09/28/92 Board of Public Works Minutes

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REGULAR MEETING SEPTEMBER 28, 1992 that the taxicab business is an important service that is provided not just to visitors to the area but primarily to provide service to the people in South Bend, people who do not own cars or can't afford cars or the elderly or the handicapped. Mr. Butler stated that he would submit to the Board that there are two (2) companies that are providing this service, Yellow Cab Company and Courtesy Cab Company. The other operating cab companies skim and the only real local service they provide is Medicaid service. He noted that some of those companies now have moved into the Medicaid area and do not provide basic service to the community. In conclusion, Mr. Butler stated that, on behalf of Yellow Cab Company, they remonstrate against this application. Mrs. Mueller inquired of Mr. Butler the number of taxicabs Yellow Cab currently operates. Mr. Butler advised that they currently hold forty (40) licenses but are only operating twenty (20) taxicabs. They have forty (40) but only twenty (20) are effectively operating. They can no longer operate effectively at the airport. Other cab companies sit out at the airport and concentrate on that business. They pick up a fare at the airport, make the delivery and return directly to the airport for another fare and will not take other calls within the community. The Yellow Cab Company cannot operate that way. So they basically have ceded the airport traffic to the other companies. He further noted that also in the last one and one-half years (1 1/2) years the hotel and Notre Dame business has also gone to those other cab companies, not Courtesy Cab Company, who just concentrate on that business and stay at those call stations as long as necessary to get a fare. This has had a negative impact on the Yellow Cab operators and they can't afford to put a large number of cabs on the street. Mrs. Mueller inquired if Yellow Cab has been operating fewer cabs presently than in the past and Mr. Butler advised that the net effect is that they are running fewer cabs this year than last year. Sir James A. Guy II, Box 215 South Bend Station, South Bend, Indiana, advised that he was to have a Public Hearing today on the application for a Certificate for Public Convenience and Necessity which he submitted for Maurice and Jamilos Williams, 805 North Johnson Street, South Bend, Indiana, to operate M & J Enterprises, LTD. Mr. Guy stated that he must contradict Mr. Butler's statement because Yellow Cab Company does have cabs at the airport. Mr. Guy stated that there are eight (8) companies operating and a murder recently took place that contradicts the statement that other cab companies concentrate on either the airport, hotels or the campus as Mrs. Cathy Alford was murdered. Each company has at least one (1) or two (2) cars that do the same thing. There are times when Yellow Cab Company and Courtesy Cab Company are the only ones that can keep up. Mrs. Mueller inquired if Mr. Guy currently worked for a taxicab company. He noted that he takes the overflow and is a driver for whichever company is in need of a driver and he therefore works for various companies. Mr. Butler and Mr. Don Heilman of Guy is operating Courtesy Cab stated that Mr. illegally in a private vehicle. Mr. Guy denied the allegations. Mrs. Meuller, in response to a concern of Mr. Caldwell's, stated that the ordinance requirement is that the applicant maintain an office twenty-four (24) hours a day. In the past the Board has allowed the use of a car phone to be considered the office for purposes of the twenty-four (24) requirement when an office is opened perhaps during the daytime hours but dispatch during the nighttime hours is handled directly through the cab. Now, the Board is seeing applicants who intend to operate twenty-four (24)