S.L. cab rules were violated

Salt Lake's three taxicab companies have regularly violated city rules designed to ensure the public has adequate cab service and that the companies live up to their licensing agreements, according to city documents.

No sanctions have been imposed for the violations in large part because hardly anyone has noticed. But a review of cab company biannual reports by the Deseret Morning News shows that between 2001 and 2003, companies violated city ordinances by either running fewer or more cabs than allowed under the complicated set of government licensing regulations.

Business licensing administrator Edna Drake said her office, which by ordinance must report violations to the mayor's office, takes the reports but has no one available to evaluate them.

Jim Benton, Drake's license enforcement officer, said, "Usually, when it comes in, I just glance at the report to see if it's complete."

City law allocates a specific number of cab licenses to the city's three cab operations — Yellow Cab (112), Ute Cab (78) and City Cab (45).

The cab companies must operate their allocated number of cabs for a minimum of 104 "cab days" during a pair of six-month periods, beginning Jan. 1 and ending Dec. 31 each year.

One "cab day" is at least eight hours of operation from midnight to midnight in one day. Cab companies cannot count two or three cab days in one 24-hour period, even if their cabs run for 16 or 24 hours in one day, city hearing officer Michael Crippen has ruled.

"Even if you work 16 hours (in one day), it will only constitute one cab day," Anderson's chief of staff Sam Guevara said.

But the documents show:

• City Cab reported that between July 1 and Dec. 31, 2003, 11 of its cabs operated 187 days or more with one cab operating on 246 cab days. Crippen ruled previously that there is a maximum of 184 cab days in the six-month period between July 1 and December 31, under city ordinance.

In an interview Monday, David Jackson, vice president of City Cab, said he believed he could count one 16-hour shift as two cab days, and "you could have as many as three cab days in one day."

• Several Yellow Cab reports show cabs operating for more than 184 days in various six-month periods with 213 cabs days reported for one cab in 2002.