Taxi drivers asking for rate increase

Island taxi drivers are asking the Kaua’i County Council to amend the county law to increase taxi rates to allow them to keep up with inflation.

If the council approves the proposal, it would be the first time in ten years the rates would be increased, according to taxi drivers supporting the proposed hike.

One of the key changes calls for increasing the curbside taxi pickup rate from $2 to $2.40.

“They (taxi drivers) are hurting so bad now, it (the proposed increase) will help considerably,” said Michael-Michael Israel, who represented 25 of 26 island taxi companies at a meeting of the council at the historic County Building Thursday.

The council received Israel’s request and referred the matter to the April 16 meeting of council committees.

Among the major changes requested included:

• As part of the passenger pickup cost, reduce the standing time (when a taxi cab, usually caught in heavy traffic, travels less than 7 miles an hour) from 45 seconds to 30 seconds or less.
• Following the registering of the first eighth of a mile traveled, increase the cost for each additional eighth of a mile from 25 cents to 30 cents.
• Reduce the standing time of a vehicle from 45 to 30 seconds and raise the rate from 25 to 30 cents.
• Increase the cost of individual pieces of baggage from 35 cents to $1.00, although the proposed increase would not apply to wheelchairs, bicycles and surfboards.

  Unchanged would be a $5 fee charge for each surfboard, bicycle, baggage, freight or parcel that are too large to be carried within the rear passenger compartment or trunk of a taxicab.

• For taxi tours, reduce the initial “meter actuation” cost from $80 to $50, but establish a minimum tour time of two hours at $50 an hour. Thereafter, $50 would be assessed for each hour of tour or charter time or less.

A taxi driver attending the council meeting who didn’t want to be identified said the proposed increases are needed to help him stay in business.

The driver said he drives 40 hours a week, and grossed $2,000 and netted $500 last month.

He said what he makes isn’t enough to help him support his wife and three children. “I am at poverty wages,” said the man, who works at three part-time jobs in addition to his job as a taxi driver.

Israel said impacts from the 911 tragedy, the current U.S.-led war in Iraq and higher gas prices have eroded profits of taxi drivers.

“Honolulu taxi drivers got rate increases recently, and we are just asking for the same,” said Israel, who has operated Aloha Taxi and Tours, a Lihu’e-based company, for 20 years.

Israel said he serves individual taxi customers, but prefers to serve groups of travelers to keep his business healthy.

When large tour or convention groups arrive, he said he subcontracts other taxicabs to take care of his customers.

Staff writer Lester Chang can be reached at 245-3681 (ext. 225) and mailto:lchang@pulitzer.net