Bossier sheriff: Taxis, limos used to sell drugs, sex Three arrested in connection to operation By Adam Duvernay • August 26, 2010 A four-month Bossier sheriff’s office investigation has lead to the arrest of three people using taxi cabs and limousines to traffic drugs and prostitutes for their fares. After catching wind of drug and prostitute activity connected with taxi cabs in Bossier City, undercover agents made several drug buys from the owners/operators of taxi cabs subcontracted to Action Taxi. The agents were also offered prostitutes during the investigation, according to Lt. Ed Baswell, Bossier sheriff’s office spokesman. “These kind of investigations take great patience,” Baswell said. “It takes time to get all your ducks in a row.” Raymond Moore, 55, was charged with one count of racketeering, eight counts of money laundering, two counts of the illegal carrying of weapons with a controlled dangerous substance, eight counts of the distribution of Lortab, three counts of the distribution of Soma and two counts of the distribution of Xanax. Arthur Mathews, the 52-year-old owner of the Bossier limousine service Executive Rides, was arrested and charged with two counts of distribution of a Schedule II controlled dangerous substance, one count of a Schedule IV controlled dangerous substance, five counts of pandering, five counts of promoting prostitution and five counts of money laundering Wednesday. Moore and Mathews owned more than a dozen cabs subcontracted to taxi dispatcher services, Baswell said. Though both were engaged in similar illegal activity inside the cabs, Baswell said the two were probably only “loosely connected,” if at all. - more... Shreveport Times - (Shreveport, Louisiana) Newsom Pushes Taxis You Can Plug In by Bay City News August 25, 2010 8:49 PM A new Toyota Prius unveiled today in San Francisco could mean a push for all-electric cars to be incorporated into the city's taxi service in the next two or three years, according to city officials. Although about 60 percent of the city's taxis are already hybrids, the new hybrid differs from its predecessors because it can be plugged in and charged. It can drive about 13 miles exclusively on electricity before switching to fuel power, which officials said they hope is a first step toward introducing all-electric cars to San Francisco's taxis and city-owned vehicles. "I always believe halfway is no way," Mayor Gavin Newsom said. "The real game changer is plug-in technology." The city is working with a Palo Alto-based company called Better Place to push a pilot program for all-electric taxis in the next two to three years, said Vandana Bali, manager of the San Francisco Clean Cities Coalition. "Plug-in is not always going to work because taxis operate all the time," Bali said. - more... San Francisco Appeal - (San Francisco, California) Bright idea targets cab lights By: Will Reisman Examiner Staff Writer August 26, 2010 SAN FRANCISCO — While waiting patiently on the corner for a cab, you experience a feeling of sweet relief as a taxi with a bright-yellow light arrives on the scene to sweep you away. However, that euphoria is quickly crushed when the driver casually zips by without even glancing in your direction. Those deflating encounters may become a thing of the past if a proposal moves forward to establish a uniform taxi-lighting system that clearly delineates when a cab is available for pickup and when it’s not. Mostly unbeknownst to the cab-riding population, taxi drivers don’t keep their “for hire” lights on because they’re lazy. The lights are only shut off by running meters, so when a cabbie is driving to the end of their shift, to lunch or to use a restroom, they can’t just flick a switch and turn off their availability status. The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, which manages cab operations, has begun discussions about implementing new fixtures called tattletale lights on all cabs. The lights allow drivers to alert prospective passengers of their availability status, according to Christiane Hayashi, the SFMTA’s chief of cab affairs. - more... San Francisco Examiner - (San Francisco, California) Milked by taxis William Watson, Financial Post · Thursday, Aug. 26, 2010 In 1952 there were just under 5,000 taxis in service on the island of Montreal. Hazard a guess as to how many there are now? 4,445. More than 500 fewer. Despite the fact that there are 500,000 more Montrealers than there were then and they're a lot richer and better able to afford taxi service. Why the drop in supply? Because in Quebec, as in most other Canadian jurisdictions, we have supply management in the taxi industry. And it operates just like supply management in the dairy and poultry industries. They say it's a free country but if you don't have a permit to enter the industry, you're not allowed in. Always wanted to run a taxi business? Got a better idea for how to make it work? Tough luck. Take your entrepreneurial instincts to some other industry where entry isn't restricted. But not, of course, milk or chickens. The numbers quoted above are from a new paper on taxi regulation from the Montreal Economic Institute. It details the effects of the artificial restriction of supply. The most obvious is that permits to operate a taxi have acquired significant