Samuel Garringer
The Communicator

On Feb 24, The Spokane City council considered pushing forward with helping Spokane’s taxicab drivers.Spokane’s downtown taxicab drivers don’t have the legal ability to drop off passengers in front of buildings and are in need of help with funds to hire more drivers.
Bill Boomer, a Spokane Taxi Owners Association representative, brought forth the topic again.
“The problem we have is we can’t get the city to give (the association) 24 hour stands,” he said, “in places where we can service the public.”
“When we try to pull up to a bank, to pick up an executive or something, we’re ticketed. We should be able to offload and load out-of-town people. With their laptops, their luggage, without them having to walk six or seven blocks to get into a cab,” Boomer said.
Boomer pushes to get the RCW on the parking enforcement changed.
“I have been working with the city for three and a half years now, with mediocre results. (the city) consistently said they were going to give us stands, they have given us loading zones at night. Currently, in the downtown area, there are no 24 hour cab stands in adequate locations.”
According to Boomer, there is only one located in downtown area in Riverfront Park. Which is clearly not practical to those out-of-town people who shouldn’t have to carry their luggage “x” amount of blocks from the building that they were at.
“When a taxi is loading or of loading a client, they should be left alone unless they are impeding the traffic flow,” Boomer said.
After Boomer was finished, Henry Dibangkum who was representing some of the cab owners stepped up to speak of another situation the taxi system has.
“The main problem we have in the industry now is we are having a problem hiring new taxi drivers,” Dibangkum said.
The people who apply for the job are more than qualified but the part why most can’t become drivers is that people applying don’t have the funds required to purchase the necessary license.
“We are asking… if the city could help (pay), for say the For-Hire permit or maybe a 30 day permit, so that (drivers) can get in there and get to work and pay back what they would owe to the city,” Dibangkum said, “If the city could help them out in that way… it would be a win-win situation for the city.”
The startup cost for a driver to get all of the required permits, physical checkup and background checks are just under $500.
At the end of the topic discussions for the taxicab drivers of Spokane, council member Candace Mumm had a few word in appreciation to the representatives.
“I really want to want to say thank you to you, (Dibangkum), and the previous speaker,” Mumm said, “for bringing these issues up to us and I would like to make a suggestion that the peace ed committee take a look at the taxi SMC and… Finance take a look at the fee schedule… We will put this on one of our committees.”
A few last words from Boomer sums up his and Dibangkum’s discussion viewpoints.
“We would be more than happy to help out the committee… We could use a little help here… (to better) help serve the public,” Boomer said.