D.C.’s for-hire vehicle agency plagued by metering issues

The D.C. Department of For Hire Vehicles (DFHV) has developed a mixed track record in the 2 1/2 years since it took over the city’s Taxicab Commission.

The agency has made strides in digitizing complaint procedures and verifications, but the modernization so far has failed to resolve disputes over shady metering.

Taxicab ridership has continued to plummet, and one lawmaker is concerned that the DFHV is ticketing taxis more often than Uber or Lyft vehicles.

“It’s not our responsibility to drive business to specific companies or drivers,” DFHV Director Ernest Chrappah said during an interview in his Anacostia office. “Our responsibility is to leverage the for-hire vehicle ecosystem to solve problems of moving people around the city.”

Mr. Chrappah said data will resolve mobility issues and his department’s woes. His staff of 60 workers have constructed a log-in credential system that checks the status of each cabbie’s license and insurance status before the meter can start, a process that has reduced the number of drivers with expired credentials, he said.

He added that digital meters have reduced drivers’ operating costs.

But the D.C. Taxi Operators Association, which is supported by Teamsters Local Union 922, says the new meters have allowed third-party providers into the system, some of whom have failed to pay taxes to the DFHV and led the agency to go after drivers to collect.

Union business agent Johnice Earle shared with The Washington Times an audio recording of a DFHV officer telling a taxi driver to get his meter provider to pay its back taxes: “Because if one of my officers find you in the street, they’re going to take your vehicle, no questions asked.”

Mr. Chrappah said that if meter providers fail to pay, his agency pursues the bonds the companies take out on city revenue, not drivers.

He did acknowledge that “some companies had been shut down” for installing unlicensed meters. He added that the DFHV rolled out an Application Programming Interface, which tracks D.C. taxis and limos in real-time to prevent illegal meter usage. The system also makes returning lost belongings much easier and identifies areas of the city as “transit deserts.”

DFHV also has begun publishing data online, such as the total number of trips taken in D.C. taxicabs or limousines in fiscal 2018 — just over 10 million — which is half what riders took five years ago, according to Washington City Paper. This coincides with a 500 percent city revenue increase from private for-hire vehicle trips by ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft, which do not publish trip counts.

As cabbies struggle amid falling ridership, D.C. Council member Kenyan McDuffie, Ward 5 Democrat, worries that taxis are being unfairly targeted for tickets.

DFHV in 2017 issued 7,127 tickets, 45 percent of which went to cabs and limos, according to data shared with The Times. The department says the remaining 55 percent went to a mix of out-of-state taxis and Uber and Lyft drivers.

Mr. McDuffie, who oversees DFHV as chairman of the Business Committee, has raised the issue in oversight hearings and said he is “disappointed that the agency has not taken the apparent disparity seriously.”

Mr. Chrappah said “the imbalance” has occurred because the D.C. Code lists more regulations for taxis — like requiring cabbies pass a physical exam, which he wants to abolish.

One thing officials, activists and the union do agree on is the quality of the DFHV’s public complaint system to reduce road fatalities. The public can report online any traffic infraction a for-hire vehicle commits, which triggers a mediation hearing with the driver. Mr. Chrappah said he’s “particularly proud” of the process, which handles about 1,000 complaints a year.

D.C. Bicycle Advisory Council member Rachel Maisler said she reports frequently cars blocking bike paths, adding the fact that the DFHV’s complaint system notifies the sender about how the process ended “sets it apart” from other agencies and produces results.