D.C. Taxi Industry Bribery Indictments for Everyone!

Me too! I've been boycotting cabs for a few years now, but the drivers still find ways to irritate me (like the one last night who nearly drove me off the road).

I think I'd miss getting into a drunken debate over religion/politics with the cabby. It happens without fail; my friends are used to it by now.

Also, yelling explicit words to MPD from your open, backseat cab window will result in your being pulled over. More on that later, kids.

I knew you would be all over this like flies on doo-doo!

I see you've read my online manifesto. Next stop, my gift shop.

I take red cap EVERY TIME I go to the airport. (at least once a month). Never had a problem. Drivers are always nice.

This is obviously someone who knows nothing about the business. I understand that. The public does not want to concern itself with the details. It simply wants to put up its hand or call, have a vehicle stop or arrive, that is safe, clean, driven by someone who is civil, honest and knowledgable

Kindlt permit me to enlighten:

It is the rental cabs that are the hoopties, not the privately owned vehicles. I know what I am typing. I have driven for twenty seven years in the District and Eighteen months in Virginia.

I always kept up my cab in the City. About 1996, or so, we started to get decent rates. And guess what? Instead of beat up eleven year old Chevrolet Impalas or fifteen year old Dodge Aspens, we bought Lincoln Town cars. We also bought newer models. Before, with second class rates, we could only afford second class equipment. We did not want to drive the hoopties any more than the public wanted to ride in them.

Now that Dear Revered Leader Kim il-Fenty is permitting us to work for 1989 rates, we are struggling to keep up our standards. Once you have raised the bar, it is difficult to put it back down.

I bought my last cab when it was one year old. I drove it for four years. Someone is now running it as a rental cab and it IS a hoopty. Several drivers that I know have complained about it and I always see it in the shop. I bought my current cab, a 2007 model, in 2008. I will get rid of it by 2012.

When the DCTC imposed an age limit, it applied to rental cabs only. The Commissioners went out into the field and discovered that the overwhelming majority of the hoopties were rental cabs.

Red Top, which is in Arlington and therefore under a six year age limit is no better. I drove there. You considered yourself fortunate if you could get a twenty four hour rental car (A-rental) that had only the following flaws: no windshield washer, one window that would not roll down, non-functional emergency brake and one tail light that did not work even though the bulb was new. If you could not get a twenty four hour rental, you drove whatever was on the yard, 'company junk', as we used to call it. Some veteran B-rental (or other shift rental) drivers could get an assigned car, but it was even worse of a hoopty than the best A-rentals. If you did not get an assigned car, it was 'company junk' for you. Sometimes, there was a wait for a cab to rent. You showed up at 1200 North Hudson and put your name on a list. One would come in and the cashier called your name. You stepped up to the window and would see the key tag with the number '86'. You knew the car well:

The heat worked full time, even when the switch was in the 'OFF' position, and it is early June and 81F outside.

The A/C did not work.

The steering was more balky than a 1953 Mack six-eight wheeler.

There was no spare tyre.

Only one windshield wiper worked.

The thing overheated after three hours, obliging you to park it for thirty minutes until it cooled down.

If you EVEN grumbled, the cashier had instructions to call the next name on the list. At her discretion, she could put you back on the bottom, or just decide that you did not work that day.

People were singing Red Flopp's praises back then. I have talked to a number of drivers out there; the situation AIN'T changed all that much.

I have a nice car, I keep it in good shape. I am ashamed to drive a car with a loud muffler and broken seats. I am afraid to drive one with bald tyres and bad brakes. I have driven more than a few rental cabs in Virginia and the City over the years. Those are the hoopties. Drive one of them for an hour or two and you KNOW that there is still bribery going on at the D.C. Test Station and at Virginia Inspections.

Good! I plan on getting pleasantly inebriated at a happy hour later tonight; it would be in everyones best interest for me to take a cab back home...

Me: What ethical standards did the previous taxi commission have..?
From WP: "But FBI agents raided the home of a former official, Causton Toney, Friday morning, according to a law enforcement source familiar with the investigation and a source in city government. Toney, who is not charged with any crime, is a former chairman of the D.C. Taxi Commission."
Me: Well, there you have it!

You mean the same 'victims' that have given us decades of the worst cab service of any major American city? Decades of cabs that smell like clown vomit, that lurch around town with every major system (shocks, transmission, etc.) on the verge of total collapse, that have drivers that refuse to pick up passengers, that literally don't know where the US Capitol building or other major landmarks are, that go to car auctions and buy the crappy cars that other are deemed to old and crappy to operate in other cities, that talk incessantly on their cellphones while driving, that charge unsuspecting visitors a 'luggage fee' for a briefcase or backpack, that spent decades ripping people off through the zone system confusion .....

Those victims?

You see anger directed toward cabbies in these forums because for too long now many (but admittedly not all) cabbies in DC have treated their paying customers very badly.

You haven't taken many taxis in Chicago, I see. Moving here to DC was a breath of fresh air, taxi-wise. I do see the many shortcoming here now, but the proportion of awful cabs to decent cabs is much higher in Chicago, in my experience.

I'm not sure where you get your facts. From what I can see:
1 public official was indicted (for accepting bribes totaling $1500, plus goods and services, while
27 cabbies or "representatives" have been indicted (for offering bribes of apx $100K.
And it was a public official (a taxi cab commissioner) who blew the lid off the cabbie's intended bribery scam.
Oh, and most DC cab trips are pretty short. Two, maybe three miles or less, certainly. So the high drop rate (and other high fees) would seem more beneficial to cabbies than the $1.50/mile meter fee.

And what about the defacto monopolies in certain areas? Add that to the fact that the industry is largely run on (untraceable and untaxed) cash, and it's no surprise bribery by cabbies and "industry representatives" are the news of the day.
Think about it.