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NEWPORT NEWS — The city is relaxing its rules for taxicab companies so they can keep up with their competition.
The City Council unanimously voted Tuesday night to lift regulations that were not directly related to safety — such as stipulating the rates for cab fares — so the cab companies can compete with rideshare services such as Uber and Lyft.
“We’re taking ourselves out of anything that doesn’t have to do with public safety,” Newport News police lieutenant Matthew Johnson said. “The effort here is to take all the stuff out of the code that affects how the business runs.”
In the past, Johnson says the city had stipulations that amounted to telling cab companies how to run their business — down to requiring taxi drivers to wear a collared shirt.
Changes to the city’s regulations have been in the works for six years. The council tabled a vote on the matter in April after discussing proposed changes during two council meetings.
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City staff and the city’s taxicab advisory board decided to take the ordinance in a different direction — eliminating requirements that taxicabs from the same company be of uniform color and lettering and rolling back restrictions on the age limit of cabs. Instead of requiring cabs to be younger than 10 model years, taxis will only need to pass an annual safety inspection. Virginia Beach, Suffolk and Chesapeake also do not have any age restrictions.
The updated ordinance, which takes effect Sept. 1, will also allow cab companies to establish their own fare rates. Rates will need to be displayed in the taxi and filed with the police department. Most cities in the region set parameters for pickup fees and per-mile rates.
“We do not tell Uber and Lyft how much to charge,” Johnson said. “We do not tell Uber and Lyft what kind of cars they can use ... In the words of Alan Archer, we didn’t give (cab companies) the flexibility to compete with these other agencies.”
The city code requires taxicab owners to register and receive a certificate to operate their cabs in the city. The number of taxis in the city used to be limited to 240, but Tuesday night’s changes also eliminate restrictions on the number of cabs in the city.
With the changes, the council decided to get rid of the taxi advisory board, which was made up of representatives from the taxi industry, the police department, the commissioner of the revenue’s office and the community. The board was the only one of its kind in Hampton Roads and was started in 2008 to review Newport News’ taxi regulations and advise the City Council.
In June, Hampton updated its taxicab ordinance as well. Hampton elected to relax some of its restrictions, including giving cab companies a range of approved pricing, increasing the maximum age of the cabs from 7 to 10 model years and removing color-scheme requirements.
Jessica Nolte, 757-912-1675, jnolte@dailypress.com