UTW
needs
Your
Donation

Them that’s got shall get
Them that’s not shall lose
So the Bible says
And it still is news
“God Bless the Child”
by Billie Holliday and Arthur Herzog

Four members of the Board of Supervisors provided the needed signatures to place the measure on the ballot. They are: Chris Daly, Fiona Ma, Jake McGoldrick and Gerardo Sandoval. The only one who talked to United Taxicab Workers before signing on was Fiona Ma.
As of our press deadline in late July, it was not certain that the measure would be on the ballot since signing supervisors could remove their names up to Aug. 1.
By going to the ballot, the PDA cut short efforts at the Taxi Commission to achieve an industry-wide consensus on amending the governing taxi law, Proposition K of 1978.
Prop K provides that taxicab permits are city property and cannot be sold or transferred. Permits are issued for a nominal application fee to persons who have placed their names on a waiting list. The permit holder is subject to an annual driving requirement, currently defined as 156 shifts of at least four hours.
Most permit holders lease their medallions to cab companies which manage the operations of the taxi. Typical permit lease income is $1,800 a month and is sometimes higher. That amounts to $30 a shift or more, or about one-third of a non-medallion-holding driver’s gates.
Permit holders possess a slew of other advantages, such as choice of shift, excellent equipment to drive, and red-carpet treatment from any company they choose to join. Their earnings potential as drivers is far higher than that of drivers without those advantages.
The discussions at the Taxi Commission were aimed at overhauling Prop K, including a major expansion of the proposition’s allowance for exemption from the driving requirement in case a permit holder is unable to drive. But the PDA has rejected anything less than a lifetime exemption.
UTW believes the measure will create a de facto retirement system for virtually all permit holders. Rather than surrender their medallions and give up $20,000-plus in annual income, permit holders will stay in the industry until they can come up with a plausible disability claim. Given the measure’s absence of criteria for determining disability, that should not prove difficult as drivers age.
Since 47 percent of permit holders were determined to be violating the requirement in a 2000 Taxi Detail audit of way bills, the number of permit holders willing to take advantage of lax standards for disability determinations figures to be quite high. UTW is greatly concerned about the potential for abuse of such a vague and open-ended provision.
UTW believes that disability provisions should be applicable to all drivers regardless of whether one has a permit. Permit-based disability/retirement is unfair on several counts: it excludes the great majority of drivers who do not have permits; it is paid for through the work of non-permit holding drivers; and it will result in a much longer wait for a permit, preventing many elderly drivers from getting one.
There are currently 3,000 people on the waiting list for a medallion. The wait is about 12 years, but is sure to increase dramatically in the future. If non-driving permit holders keep their medallions for life, permit applicants will be that much further delayed in obtaining their own medallions.
UTW also believes it is grossly unfair to provide a lifetime disability/retirement income to persons who have been cab drivers for very little time, while denying it to others who have given their lifetime to the industry.
Until 1999, permit applicants did not have to have any cab driving experience to qualify for a medallion. Since then, a permit applicant need only have driven 156 taxi shifts during the previous year to be eligible. That means a disabled driver with less than a year in the industry could keep the permit and its income for life. In contrast, many drivers who have been in the industry 20 years or more do not have medallions and have little or no prospect of getting one. They would gain no protections under the measure.
Because the driving requirement can be met by working an average of 12 hours a week, many permit holders are part-time workers who have other jobs. Among the ranks of permit holders who would be eligible for disability exemptions are full-time city workers and others who have their own disability and retirement protections.
Before the measure went on the ballot, the PDA contacted Supervisor Matt Gonzalez, the president of the board, who began discussions between UTW and the PDA. The permit holders’ group went around Gonzalez after he suggested that all drivers should have disability protections, but he continues to conduct discussions seeking a mutually agreeable solution.
Taxi Commission Executive Director Naomi Little has proposed a certification process for disabled permit holders through the Department of Public Health.