Do you remember that post I did a couple a months ago about a horrible taxi cab ride I experienced in New Orleans?  Well, a local New Orleans newspaper found the write-up via my blog and contacted me for an interview.  The article was finally published in the New Orleans CityBusiness by Richard A Webster.  Here is the excerpt below.

Two weeks ago, Toya M—- and her mother waited outside Harrah’s Casino for a taxi to take them back to their hotel. The driver of the first cab in line refused to take them after seeing her mother’s wheelchair but begrudgingly agreed only after the next person said he didn’t have enough money to get to his destination.

When they reached their hotel, the meter indicated they owed $6 but the driver demanded $10. He told M—– it was a luggage fee for carrying her mother’s wheelchair.

“I got my camera and took a picture of his cab and he said, ‘No, no, no. Take your money back,'” said M—–, a resident of Harlem, N.Y. “I told him to keep the $10. I’m the type of person where if you do something wrong, you’re not going to get rid of me.”

M—– said she tried calling the number on the side of the Hawk and Jet Cab van to report the driver but no one answered. She found another number online that was out of service.

CityBusiness also failed in attempts to contact the company, receiving no answer on one phone number and an out-of-service message on another.

Taxis are said to be the frontline of the tourism industry, the first and last impressions made on visitors to the city. A good experience can have a lasting impact; a bad one can be devastating. Complaints include drivers who are rude and don’t seem to follow established rules and vehicles that are old, dirty and lack modern amenities such as credit card machines, GPS tracking and, in the worst cases, air conditioning.

“We have this great city and have upped the ante in so many aspects of our tourism industry. It seems like the taxi industry is last thing keeping us from moving up to the next level,” said Rachel Van Voorhees, co-owner of Green Fleet Taxi Service, an environmentally friendly startup looking to get its foot in the door.

The Landrieu administration and the City Council agree, vowing to transform an industry that has gone largely unregulated for decades.

Ann Duplessis, the city’s deputy chief administrative officer, and Councilwoman Kristin Gisleson Palmer want every taxi licensed in the city equipped with the latest technology. They want to institute age restrictions on vehicles and require taxi companies to have dispatchers.

But the change won’t come overnight.

“We’re dealing with long-term systemic issues,” Palmer said. “But I think we need to use the (2013) Super Bowl as a time guide. What do we want our cabs to look like for the Super Bowl? What can we implement to get us there?”

The city is conducting an audit of all licensed taxis, assessing the quality of the vehicles and drivers and determining who holds the licenses, officially called Certificate of Public Necessity and Convenience numbers.

The number of taxi licenses in New Orleans is capped at 1,600 and those in possession of CPNC numbers hoard them like gold. If a driver dies or decides to get out of the business, instead of returning the licenses to the city so they can be awarded to newcomers, they are given to family and friends or they’re rented or sold on the open market for as high as $40,000, Van Voorhees said.

Because the city doesn’t have any new licenses to distribute, the only way to get in the business is to buy old licenses, and few startups have those resources.

Green Fleet Taxi Service and Green Taxi Co. have business plans designed to inject environmentally friendly practices into the taxi industry while rolling out fleets of new cars stocked with all the latest technology. But the current system has locked them out.

In October, the Ground Transportation Bureau, part of the city’s Safety and Permits Department, rejected Green Taxi’s application for nine CPNC numbers, telling owner Oliver Delery the only way to get them was by negotiating with current holders.

This practice has been allowed to persist because the Ground Transportation Bureau “has done an abysmal job regulating the taxi cab industry,” Palmer said.

“I can pass legislation until I’m blue in the face but if they don’t monitor the cabs or enforce the law, it won’t mean anything,” she said.

After its audit is completed, the city will create a new plan to manage and provide supervision of the taxi industry. Duplessis said she wants a radical transformation of the industry but will bring the taxi companies to the table because they will bear the financial brunt of the changes.

Confidence in Duplessis is high.

Despite being denied cab licenses in October, Delery said he believes Mayor Mitch Landrieu and Duplessis are the right people to clean up the industry and make room for companies like his.

“If they can do to the taxi bureau what they’ve done with every other department they’ve looked at, we know it will be a win-win for the city. But we want to give them time because the city was so dysfunctional when they took it over. Hopefully in the end, we’ll get some CPNC numbers.”

As for the taxicab industry, it recognizes the need for change and improvement, said attorney Ike Spears, who represents several of the city’s cab lines. Cab company owners frequently butted heads with the Nagin administration, but Duplessis’ presence gives them confidence the process will be done with respect.

“She understands the industry,” Spears said. “Her daddy was a cab driver, her mom was a dispatcher, she learned to drive in a cab. So it’s refreshing to have somebody who knows the industry and understands it’s an industry of hard working small business people. I think she’ll work hand in hand with the industry to make it better.”

Copyright 2011 Dolan Media Newswires

Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

This is why it’s good to speak up when you have an issue with a service or business.  You never know who is listening.  I always stand up for what I believe in.  I’m very thankful that I have this blog as an outlet to vent out my frustrations.