Photo by Sarah Anne Hughes.
As hundreds of federally contracted workers gathered at Freedom Plaza this morning to protest for a living wage, a smaller group of D.C. cab drivers assembled to rally against the fast-approaching credit card reader installation deadline.
The group, which as noon approached swelled to over 100 drivers, made it clear that they want to have credit card readers in their cabs. At one point a speaker yelled, “We’re ready, right?” “Right!” the group yelled back. What was in dispute was the feasibility that they will be able to meet the October 1 credit card reader deadline set by the D.C. Taxi Commission: “Fix the backlog! Extend the deadline.” Cabs that do not have readers installed by the beginning of October will be towed, the D.C. Taxi Commission has said.
A payment service provider installation report released last week for the week ending September 13 showed that five of the eight PSPs were experiencing a backlog. The report for the week ending September 20 did not include this information, but did say that five PSPs are reporting “excess capacity for more installs.”
Wednesday’s rally was organized by cab driver organization DC Drivers United for Equal Rights and the Excluded Worker Project, which released a report yesterday outlining the issues with the installation process.
From surveying 179 drivers, the Excluded Worker Project found the following problems:
Showing up for their pre-assigned installation appointment only to be told to come back another day; Long delays – sometimes days – in calibrating the meter to sync properly with the credit card processing device; Installation processes and procedures requiring the driver to return to the installation site multiple times or wait long hours; Installed credit card devices that failed to work properly upon installation; Installed credit card devices that went down intermittently following an initially successful installation; and Payment Service Providers tacking on numerous fees above and beyond a monthly charge for service.
Two cab drivers DCist spoke to at the rally said they had credit card readers installed this week, but they are not functioning properly. One driver said he lost a $20 fare to National Airport after the credit card reader failed to work. When he returned to USA Motors, the PSP he used, he said he was told everything was working fine.
The report states that the problem is very evident and that D.C. Taxi Commission chairman Ron Linton has not provided an alternative plan.
Neville Waters, spokesperson for the D.C. Taxi Commission, said they had not received a request to extend the deadline. Indeed, Aurora Vasquez of the Excluded Workers Project said the report was posted on her group’s site yesterday, but was not mailed or emailed to the Commission.
Waters again said that the drivers have had since the beginning of June to have credit card readers installed. He said that, while some PSPs are experiencing backlogs, others have excess capacity.
So at the moment, it appears the cab drivers won’t get the extended deadline they’re looking for.
