With A Few Tweaks, Commission Agrees To June 1 Deadline For Credit Cards In Cabs

If the effort to modernize D.C.'s taxicab fleet has moved at a snail's pace, the snail crawled another couple inches on Wednesday, as officials with the D.C. Taxicab Commission revised a proposal to install credit card machines in all cabs by this summer.

Barring any further setbacks, commission chairman Ron Linton expects the amenity that has been the norm in other major cities to start appearing in D.C. June 1.

"I thought originally by last November we would have had credit card machines in every taxicab. The big disappointment was losing the contract we had," Linton said.

In November, the District's Contract Appeals Board overruled a contract awarded to Verifone Systems to install the credit card machines, setting the District's modernization plan back several months.

The new proposal protects cabbies by increasing customers' fares $.50 to cover the costs associated with installing and maintaining credit card payment technology.

The base fare will increase from $3.00 to $3.25; the driver will keep that extra quarter. A proposed per-ride surcharge was decreased from $.50 to $.25, a fee that will be collected by the District. Drivers will be allowed to charge an extra dollar per ride if more than one passenger climbs into the cab. About 20 percent of all rides currently involve more than one passenger, Linton said.

"Numbers two, three, four, doesn't make any difference how many you got, you only get one additional dollar for any additional passengers," said Linton, who said the District will allow drivers to choose from one of nine possible payment processing vendors.

While most District residents have called for credit card payment options in taxis, some cabbies have resisted them.

"Because of the fee," explained cabbie Solomon Nessibu as he took a break in Tenleytown. "The credit card company charge you and you have to pay for the machine, pay for repair, extra receipt. It's cost-related. Other than that it's no problem."

If the taxicab commission's new proposal clears the final regulatory hurdles, Chairman Linton expects every cab in the District to have credit card payment machines by the end of August.