 photo by MICHAEL PARRISH |
BY BEN SEIGEL |
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WEB
EXCLUSIVE!
STORY
SIDEBARS:
Since 1991, the number of passengers flying into PDX who require ground transportation has increased 50 percent, according to the Port of Portland marketing division.
In 1990, 317,000 convention delegates visited Portland. This year the figure is estimated at 459,340, according to the Portland Oregon Visitors Association.
Most town-car
In July, the city approved two new companies--Smart Cab and Sassy Cab--to its corps of licensed taxi companies. Some town-car operators believe the expansion is aimed at squeezing certain town-car operators out of business.
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Not so long ago John Hamilton's job was a lot easier. As the City of Portland's taxicab supervisor, Hamilton was responsible for keeping a watchful eye on the four taxi companies and their fleet of 317 vehicles. But in the past few years, he has had to grapple with a new challenge: town cars and other taxi-like vehicles that now outnumber cabs. Under city law, town cars have a different set of standards than cabs do. In practice, however, most of them operate in just the same way but do so without the regulations and fees imposed on cabs (see "In the Lap of Luxury," below). Not surprisingly, tensions between cab drivers and town car operators have been escalating, so earlier this summer Hamilton issued a comprehensive enforcement plan to reign in freewheeling town cars. Hamilton's plan, released in May, in effect creates a huge network of town-car monitors, involving everyone from cabbies and bus drivers to airport officials and city workers (see "Learn or Pay," below). Unfortunately for Hamilton, the network doesn't include a key group of people: Portland's doormen, who are violating the city ordinance by steering hotel guests into waiting town cars and getting a nice kickback in return. "It's rapidly turned into a situation where the doorman is a pimp, the town-car driver is the whore and the customer is the john," says Greg Bowman, who has recently returned to drive for Broadway Cab after a frustrating year-long stint as owner of his own town-car company. "These kids [doormen] are out there running the whole show." Town cars are not cabs. At least that's what the law says. Town cars must be limousines or executive cars with such amenities as telephones, televisions or luxury upholstery. Drivers should be professionally dressed and well-mannered. In most cases, town-car companies comply with these regulations. There are two even more important distinctions between town cars and cabs. First, town cars must charge rates that are "consistently and substantially higher than the prevailing rates charged by licensed taxicab companies within the City of Portland." Second, town cars must operate as a "service by reservation only." Passengers should not be able to hail a town car from the street. Both of these rules are routinely ignored at the loading zones of some of Portland's finest hotels. In the ground transportation business, the airport is the mother of all destinations. A driver may make more money schlepping somebody's aunt from Sellwood to Aloha, but most likely he or she will be driving back to Portland in an empty vehicle. The airport, however, guarantees a return fare. The downtown hotels are the best place to find frequent flyers. That's why the Taxicab Board of Review, chaired by Hamilton, has set up taxi stands at some of the big hotels. These stands mandate that cabbies form a single-file line in designated locations near the hotels' loading zones. When a hotel guest asks for on-the-spot ground transportation, doormen signal the next cab in line. These lineups are off-limits to town cars. They are allowed at hotels only to drop off passengers or pick up guests who arranged rides in advance through the doorman or front desk. For many town-car operators, though, the temptation to hawk their services has proven too great. Town cars are notorious for blocking hotel loading zones in attempts to lure departing hotel guests. Some hotels report town-car drivers loitering inside the lobby, soliciting unassuming guests. Or, in another variation, town-car drivers arrive at a hotel lobby announcing they are there to pick up a fictitious guest, in hopes of attracting the attention of a real airport-bound passenger who has not reserved a ride. Town cars are a popular choice for guests who pay over $200 a night for a room. A Lincoln Continental, with leather seats and head rests, is more appealing than a refurbished police car with vinyl upholstery, particularly when both charge about $25 for a ride to PDX. So even though hotel managers have been known to ban certain drivers, for the most part they put up with the loitering town cars in the name of pleasing their guests. Some town-car operators have found an even more sure-fire way to beat the system: the gratuity market. In most cases drivers broker deals with doormen, giving them about 35 percent of each fare. According to industry insiders, the main culprits of town-car abuse are doormen at the 5th Avenue Suites and The Governor Hotel. Scott McMichael, guest services manager at 5th Avenue, acknowledges that his hotel uses town cars for about 60 percent of its guests' transit needs. Based on an agreement between the hotel and One Putt Luxury Town Car Service, guests are charged $25 for a ride to the airport. McMichael insists that all rides are arranged in advance. His doormen, however, tell a slightly different story. One doorman, who works the shift from 7 am to 3 pm, verified the hotel's agreement with One Putt. When guests use that town-car service, he receives no tips. But, he says, several times a day he'll flag down other town cars for guests who haven't made arrangement with One Putt. For those rides, he gets a tip. Though he wouldn't disclose the exact amounts, a fellow doorman at the hotel reported an average tip of $8 per ride, with at least four such tips per shift. Kalauu Davis, supervisor of the New Rose City Cab Co., says the situation is so bad that even though a taxi stand was recently put in at the 5th Avenue Suites, his cabs won't go near the hotel. It's not just cabbies who are upset. Other town-car operators are complaining. Hank Owens, co-owner of Pacific Executive, says his drivers often arrive at a hotel for a reserved pickup to find out that the doormen have already sent their customers off in other town cars. "The thing is, these smaller one-man companies are happy to make just $50 a day, so it's nothing for them to give a doorman $10 while they only keep $15 of the fare," explains Owens, whose operation has a fleet of 12 vehicles. "For our company $50 a day wouldn't even cover our vehicles' safety regulations. It's these certain drivers that are giving our whole industry a bad name and image." In
the Lap of Luxury In contrast, town-car firms need only to acquire a city business license as a "luxury transportation" provider. No hearings, no operator's permits, no insurance checks, no renewal fees, no vehicle inspections, no sweat. --BS Learn or PayThe city's town-car enforcement plan, as part of its larger ground-transportation-services plan, calls upon a dual attack of education and punishment. Through the assistance of the agencies represented on the Taxicab Board of Review, including the Port, Portland Oregon Visitors Association, Tri-Met and Traffic Management, Hamilton will be informing town-car operators about luxury-transportation regulations and circulating complaint forms to the agencies and throughout the airport and hotels. Hamilton will look at each complaint on an indivudual basis and write up an incident report form, backed up with a warning, which he will give to the driver. These forms are to be used to keep a count of repeat violators. Chronic scofflaws will face fines of $500 per violation per day. --BS
originally published September 2, 1998 |
