All must accept credit cards, have navigation, Mayor Mitch Landrieu will propose Friday
Taking aim at New Orleans' long-maligned taxicab industry, Mayor Mitch Landrieu's administration is set today to unveil a sweeping overhaul of rules governing for-hire vehicles, including mandates that all cabs accept credit cards and have on-board satellite-navigation devices. Among the 30 proposed changes are a ban on junk cars being rebuilt as taxis and a requirement that a cab can't carry more passengers than it has seat belts. Taxis older than a decade also would be barred from city streets, with the maximum age dropping to seven years in 2014.
View full sizeTaxicabs gather outside a hotel in the CBD awaiting fares on Thursday. Other measures designed to protect passengers include barring hotel personnel and others from directing patrons to unlicensed cabs and prohibiting cab drivers from tipping doormen who steer them fares.
"The goal is to have all of the reforms in place for the 2013 Super Bowl," mayoral spokesman Ryan Berni said.
Landrieu plans to outline his recommendations at a City Hall news conference Friday morning. The draft laws were presented at the close of Thursday's City Council meeting and are slated for discussion at the council's Transportation Committee meeting on March 27. They could be adopted as soon as April 5.
The mayor on Friday will address the cost of implementing the new regulations, including possibly beefing up the taxicab bureau's manpower, Berni said. The office's inspections staff had dropped to six people last summer, about a third of its ideal size, officials said at the time.
With an eye toward driver safety, the rules would require the installation of internal security cameras and silent alarm systems to notify dispatchers when a driver is in distress. Twenty-one taxi drivers have been killed in the line of duty in New Orleans since 1994.
Other changes aim to clean up corruption in the taxicab bureau, which recently was rocked by a scandal in which inspection stickers were allegedly being sold for bribes. The bureau oversees 1,600 for-hire vehicles that hold city-issued Certificates of Public Necessity and Convenience. Both so-called CPNCs and driver permits "are privileges and not rights, and the city has full discretion in determining whether a driver's permit or CPNC shall be issued," Landrieu's proposal says.
Looking to tighten the reins on drivers and their agents, the mayor's proposal would allow the city to immediately suspend a driver who tests positive for illegal drugs. It also would penalize drivers or permit holders who bribe city workers or who lie to the bureau to obtain a CPNC.
Drivers also would have to renew permits annually -- rather than every two years -- and they'd have to maintain trip sheets and vehicle records for two years, compared with the current 90-day requirement. City officials would have "unlimited online access to all in-taxi data" collected by meters and credit card machines.
"This change will increase service delivery and improve the customer experience," according to an outline of the changes.
Finally, the rules tighten inspection regulations, including cutting from 15 to three the number of days a cab can operate with minor deficiencies, such as a lack of hubcaps. City inspectors also would be allowed to issue "do not operate" orders for vehicles that lack air conditioning or heaters, brake lights, working door handles or other defects that pose a safety hazard.
The mayor's proposal comes about six months after the council unanimously adopted a "bill of rights" that guarantees passengers in city-licensed cabs a clean and "noise-free" vehicle, as well as a driver who knows the local streets, speaks English fluently, doesn't use a cellphone while driving and "operates in a professional and courteous manner."
The rules mirror similar laws in other metropolitan areas, including New York City.
Landrieu's proposal also creates a category of "accessible" taxis that can accommodate passengers who use wheelchairs or have disabilities. The initiative, which aims to bring the city in line with federal law, comes on the heels of a similar move by the council in November.
Landrieu and City Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer have made shaping up the city's taxis a top priority, casting for-hire rides as a key component of New Orleans' tourism trade. Palmer is chairwoman of the council's Transportation Committee.
Last summer, Landrieu hired Malachi Hull, who oversaw the taxi industry in Atlanta, to overhaul oversight of taxis, pedicabs, for-hire vehicles and carriages.
Inspector General Ed Quatrevaux also has targeted the cab industry, recently dispatching investigators to help the Landrieu administration more efficiently collect revenue from vehicle operators. And he has focused on rooting out actions that led to the alleged bribery scheme, in which a city inspector allegedly took cash in exchange for a stack of stickers certifying that taxis had passed inspection.
The investigators in that case -- who also worked for the Taxicab Bureau -- were fired for alleged payroll fraud shortly after completing their work.
Michelle Krupa can be reached at mkrupa@timespicayune.com or 504.826.3312.