scarcity value. In Montreal, they now cost more than $200,000. In neighbouring Laval, almost $250,000. Ideally, permits would cost almost nothing. An issuing authority would make sure applicants had satisfied all requirements regarding driving ability, sobriety, non-criminality, civility (or maybe that's asking too much: we're dealing with taxi drivers, after all), would certify everyone who did pass, and would fold the cost of all that checking into the price of the permit. You wouldn't think it would come to more than a few hundred dollars. Certainly nothing in the hundreds of thousands of dollars. - more... Financial Post - (Canada) He will drive your car while you drink with pals Thursday, August 26, 2010 By Jon Schmitz, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette When Arthur Simanovsky and his friends went out for nights on the town, no one wanted to be the designated driver. They would play the rock-paper-scissors game to choose the victim. And so a business idea was hatched. "No one likes to play that role," Mr. Simanovsky said, explaining why he has started a company to provide designated drivers to those planning an evening of revelry, or already in the middle of one. BeMyDD (Be My Designated Driver) started operations in Pittsburgh this week after launching in three Ohio cities earlier this year, he said. "BeMyDD is a new twist on a transportation service which gives people an affordable alternative to the usual limo or taxi. The premise is that 'We drive YOUR car, so you don't have to,' " Mr. Simanovsky said. The company offers two services: A customer can reserve a driver ahead of time who will meet them at a location of their choice, chauffeur them around in their own car, wait for them and take them home, for $12.50 an hour. For those who are already out and in no condition to drive, the company will dispatch two drivers to take them and their car home. That costs $25 plus $2.95 a mile for the first 10 miles and $1.50 per mile thereafter. Mr. Simanovsky said he and co-owner Alexa Milkovich, residents of Solon, Ohio, and both fresh out of college, launched the business in Cleveland in March and now have 150 drivers there. They expanded to Columbus and Cincinnati on Aug. 1, and to Pittsburgh on Monday. "It was kind of the next smart move," he said, mentioning the popularity of the city's sports teams and its vibrant nightlife. The company is offering a package to Steelers season ticket holders, Mr. Simanovsky said. - more... Pittsburgh Post-Gazette - (Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania)
Cabcharge losing market share 27 August 2010 6:25am The emergence of alternative payment mechanisms for the taxi industry may be chipping away at the turnover and profits of Cabcharge, the firm that once held a stranglehold on this service. Cabcharge reported a decline of four per cent, to $1.0 billion, in turnover on the Cabcharge payment system which caters to its proprietary cards, and bank-issued debt and credit cards and also charge cards. Turnover declined by a lesser amount in 2009. Spending overall on payment cards in Australia is rising and is up 11 per cent on debit cards and up six per cent on credit cards over the year to May 2010 on Reserve Bank data. Fare payments account for 48 per cent of group revenue, most of the rest being the supply of booking and back office systems. - more... Banking Day - (Melbourne, Australia) Cabcharge blames volcano for profit drop August 26, 2010 Cabcharge has reported a 6.2 per cent drop in annual net profit and says it's cautiously optimistic about the future. Net profit for the year to June 30 was $57.6 million, down from $61.4 million in the previous corresponding period. The result was negatively impacted by legal costs relating to action taken against it by the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission (ACCC), and the aftermath of the global financial crisis, Cabcharge said. Profit from UK operations were significantly down due to poor economic conditions, European sovereign debt issues and disruption to travel caused by the volcanic eruption in Iceland, it said. - more... The Sydney Morning Herald - (Sydney, Australia) Cafeteria, prayer room for unhappy cabbies Marissa Calligeros August 26, 2010 - 1:16PM Disgruntled taxi drivers have been gifted a state-of-the-art waiting area at Brisbane Airport, complete with a cafeteria, showers and prayer room. The taxi call-forward area officially opened today, three months after cabbies went on strike over changed parking conditions. Taxi Council of Queensland CEO Blair Davies said the facility for taxi drivers was the best in Australia. "It's been a while in coming, but it's a significant investment by the Brisbane Airport Corporation so we're quite pleased they have taken the time to plan it out thoroughly," Mr Davies said. "We're very pleased we can move away from those interim arrangements that caused us a bit of grief." The call-forward area includes 350 shaded car spaces, toilets and showers, and a prayer room. A cafeteria, with large display monitors displaying flight information, will open in October. - more... Brisbane Times - (Brisbane, Australia) |
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Updated aug 27 @ 02:42 GMT
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