REGULATION OF TAXICABS TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1930 UNITED STATES SENATE, ON THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, Washington, D. C. Representatives of the United States of 8 of the act making appropriations out of the District of Clumbia for the 1, and for other purposes, approved March 4, 1913 ...ed States Statutes, page 974), be amended by adding two pns, numbered 2a and 3a, to read as follows: . 2a. That the commission is hereby authorized and empowered to require y and all corporations, companies, associations, joint-stock companies, or associations, partnerships, and persons, their lessees, trustees, or receivers, appointed by any court whatsoever, operating, controlling, or managing any motor cabs or other vehicles for the conveyance of persons within the District of Columbia for hire, except such common carriers as have been expressly exempted from the jurisdiction of the commission, to satisfy the commission, in such way or ways as it may prescribe, of their ability to discharge any claims for damages adjudged against them. "PAR. 3a. That whenever, after full hearing, upon a complaint, or in an investigation made by the commission on its own initiative, the commission shall be of opinion that any rate, fare, or charge whatsoever demanded, charged or collected by any public utility is or will be unjust, unreasonable, or unjustly discriminatory, or otherwise in violation of any of the provisions of this act, the commission is hereby authorized and empowered to determine and prescribe what will be the just and reasonable rate, fare, or charge to be thereafter observed, or the maximum or minimum, or maximum and minimum to be charged." The CHAIRMAN. The committee is meeting to-day to consider Senate bill 3615, better known as the bill for taxicab regulation. It originates with the Public Utilities Commission. General Patrick, do you wish to make a statement? STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. MASON M. PATRICK, CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA General PATRICK. Mr. Chairman, the act creating the Public Utilities Commission, fixing its duties and responsibilities, was passed more than 17 years ago. Congress tried to make it elastic by directing that it should be interpreted liberally. REGULATION OF TAXICABS TUESDAY, APRIL 29, 1930 UNITED STATES SENATE, Washington, D. C. The subcommittee met, pursuant to call, at 2 o'clock p. m., in the committee room, Capitol, Senator Arthur Capper, chairman, presiding. The committee had under consideration S. 3615, which is here printed in full, as follows: [S. 3615, Seventy-first Congress, second session] A BILL To amend section 8 of the act making appropriations to provide for the expenses of the government of the District of Columbia for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, and for other purposes, approved March 4, 1913. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section 8 of the act making appropriations to provide for the expenses of the government of the District of Clumbia for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1914, and for other purposes, approved March 4, 1913 (Thirty-seventh United States Statutes, page 974), be amended by adding two new paragraphs, numbered 2a and 3a, to read as follows: "PAR. 2a. That the commission is hereby authorized and empowered to require any and all corporations, companies, associations, joint-stock companies, or associations, partnerships, and persons, their lessees, trustees, or receivers, appointed by any court whatsoever, operating, controlling, or managing any motor cabs or other vehicles for the conveyance of persons within the District of Columbia for hire, except such common carriers as have been expressly exempted from the jurisdiction of the commission, to satisfy the commission, in such way or ways as it may prescribe, of their ability to discharge any claims for damages adjudged against them. "PAR. 3a. That whenever, after full hearing, upon a complaint, or in an investigation made by the commission on its own initiative, the commission shall be of opinion that any rate, fare, or charge whatsoever demanded, charged or collected by any public utility is or will be unjust, unreasonable, or unjustly discriminatory, or otherwise in violation of any of the provisions of this act, the commission is hereby authorized and empowered to determine and prescribe what will be the just and reasonable rate, fare, or charge to be thereafter observed, or the maximum or minimum, or maximum and minimum to be charged." The CHAIRMAN. The committee is meeting to-day to consider Senate bill 3615, better known as the bill for taxicab regulation. It originates with the Public Utilities Commission. General Patrick, do you wish to make a statement? STATEMENT OF MAJ. GEN. MASON M. PATRICK, CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA General PATRICK. Mr. Chairman, the act creating the Public Utilities Commission, fixing its duties and responsibilities, was passed more than 17 years ago. Congress tried to make it elastic by directing that it should be interpreted liberally. The courts have recently held, however, that it can not be stretched to meet certain conditions which prevail to-day and which were unforeseen when the act was passed. The Public Utilities Commission, therefore, asks for certain amendments. First, one which