A long winter lies ahead for Hoboken taxi and limousine operators, and it doesn’t take a groundhog to see what is casting the shadow.
Fifteen months after the ridesharing service UberX debuted in northern New Jersey, owners and drivers say they are handling a fraction of their former business and may soon have to cut services or close altogether.
On a typical Saturday night before Uber arrived, the three limousines of Hoboken A1 Limo/Taxi would make a combined total of $1,800, according to owner Maria Bautista. Nowadays, the same shift typically pulls in $250 total. Patricia Valencia, another taxi owner, said her revenue has fallen by 75 percent post-Uber.
“As of right now, it’s very scary,” said Jose Suero, owner of the Hoboken First Class Car Service. “It’s just a matter of time before we go out of business.”
At the Feb. 3 City Council meeting, several taxi owners called on the city to do more to protect and promote its native car service industry.
Uber and its competitor Lyft allow customers to summon a car to their location through a smartphone app. They are comparable to taxis in price but sometimes arrive more quickly, and tipping is not required. Users may also see on their phones how far away the car is.
“It’s just a matter of time before we go out of business.” – Jose Suero
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However, on Wednesday, Mayor Dawn Zimmer revealed that she was in discussions with Uber about the possibility of allowing Hoboken taxis to be hailed through the Uber app.
Hoboken pols speak out
Zimmer has publically endorsed bills sponsored by State Sen. Brian Stack and State Assemblyman Carmelo Garcia to regulate ridesharing companies the same way as taxis. She said changes to city ordinances banning Uber would only come once the state has weighed in.
“Uber and similar companies offer a valuable transportation option that we want to make available to Hoboken residents and visitors,” said Zimmer in August 2014.
Zimmer’s allies on the City Council have been even more vocal in their support of Uber. In August, Councilman David Mello released a YouTube video of himself picking up an Uber in Hoboken for the first time ever.
At the same time, Hoboken police have ticketed Uber drivers in certain spots, as they are not supposed to be picking up passengers in Hoboken unless they comply with local taxi laws.
In New York City, the light green “Boro Taxis” that serve the outer boroughs can be hailed via the Uber app, but yellow taxis cannot. It is not yet clear how such an arrangement would affect Hoboken taxi rates, which are currently a flat fee within the city.
“If we could get buy-in for having the taxi drivers be on the Uber app,” said Zimmer, “then that would be better for them, because that’s what everyone is using.”
Fighting back against Uber
That buy-in may be less than forthcoming. Limo owners like Maria Bautista already have the option of joining Uber’s high-end black car service, but she said she wants the city to take its own laws seriously.
“We’re not asking to put more police forces because we don’t want to waste taxpayers’ money,” said Bautista. “All we’re asking is that Uber needs to be blocked from our city.”
What she means is asking Uber directly to forbid pick-ups in Hoboken, not setting up police checkpoints on Marin Boulevard. Such a step would require a governing body motivated to fight Uber tooth and nail.
This past December, Uber suspended service in Portland, Oregon for three months only after the city sued the transportation company.
In lieu of greater enforcement, taxi owners also want the city to develop a proprietary app for Hoboken taxis and limos only.
“If the technology is what you want,” said Bautista, “then you should help us get that technology here rather than promoting business from the outside.”
Zimmer spokesman Juan Melli said the city has no plans to develop a smartphone application for Hoboken taxis at this time.
At the core of the debate between taxi owners and the city is an uncomfortable question: how much responsibility, if any, does a government have to protect a business monopoly it has created?
Are owners owed anything?
A common theme of the taxi drivers who spoke to the City Council on Tuesday was how much the city requires of them, in insurance, equipment, background checks, licenses, and fees.
“You wanted cars that were green, we bought cars that were green,” said Valencia. “You wanted a certain amount of insurance, we went and bought what you wanted. Everything that you wanted, we got.”
Since Zimmer took office in 2009, she has enacted ordinances requiring that 20 percent of each taxi company’s fleet be hybrids, and that limousines be no more than six years old.
Bautista said her city-mandated costs include a $750 annual renewal fee per car, $280 per driver for hack licenses, $120 for each driver’s physical exam with a specific doctor, and $8,000 premiums for commercial insurance.
The fee array for taxis is even heavier – around $380,000 for a license, plus a $750 annual license renewal fee, and $75 to apply for a hack license.
“When people purchase your license to drive here, they put money because you need the money at the time,” said cabbie Yesenia Camilo at a City Council meeting in November. “From our part, we need you to make sure that that business is lucrative for the people who purchase it.”
Such sentiments were echoed by Councilwoman Beth Mason, who objected to the idea that the city should seek to accommodate Uber.
“If [Uber cars] are breaking the law, they’re breaking the law,” said Mason. “Since when do we give that an OK up here?”
However, other council members pointed out that Hoboken taxis have their own legal issues, such as taxi drivers taking second fares against the will of their first fare. “If we’re going to talk about breaking the law, we need to talk about breaking all laws,” said Mello. He said taxis needed to provide Uber’s level of service if they were going to survive.
Enforcement down
In the meantime, the city has largely given up on its attempt to halt Uber through law enforcement. In a 35-day period last fall, officers from the Hoboken Police Department, the Hoboken Parking Utility and the Office of Emergency Management cited 81 drivers for at least one violation associated with operating an unlicensed taxicab or limousine. Since Chief Ken Ferrante took over the Police Department in December, however, only one police officer and two HPU inspectors are on Uber patrol on Friday and Saturday nights, compared to at least six city officers during the crackdown, according to Ferrante.
“We will enforce the laws when we have complaints,” said Ferrante in December, “but I don’t think it’s a priority where I’m going to put out a team of officers just to go enforce Uber.”
Issuing summons does not appear to have a strong deterrent effect on Uber drivers in Hoboken. Sources say Uber lawyers worked out a standing plea bargain in Hoboken Municipal Court, turning $1,000 tickets for operating an unlicensed taxicab into $288 fines, which Uber then pays for its drivers.
City-centric app?
Taxi owners say they want the technology that Uber has, but recent history might suggest otherwise, according to city officials. In April 2011, when Uber was still restricted to the West Coast, the city of Hoboken introduced its own virtual hailing system for taxis.
Customers could hail a Hoboken cab by texting their address to a number, and could even review their driver via text upon arrival. The system was rudimentary compared to Uber, but the city said in a tweet at the time that it was planning to develop a GPS-based virtual hailing app for iPhone and BlackBerry.
However, the project foundered soon after its debut, and city spokesman Juan Melli said taxis were to blame. Drivers had to opt into the system, and Melli said only two or three drivers ever did so. The rest showed no interest at all.
After a couple of weeks, said Melli, residents stopped using the system because no taxis were answering, and it went defunct.
Carlo Davis may be reached at cdavis@hudsonreporter.com.