With three weeks remaining until all D.C. cabs are required to power up their time and distance meters, few of the city’s roughly 7,000 licensed taxi drivers have had the equipment installed in their vehicles.
Drivers still haven’t been told where or how to have the work done, and the D.C. Taxicab Commission’s Web site does not list the names of licensed meter installers. The taxi industry appears unprepared to ditch the zone system come May 1 in lieu of the meters used in virtually every major U.S. city.
There are only three shops where the meters can be installed, a city official said.
A man who answered the phone Thursday at one of them, National Taxi Meters on Edwin Street Northeast, said the business hasn’t installed more than “20 or 30” meters.
“You cannot do it all in one day,” the man said.
Drivers are likely procrastinating as a D.C. Superior Court judge debates whether to slap an injunction on the switch, Leon Swain, D.C. Taxicab Commission chairman, told The Examiner.
“What I’ve basically been hearing, a lot of people are waiting to see what the decision’s going to be before they make a $500 investment,” Swain said.
Opponents of time and distance meters claim that Mayor Adrian Fenty lacked the authority to set the rules and rates for the new system without the approval of the eight-member Taxicab Commission. Judge Brook Hedge, who heard arguments late last month, promised to rule quickly but has yet to issue her decision.
“I think the combination of the anticipation of that decision and the fact that nobody is much pressing them to do anything creates a certain amount of lethargy about this,” said Ward 1 D.C. Councilman Jim Graham, who has oversight of taxi issues.
Audrey Fix Schaefer, spokeswoman for the D.C. Professional Taxicab Drivers’ Association, confirmed that drivers are in no rush to have the equipment installed as they await the judge’s ruling. The drivers behind the suit say they prefer zone meters, which use Global Positioning System technology to accurately track zone fares.
Swain said the meter implementation date remains May 1 despite what might be a mad rush to the service bays. He acknowledged, however, “looking at different plans” just in case.
