Taxi Cab Drivers Win Rate Fight

Bowing to pressure from taxi cab drivers, the Metro Transportation and Licensing Commission voted not to raise meter rates today.

Cab companies had approached the board about raising the meter rates by 30-cents a mile to help drivers cope with the rising cost of fuel.

But drivers opposed the rate increase. Abdinasir Ismael is a driver with Allied and he’s also the secretary for the Taxi Driver’s Alliance.

“I mean we could use the money, we need the money but it’s going to hurt us in the long run because we’re going to lose a lot of business from the customers. That’s why we think it’s not important now to raise the rates, even though, I mean gas is high, everything is high, but we still want to keep the customers.”

Drivers do have to pay for their own gas, but say the real problem is the weekly franchise fee the drivers must pay the cab companies, no matter how business is in a given week. For most of the cab companies, it runs about $175.00 per week.