Requiem for the taxi driver

That iconic, blue-collar profession made (in)famous by Robert De Niro in Taxi Driver is dying faster than Harvey Keitel in Taxi Driver. And a representative for local cabbies says Sacramento City Hall is speeding up his industry’s demise.

Kazman Zaidi, 60, describes himself as president of the Sacramento Taxi Cab Union, which isn’t actually a union but more of a club for independent cab drivers working in the city. Over the past year, Zaidi says that club has lost 75 percent of its business and shed 200 drivers.

Most of that damage has been done by ride-sharing companies, whose lightning-quick ascension dotted area streets with a gig-economy workforce that overcame local governments’ initial reluctance to let them accept lucrative airport fares.

“There’s no business. Everyone uses Uber or Lyft,” Zaidi told SN&R.

Zaidi acknowledges that his profession has been unable to compete with the Silicon Valley titans. He says a downtown trip to the airport would run a cab customer $38, but only $14 for an Uber rider. Those trips took off after Sacramento International Airport lifted its Uber blockade in 2015. Meanwhile, Zaidi’s group has exclusive pickup rights at only three locations—the Sheraton Grand Sacramento Hotel, the Citizen Hotel and Amtrak.

“We just have three stops,” Zaidi said. “And the whole day we are waiting, waiting, waiting.”

Because of state intervention, ride-sharing companies are free from the local government regulations placed on the taxi industry by Sacramento and other jurisdictions.

Ordinances first adopted in 2014 and updated this past October will further reduce the number of taxis operating in the city by capping vehicle permits at 450 for at least the next three years, and by mandating that all cabs be less than eight years old. Other City Hall requirements are seen as walking a thin line between guarding customer service and fanning cultural stereotypes. Citing “common” complaints “that some taxicab drivers do not understand them due to a language barrier” and of drivers who are “dirty and unkempt,” the city requires drivers to adhere to a dress code and take yearly written tests administered in English.

Zaidi characterized the tests, first implemented three years ago, as backdoor English exams aimed at a largely international workforce. Currently, drivers are required to take the tests at City Hall every year, whether they pass them or not.

“Anyway, we are stuck with this test every year for our whole life,” Zaidi complained.

Revenue Manager Brad Wasson says the city will stop requiring drivers who pass the test to retake them. But the tests themselves aren’t going away. “It’s a test in English; it’s not an English test,” Wasson contended. “It’s about the taxi industry.”

It’s actually a little bit of both. According to a city staff report, sample questions ask participants to choose another word for taxi among the following choices: car, cab, bus or amusement. There are also basic math and professional questions, like one that asks drivers which is a better travel resource—a local bar, the visitors and convention bureau, a post office or none of the above.

Wasson says the city sought input from Zaidi’s group and the hospitality industry after the October 3 City Council meeting at which the taxicab code was updated. The revenue manager said a number of fleet managers “had already made the capital investment” to purchase newer vehicles, and didn’t want to roll back that requirement since they had spent the money.

The city did agree to one concession—that vehicles of a certain age don’t have to submit to smog, brake and lamp inspections. “It’s a little something we’re going to do for them,” Wasson said.

As for the lack of regulations for the ride-sharing industry, Wasson says that’s not by choice. “If we could, we would,” he said. “Because we pretty much view them the same as the taxicab industry.”

But the state of California doesn’t. Because ride-shares are prearranged through an app rather than hailed from the street, the companies are nested under the same state rules governing limousines, preventing local jurisdictions from regulating them.

“That’s the difference that they’re hanging their hat on,” Wasson noted.

Which begs a question: If a cab company develops a ride-requesting app, could it skirt local rules by arguing it’s part of the limousine industry?

Wasson says it’s conceivable. “They could do that,” he said.

The cab companies would simply have to stop picking up people who hail them. There are fewer of those customers every day, Zaidi says.

“Believe me, if the same situation will stay, you will not see any cab drivers in the next year,” Zaidi predicted.