Taxis vs. Salt Lake airport spat has sides digging in
Not providing restroom facilities for at the airport taxi drivers has been decried as anti-business by drivers. City and airport officials insist that they aren't required to, just like they don't provide facilities for other businesses there.
On one side are taxi companies, who say that faceless bureaucrats are engaging in anti-business activities that are threatening their livelihoods. On the other are those same bureaucrats, who insist they are only being good stewards of their budgets and that they are not obligated to go out of their way to accommodate the companies' needs.
Caught in the middle are hundreds of cab drivers, who operate on very thin profit margins, working in conditions at Salt Lake International Airport and under various directives that are either merely challenging or perhaps oppressive, depending on your point of view.
Airport officials, who last August were handed responsibilities for citywide taxi services by the mayor and City Council, don't see the need to install a drinking fountain or flush toilets at a spot where cab drivers must park on a treeless, dead-end road while waiting for their chance to pick up airport passengers and their lucrative fares.
But the drivers, who are forced to make do only with two porta potties at their isolated outpost, point to decorative sumac bushes nearby that are well watered.
Whose job is it? » This small picture of who is responsible for what is symptomatic of the divide between the taxi companies and officialdom. Airport authorities contend that it's not up to them to provide amenities to drivers who pay hundreds of thousands of dollars each year for the privilege of providing taxi service at the airport, even though other big airports in the region do just that. Drivers and cab owners retort that those same officials did find $120,000 to build an arboretum for their own employees.
Airport spokeswoman Barbara Gann said money to pay for the arboretum came from airport funds, not taxpayer dollars.
"Also, please be reminded that the pavilion north of the airport was developed for use by all airport employees, including tenants for employer-sponsored activities and special events," she said. "There are no rest rooms at the pavilion."
The barbecue pavilion, tucked underneath the control tower and shaded by an awning and trees, is one more indication to drivers of how the city is blind to their needs.
Another anti-business move, say drivers, was a decision this month to increase cabs' airport fee by another 50 cents. Airport officials levied the charge without any means within the city's accounting system to allow drivers to combine the added charge into a single fare. Passengers now are given two receipts, one that is ostensibly for the full fare, and another for the 50 cent fee. Many are balking, which has many drivers deciding not to even hand out a second receipt, and covering the 50 cent fee themselves. The city says its software will be updated to accommodate a single receipt sometime this year.
Then there is matter of fines being imposed on drivers for the condition of their vehicles and for their appearance. One cabbie was fined $500 and his cab company another $500 for a cracked windshield violation and for tire threads that were too thin.
Said the airport's Gann: "The airport follows city ordinance in issuing fines. Both the driver and the company are required to comply with the law."
Cab companies attribute what they consider an anti-business sentiment to a decision by the mayor and City Council to shift administration of taxi services to the airport. A spokesman for the mayor's office declined comment on the move because a formal protest has been filed about it.
"We have no voice," said Don Barron, owner of Yellow Cab, which has provided taxi services to the city since the 1940s. "Before, we could go to elected officials to state our concerns. Now we must deal with nameless bureaucrats."
Former Mayor Rocky Anderson also has concerns about the changes.
"I don't understand why over several years such incredible hostility has been shown by some Council members and people in administrative positions -- including the airport -- toward cab drivers," said Anderson. "Drivers are people who don't have any health insurance coverage, no retirement plans, and way things are set up here, most of them are barely eke out a living."
When Mayor Ralph Becker was approached during a luncheon at the Alta Club and asked about conditions facing the driver, including the porta potties, he shrugged.
"What is it you think we ought to be doing?" he responded, with follow-up questions directed to spokesmen, who have issued "no comments."
Policies elsewhere » Other airports in the region have taken a different tack.
Those in Denver, Phoenix and Portland have some kind of facilities for drivers, and all have paid for the amenities out of airport operating funds.
Portland International Airport has two bathrooms for drivers, with flush toilets and facets with running water. Denver International Airport and Phoenix's Sky Harbor have indoor break rooms with running water, heating, air conditioning and outside, shaded tables.
In Salt Lake City, one Yellow Cab driver recently had to fix a flat tire, and because there was no place to wash up, passengers were irate when he picked up their luggage with dirty hands.
"Maintaining personal hygiene is a big problem with the porta potties," said George Eichert, a City Cab driver and supervisor. "On hot days, bad orders are another big problem."
Councilman J.T. Martin said the situation for drivers should improve as soon as this fall, once a contract is awarded to companies bidding to provide taxi services. He thinks taxi companies should provide their own amenities, much like other entities at the airport do, such as the Post Office and Federal Express.
"The airport did have a break room for drivers, but it became a management nightmare," said Martin. "There were issues between Muslim prayer times and Christians. One group didn't like how another group used the toilet, and others couldn't come into certain rooms during prayers. Putting people with different kinds of ethnic backgrounds into a shared facility didn't work. Now companies will have to deal with these issues on their end, rather than the city."
Three years ago, one shuttle driver filed a complaint alleging his religious rights were violated. Airport officials responded by unilaterally closing the break room to drivers in January 2008, and directed drivers to queue up for passengers on the dead-end road about 1.5 miles from the terminals.
Airport director Maureen Riley has insisted that the break room action was taken after the Federal Aviation Administration notified the airport that federal funding would be withdrawn if the airport were found in violation of the Civil Rights Act.
But FAA officials based in Washington said that because the case was never adjudicated, no directive was ever issued.
"Before we would tell an airport authority that we would not be providing federal funding, there's generally a lengthy back-and-forth discussion of the issues involved," said FAA spokeswoman Laura Brown. "It is a serious issue for us to withhold federal funds from an airport."
Representatives of other airports in the region report that they have had no ongoing management problems at the facilities they provide for drivers, whether it be over religions matters or other issues.
"We do know some of our ground transportation drivers who are Muslim will pray near their taxis or vans in the holding lot area where we allow our all of our drivers to hang out while they are waiting for their fares," said Jenny Schiavone, spokeswoman for the Denver airport. "It certainly takes places but we don't have a specific place set aside for them. Nor do we make any effort to encourage or discourage one practice or another."
Said Gann: "If taxi cab companies wish to provide additional facilities for their drivers, we would be happy to discuss possibilities. However, any costs incurred to the airport in providing additional facilities would be charged back to the taxi operators to ensure full cost recovery."
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Cab drivers vs. the AirportBoth sides Digging in
Cab drivers vs. airport spat has sides digging in