District taxicab leaders said they could decide as early as Tuesday whether to strike — but added that a D.C. Superior Court judge’s decision Friday to “fast track” a lawsuit seeking to stop enforcement of a recently discovered residency requirement could delay any work stoppage.
Taxi drivers across the city have been upset since city regulators decided to begin enforcing a recently discovered law that requires cabdrivers to live in the city.
Although Friday’s hearing before D.C. Superior Court Judge Neil Kravitz was a procedural hearing, the group’s attorney, Horace Bradshaw, said he feels enough priority is being given to the case that it would benefit taxi drivers not to park their cars.
The law, which was originally passed in 2001, had not been enforced until Department of Motor Vehicles officials came across it during an internal legal review earlier this year. The city began enforcing the law in March, and hundreds of drivers have begun receiving citations.
The law does not allow residents living outside of the District to register their vehicles in the city, forcing a driver to either become an employee of a taxi company, move into the city or operate using their home state’s license plates — an exemption that only lasts as long as the original car is operational.
An estimated 80 percent of the city’s 7,500 cab drivers live outside of the District.
City regulators said they would not stop issuing permits for drivers with out-of-state plates, but critics say the law is a step toward a “corporate takeover” of the last independent owner-operator taxi system in the country.
The Taxi Cab Drivers Association filed the lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court in March asking for a temporary injunction against enforcement of the law. Although Kravitz did not grant the injunction, he also ruled against a requestby city attorneys to dismiss the case.
Billy Ray Edwards, a 40-year veteran driver, said taxi leaders are expected to meet to Tuesday to discuss the situation and decide their next move.
D.C. Taxicab Commission Chairman Causton Toney said he is preparing legislation that would reverse the DMV’s decision. Toney said the legislation, which couldn’t be considered by the D.C. Council until September, would recognize out-of-state drivers as city businesses and allow them to register their vehicles.
Taxi driver lawsuit
» Since the new law has been enforced, 15 new cab companies have sprouted up in the city to hire formerly independent operators.
» The lawsuit says the law is unconstitutional and goes against federal interstate trade laws.
» The lawsuit also seeks significant damages for drivers adversely affected by the new law.
