A D.C. Council panel is recommending that the District suspend the taxicab driver licensing class for more than two years to cull a “potentially catastrophic oversupply” of new cabbies taking to the streets.
The hacker’s license examination had been suspended since 2005 when the exam was compromised, though it resumed in March once new questions and security protocols were in place. The University of the District of Columbia continued to offer the training course during the four-year delay, resulting in a backlog of nearly 3,000 potential new taxi drivers.
More than 1,600 people have taken the test since March, and an additional 1,200 potential drivers are eligible. Leon Swain, chairman of the D.C. Taxicab Commission, told The Examiner recently that upward of 60 percent of test takers were passing.
There were 6,670 licensed drivers as of Sept. 31. The District could experience a 12 percent to 20 percent increase in drivers if half of all new applicants pass the test, the council’s Committee on Public Works and Transportation wrote in its fiscal 2010 budget report. Any increase beyond 20 percent “would represent a potentially catastrophic oversupply,” the panel warned.
“We really need a breathing space to figure out … something to regulate the size of our taxicab [system],” said Ward 1 Councilman Jim Graham, committee chairman. The panel recommended suspending the training course until Jan. 1, 2012.
At-large Councilman Phil Mendelson was uneasy with the proposal, though he voted for the committee report.
“It feels to me like that’s doing what ought to be regulated by the market,” Mendelson said. “If there are too many drivers, we’ll see that hacking becomes less profitable and the number of drivers will fall.”
The District has an open taxi system — there is no cap, as most cities have, on the number of cabs. The District must pause on the training course or risk flooding the city with new vehicles it doesn’t need and cannot support, said Roy Spooner, general manager of Yellow Cab of D.C.
“I believe the system is right now at its max,” Spooner said, “and you have to preserve space for the people who have already invested in it.”
