A Tribute to the Jitney | The Freeman | Ideas On Liberty
Is there any reason for making jitneys illegal? What about requiring medallions or licenses for taxicabs? Why are most transit operations that could be run by private companies so heavily regulated that no business would even start? I'd like to hear the argument for this because I can only think of weak arguments like safety (which is easy to solve, only use the companies that you trust and prosecute those that are criminal).
Suburban Chicago's taxi cab business isn't regulated except on a town level. Some towns require taxis
and their operators be licensed. Some don't. For those that do, they strictly enforce the licensing requirements and even set up stings to catch those who violate their ordinances. Here's why regulation is needed, at least in suburban Chicago:
Some taxi cab companies operate completely shady. Here's the way one operates that I have personal knowledge of and that has 70-80 cabs on the street in suburban Chicago. This company hires anyone with a pulse and promises them $500-$700 a week in their pockets for 12-hour days 6/7 days a week. They have more applicants than taxi cabs. They charge drivers $80/day to lease their cabs and their dispatch service feeds them rides. They pay for their own gas. Their cabs are
supposed to be insured, of course,
but when a driver is stopped for a traffic violation, he finds out he doesn't
have any insurance. He's ticketed for the original offense, plus another for driving without insurance. That last violation costs him $1,000.
The company isn't interested in customer service, they're interested in the $80/day the driver pays. Drivers have to cheat the customers to pay their leases, buy gas, and make a few bucks to live on.
The company is in cahoots with the insurance company and switches insurance on cabs at will -- never having all of the cabs insured. It's the luck of the draw as to whether or not a particular cab is insured on a particular day. Call the insurance company to find out if
your particular cab is insured by VIN number? They won't give the driver any information. "Call the company to find that out." And, of course, the company always says they are.
The cabs this company puts on the road are unsafe. It's not unusual for a front wheel will fall off. Quite often the driver's seat is not fastened...they don't pass emissions...holes in the roof or floor. Drivers are often ticketed for not having a valid emissions sticker that matches the VIN, and the cars are towed. The driver gets stuck paying the tow and the ticket. The way the laws are written in Illinois, it's the
driver who takes the hit, not the owner of the car.
Felons are rampant in many cab companies that aren't regulated. Nothing wrong with that. Christ, they have to work
someplace. But if a felon won't pay for the tow on an emissions violation, the cab company will threaten to violate him with his probation officer. So he pays. It's usually around $300.
Find out as a driver after a week you're working for nothing -- which is what happens the majority of the time? The contract the company has you sign says you have to give two weeks' notice, so they extort another $1000 out of the poor souls who sign up.
The company regularly dispatches the taxis into areas where they aren't licensed. The unsuspecting driver goes to pick up a fare, and, if he's unlucky, gets a $100 ticket for violating local licensing laws. These guys have
no idea what they are getting themselves into when they join this particular company. And, of course, this is just
one company.
The company pays all of its in-office personnel on 1099's; works them 12 hours a day; pays in cash. One has to wonder how they can stay in business. If the state of Illinois had taxi cab rules and regs, these horrible companies who exploit the least of us couldn't exist.
I know all this because my S.O. is an independent who owns his own cab and used their dispatching service for eight years. He'd try to warn the drivers, but who'd believe these stories? As true as they are. When he told them he was leaving, they tried to extort money from him threatening to call the DMV and have his license revoked unless he continued paying his $200 weekly dispatch fee. When that didn't work, he told him that the county was going to make all independents pay a $75,000 licensing fee. When that didn't work....well, we'll just have to see.
Taxi cabs transporting your teen-aged daughters and sons....your senior moms....absolutely should be regulated. The City of Chicago sells Medallions. Even at that, they have problems; but not as egregious as the suburbs.