City staff in Portland give green light to Union Cab Co.
Staff are recommending
approval of a worker-
owned taxi co-op, and
sweeping reform of taxi
rules
By DON McINTOSH
Associate Editor
City of Portland taxi regulators said
“yes” Sept. 26 to a proposal for a new
worker-owned and union-affiliated taxi
company — pending approval from an
appointed board and City Council. The
recommendation is part of a sweeping
set of proposed taxi industry reforms,
which were drafted after a City investi-
gation found deplorable conditions for
the industry’s mostly-immigrant work-
force.
That investigation found that Port-
land’s roughly 900 licensed taxi drivers
work on average over 70 hours a week
for what amounts to $6.22 an hour. Taxi
drivers are allowed to make less than
minimum wage because they’re classi-
fied as independent contractors and thus
are not technically employees of the cab
companies. In fact, it’s the drivers who
pay the companies — up to $550 a
week — even when drivers own the ve-
hicles and equipment.
To free themselves from those con-
ditions, a group of Portland taxi drivers
joined Communications Workers of
America (CWA) Local 7901 last year,
and developed a proposal for a union-
affiliated taxi company — Solidarity
Cab Cooperative, which would do busi-
ness as Union Cab.
Oregon AFL-CIO President Tom
Chamberlain was able to get drivers a
meeting with Portland Mayor Sam
Adams, at which they told the mayor
about their working conditions. Adams
ordered the City’s investigation, and
then reportedly pushed taxi regulators
to propose a solution.
Like many cities, Portland regulates
the taxi industry, and limits the number
of taxi permits, which are doled out to
cab companies for a nominal fee. Port-
land’s 382 taxi permits are divided
among five companies: driver-owned
Radio Cab (136), where conditions are
substantially better; Broadway/Sassy’s
(153), reputedly the worst offender; and
three smaller companies — Green (48),
Portland (26); and New Rose City (19).
That arrangement creates a “market
disparity” favoring the companies, at-
torney Cathy Highet told the Private For
Hire Transportation Board of Review
Sept. 26. The Board of Review is an ap-
pointed body advising City Council on
taxi regulations. Highet, counsel for the
Union Cab group, said Portland gives a
limited number of cab companies long-
term control of a limited number of
vehicle permits, whereas the pool of
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14. Issue Date for Circulation Data Below: Sept. 21, 2012
15. Extent and Nature of Circulation
Average No. Copies
Each Issue During
Preceding 12 Months
Actual No. Copies
of Single Issue Published
Nearest to Filing Date
A. Total No. Copies (net press run).............................................................. 51,697
B. Paid Circulation (by mail and outside the mail):
1. Mailed outside-county paid subscriptions stated on PS Form 3541 .....50,385
3. Sales through dealers and carriers, street vendors and counter sales........428
C. Total Paid Distribution (Sum of 15b (1), (2), (3) and (4).............................50,813
D. Free or Nominal Rate Distribution.........................................................................
1. Outside-county copies included on PS form 3541 ..........................................0
2. In-county copies included on PS Form 3541 ..................................................0
3. Mailed at other classes through the USPS .....................................................0
4. Outside the mail (carriers and other means)...............................................125
E. Total Free or Nominal Rate Distribution .........................................................125
F. Total Distribution......................................................................................50,938
G. Copies not Distributed ..................................................................................720
H. TOTAL ....................................................................................................51,658
I. Percent Paid
98.30%
16. Publication of Statement of Ownership.................................................Oct. 5, 2012
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PAGE 2
58,722
57,521
471
57,992
0
0
0
125
125
58,117
605
58,722
98.7%
Union Cab chairman Kedir Wako tells the City of Portland taxi review board
Sept. 26 about plans to form a union-affiliated driver-owned taxi co-op that
would free drivers from exploitative conditions at several taxi companies.
drivers is nearly unlimited. City code
says companies aren’t allowed to
charge drivers simply for using the per-
mits. The driver payment, known as the
“kitty,” is supposed to pay for services
like dispatch, insurance, advertising,
and credit card processing. But Highet
said the companies are, in reality, charg-
ing drivers for use of the permits. The
proof is that the kitty is twice as high at
the four companies that aren’t driver-
owned — about $500 a week — irre-
spective of the company’s size or the
level of support it gives drivers. Drivers
at the three smaller companies get few
dispatch calls, and typically wait out-
side the airport and downtown hotels to
find their own customers. In practice,
the kitty is as high as the companies can
set it and still have people willing to
drive for them.
“$500 a week is the price for access
to work that provides on average $294
net a week,” Highet said.
Suspense was high at the Private For
Hire Transportation Board of Review’s
Sept. 26 meeting — and drivers filled
every seat and crowded along the walls.
Would-be Union Cab drivers had
waited since April 2011 for an answer
to their request for 50 permits. Other
drivers had been waiting nearly as long
for reforms that would free them from
exploitation at the hands of the cab
companies.
But in the end, the proposals drawn
up by City taxi regulators addressed
nearly everything drivers had been ask-
ing for.
Fifty new permits would be given
immediately to Union Cab, which
Kathleen Butler, in charge of the City’s
taxi regulation, said has “a well-thought
out plan for entering the market.” Butler
also praised Union Cab’s commitment
to provide health insurance and paid va-
cation.
Radio Cab also would be granted 38
additional permits, to be phased in over
three years. Green and Portland Taxi
would get 32 and 12 new permits
phased in over three years, but only on
condition that they reduce the kitty in
proportion to the new permits, and give
drivers one kitty-free week a year.
Proposals for more permits by
Broadway and New Rose City were de-
nied. Also denied was a proposal by
T -thoughtful
I - independent
Sho Dozono, former Broadway Cab co-
owner and 2008 mayoral candidate —
for 25 permits for a new company that
would use all-electric vehicles, with the
cabs dispatched and managed by
Broadway. Butler said there was no
need for that service since nothing pre-
vents existing companies from using
electric vehicles.
Butler also presented reforms that
would amount to a major overhaul of
taxi regulations, to benefit drivers and
the riding public:
• Future permit renewals would be
based on how well companies met per-
formance standards, including the value
of the services they provide to drivers.
• Cab companies would be barred
from charging any fee to drivers without
City approval.
• The City would find a way to get
driver insurance policies to cover per-
sonal injury of the drivers (right now if
drivers are injured in an accident, they
lose work and have to pay their own
medical bills.)
• “Payment for fare” — an abuse in
which hotel doormen and even taxi
company dispatchers charge fees to
drivers for referring passengers —
would be prohibited.
• Taxis would be required to install
back-seat credit card swipe machines.
• Taxi permit fees would be increased
to pay for beefed up enforcement. Le-
gitimate drivers face competition from a
“proliferation of illegal operators,” unli-
censed taxis coming in from the suburbs
particularly on the weekends; City ordi-
nance says taxis from other areas may
drop off passengers in Portland, but not
pick them up. The City has begun crack-
ing down on the so-called “gypsy cabs”
and criminalizing the offense and im-
pounding vehicles.
The next step is that the Private For
Hire Transportation Board of Review
will discuss the proposals at an Oct. 10
meeting. Depending on what the Board
decides to do, the proposals could then
go to City Council. Financing is already
lined up, said CWA Local 7901 Presi-
dent Madelyn Elder, so Union Cab
could be up and running soon after City
Council approves the permits.
M - motivated
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