Local & State Headlines

City mulls cab fares

• Albany City Commissioners table a vote on setting new taxi fares for the city, but the issue is still being looked into.

Barbara Rivera Holmes

ALBANY — Albany City Commissioners on Tuesday mulled OK’ing rate increases for taxi services while ensuring that consumers are being charged fair and approved rates.

In 2005, a city ordinance setting cab rates set new rates and repealed the last official rate change that was adopted in 1979. Commissioners revisited the ordinance Tuesday in an effort to stay current with the consumer price index.

The 2005 ordinance details rates including a waiting rate of $17 per hour; a flat rate of $15 for first passenger and $6 per additional passenger to and from the Southwest Georgia Regional Airport; and no charge for one suitcase, small briefcase or shopping bag (not to exceed 50 pounds).

But while commissioners seemed sympathetic to issues such as rising fuel costs, recent history shows the operators have room room for improvement.

Resident Sheron Woods, who moved to Albany from Houston in August, gave a detailed account to commissioners of several instances in which she’s been overcharged, despite presenting drivers with the city ordinance that reflects the approved rates.

In one case, she said, police were called after she refused to pay the unauthorized rate the driver demanded. She was eventually forced to pay a $103 fare that included wait time for the police.

“I can hardly get service now because I called (the taxis) out,” said Woods.

“You’re what we call a whistle-blower,” Albany Mayor Willie Adams said to Woods.

In a Dec. 20, 2007 “warning” letter from the city’s code enforcement department to “all taxi companies,” license inspector W. Nathaniel Norman reiterates that “wait meters will not be used until the correct fare is properly installed” and that “the rate card is to be affixed to the rear of the passenger seat.”

He also stated that “meters will not be used until the correct wait fare is properly installed (the current fare is 25 cents for every 15 seconds, and it should be 28 cents for every minute)” and that travel within the central business district is $6.50 for the first individual and $2.50 for each additional passenger. Also, that the flat rate is $17 per hour if agreed upon by the operator and customer.

Added Norman in his letter, “This letter serves as a warning and written reminder of our conversation and the temporary corrective action we both understood.”

Albany City Manager for Public Services James Taylor provided commissioners with two options in regards to the operators’ request to raise fares. He recommended to increase fare as detailed in a Jan. 8 letter from Albany Veterans Cab Co., representing Albany Friendly and Harlem Cab Cos.:

• Waiting time: increase to at least $30 per hour and waiting charge if customer requests driver to wait. Also, that meter run when driver heads to an assignment and when stops at a location;
• Luggage: 25 pounds-50 pounds, $1; more than 50 pounds, $2;
• Flat rates: That flat rates to and from airport be removed and instead that meters be used. “With gas prices, it is unfair to use the flat rate when the meter will run $24.15 in the (Albany) Mall area,” states the Jan. 8 letter;
• Hourly rate: “The rate of $17 per hour is inadequate. ... We are requesting to set the meter at all times, and use the waiting when stopped.”

In light of some drivers’ charging unauthorized rates, Albany City Manager Al Lott said that, “(We should) seal the meters and do a better job. ... We have to respond to the complaints.”

Currently, drivers can set the rate on the meter, as opposed to Albany officials setting the rate and then sealing, or locking, the meters.

“This is a privilege we are giving them to operate a taxi,” said Commissioner Bob Langstaff.

“Given increases in gas,” Langstaff said, “some rates make sense.”

Commissioners tabled a vote on the matter until they can look into the issues of the luggage rate, flat rate and waiting time.

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