will empower it to require the owners, operators, and so forth, of public vehicles to establish their financial ability to meet any claims for damages adjudged against them. The commission believes that this is absolutely essential for the proper protection of the public. I have here a list of some 95 of the principal cities in the United States, and in 80 of them this insurance provision is in force, and those 80 cities have an aggregate population of about 30,000,000 people. In Washington in 1929 there were 378 accidents in which taxicabs were involved. Up to the 1st of April of this year there were 73 such accidents. The commission believes that the burden upon the owners and operators of the cabs will not be unduly great. It is prepared to accept proof of financial ability to meet these damage claims in one of several ways: The estabishment of the fact that they own property which could be attached, or permit them to give a bond or an insurance policy. There have been a number of cases in the city, brought to the attention of the commission, where people have been damaged in these accidents and it has been impossible or impracticable for them to obtain any redress whatever, any financial redress, for the injuries they have suffered. Second, the commission is asking for specific power to fix the rates at which this public service can be rendered. Of the same 95 cities about half of them, or a little over half, have a similar provision in their ordinances empowering some authority to establish rates. The commission would propose or plan to have a public hearing, give every opportunity to all of those who are interested to express their views, and then to try to settle what it thought were the proper rates to be charged; possibly a maximum and a minimum, or maximum or minimum, or fix rates as the circumstances might indicate. Third, the commission asks for power to require operators who propose to engage in this public service to secure from the commission a certificate of convenience and necessity before beginning to operate. A similar provision is in force in 50 of these 95 principal cities. It has been found to work not only to the advantage of the public but of the operators themselves. I want to say right here that there is no intention primarily on the part of the commission to limit the number of cabs to be licensed by making such a requirement as this. We do think that an operator who proposes to engage in this business should convince us of his good faith, of his ability to perform the service, and that he intends to continue operation and not merely to enter the field and then trust to being bought out. That does sometimes happen. I want to go back just a moment to the fixing of rates. That will in a measure, at least, prevent the rate wars which have occurred in a number of places and which are detrimental, the commission thinks, to the best interests of the people as well as to the best interests of the operators. Competition unrestricted is not always, in my own opinion, unmixed blessing. It causes a great deal of trouble and frequently forces people out of business when they should continue in on proper rates; forces men out of employment, and otherwise disrupts the economic life of a city. The fourth provision or amendment we are asking will enable the commission to fix the routes over which certain vehicles are run. As the automobiles and other vehicles increase in number the congestion on a city's streets increases proportionately, and it is absolutely necessary that where vehicles are traversing a city on public business and over routes from the borders of the city particularly to termini within it, that these routes should be fixed so that the passengers on the vehicles will be most readily accommodated, and so that these incoming and outgoing vehicles will not cause a great congestion or otherwise disturb the city's ordinary traffic. In plain English that means mainly interstate busses. There are some 700 busses that come into and go out of Washington each day from outside the District. It is intended if this power is given to fix the routes, to provide for both of the ends that we have in view, the facility of the busses themselves to operate and to discharge their passengers and to load, and to look after the interests of the general public. The amendment goes a little further, and if it is passed as we have drafted it, it will give the commission the power to deny to these large busses the privilege of using the public highways or streets of the city as termini. At present all of them land their passengers along the curb. Frequently several busses arrive almost at the same time. They are large unwieldy busses and they do cause congestion. The commission would take no drastic action, but would probably serve long notice that on and after a certain date they would have to provide facilities of their own on private property where this interchange of passengers, or where this loading and unloading of passengers, might take place. Those, then, are the four things which we are asking, Mr. Chairman, and those are the reasons, very briefly, why we ask your committee to report them favorably to secure their passage, if possible. I would like to insert this data as an exhibit. Pending or existing taxicab regulation, January 1, 1930 1 State Public Service Commission has jurisdiction, but has not exercised it. |