John McNamara: On Pre-Payment for Cab Drivers

First a Disclaimer: I am the Marketing Manager for Union Cab of Madison. I have worked at Union Cab for 22 years (16 years as a driver). I have been lucky in my career to have only had two “non-payers”. Without a doubt my views are affected by my employment and my concern for my fellow workers.

The Common Council will be considering a proposal to amend Madison General Ordinance 11.06 to allow cab drivers to require pre-payment when any one of eight conditions exist:

Prior history of non-payment

Indicates an unwillingness or inability to pay

Hails a cab on the street instead of calling through the dispatch office

Has a destination outside of Madison

Changes destination or isn’t clear about the destination

Makes a stop on the way to the destination

Admits to being intoxicated or appears intoxicated

Placed into cab by a police officer

This would replace the current language, which allows pre-payment only if the company registers with the city while posting rates (something companies may only do once every six months) and apply the practice to every customer and only between the hours of 9 p.m. to 5 a.m.

My last runner fit two of the eight conditions. He was very drunk and flagged me outside of Camp Randall after a football game. He went to some new development on the far west side (off of Old Sauk). He had to go in to get his money and never came back. I was pretty stupid for letting him do that, but ate the $30 fare (pretty much defeating the point of working that day). This occurred around 5 p.m. and would not have been prevented by the current ordinance.

The issue requires a little background. For most of my years as a cab driver, if somebody couldn’t pay for the cab, dispatch would call the police. The police would come and write a ticket (or a report if it was a runner) and the driver could then have the amount written off. The driver didn’t get paid for the ride, but they also weren’t held responsible for the fare. Over the last decade, however, as the geography of the City has expanded, the police have developed preventative tactics for dealing with petty crimes in order to be more efficient (I’ll leave it for others to determine if that policy works).

The MPD quit responding unless there was a threat of harm to the driver. This left the driver with no protection from people who haven’t any intention of paying. The MPD argument was that cab drivers should be able to take steps to prevent runners and non-payers just like gas stations and hotels. We responded that they are allowed to collect pre-payment while cab companies cannot except under strict circumstances. Further, the 9 p.m. to 5 a.m. period presumes that this sort of crime only happens during these hours (all of the runners in my career happened in the daylight).

The cab companies argued that “If the law won’t allow us preventative measures than the police need to respond when we call.” The police argued that they don’t have the resources for this especially if the runner is long gone. It is more appropriate for the self-reporting line. For the last year we have had a slightly workable solution in the police will respond to only if the non-payer is waiting in the cab for the police to arrive; however, runners will be self-reported.

About two years ago, during the normal license renewal process, the City (through the Department of Transportation) asked the companies how to amend the ordinance to make something workable for both the police and the drivers. At Union, we asked our drivers. We asked them what are the major risk factors for a non-payer or runner. They responded with the list of eight conditions above and we supplied them to the City.

It is worth noting that none of the eight conditions deal with redlining or protected characteristics. These are the real situations in which payment becomes unlikely. Since February, Union Cab had 11 instances that were reported by drivers. These 11 incidents covered all eight bullet points (some had multiple issues). They happened throughout the day. Recently, I spoke with a Badger manager who created a form for drivers to document the incidents and they have recorded over 90 non-payment since last summer.

I understand the fear that these new criteria may be used to “red line” some neighborhoods; however, I think that fear is misplaced. First, the city requires that cab companies provide service to the entire city and has two regulatory bodies to protect citizens (the TPC and the Equal Opportunities Commission). Second, pre-payment isn’t a very useful tool for discrimination since the person would still get a ride if they have a means to pay. Third, the eight criteria deal with personal behavior of the passenger not any physical (or protected) characteristic of the passenger.

The cab drivers of Madison deserve protection from those who fraudulently order cabs without the intent to pay for the service. Likewise, consumers of cab service deserve to have clearly spelled out ground rules for what they should expect to be charged and how to pay. Finally, the Madison Police need to be efficient with their time and fleet. This new proposal accomplishes all three. It was essentially drafted by cab drivers based on their real experiences and covers only the specific behavior that most likely ends up in a non-payment situation.

By John McNamara