them to open their own companies.
Metro Taxi driver Abdi Buni, who is president of nonprofit ProTaxi, which represents 500 Denver cab drivers, said cabbies believed lawmakers were interested in stopping “mistreatment and abuse” of drivers by the cab companies themselves.
“I’m sorry to say that we were wrong,” Buni said. Cab companies “used their power and influence to kill the legislation.”
State Rep. Buffie McFadyen, D-Pueblo, countered: “I would hope that you do not mean to infer that we do not care.”
