District taxi drivers are threatening to strike as early as next week unless the city backs down from enforcing a recently discovered law that requires cabdrivers to live in the city.
“We’ll shut this city down,” said Nathan Price, a spokesman for the 500-member D.C. Professional Taxicab Drivers Association. “We no longer have patience for what’s going on here.”
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.
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 cabdrivers 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, another nonprofit group representing cabdrivers, filed a lawsuit in D.C. Superior Court in March asking for a temporary injunction against enforcement of the law. The suit claims the law is unconstitutional and goes against long-established laws allowing drivers to operate in the city regardless of where they live.
Judge Neal Kravitz, who ruled against a motion by the city to dismiss the case but did not grant the injunction request, is expected hold a status on July 21 — which could put the case on a fast track.
“If we don’t get a favorable ruling, it could force us to take some serious actions,” said Billy Ray Edwards, a 40-year veteran driver. “This is serious.”
Meanwhile, 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 until September, would recognize out-of-state drivers as city businesses to allow them to register.
Toney is scheduled to meet with taxicab representatives privately today to discuss the legislation and hopefully “bring them on board.” Toney, who had recently downplayed the significance of the new law, said it is now the commission’s “No. 1 priority.”
New law, new changes
» Since the new law has been enforced, 15 new cab companies has sprouted up in the city to hire formerly independent operators.
» Hundreds of drivers have already been cited by regulators in the past few months, officials said.
» 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.
