Steve Thurston (2021)
Vance Cohen, co-owner of Queensbury Taxi, holds tokens that can be used to pay cab fares. These might be used as part of a subsidy program in Glens Falls to help seniors and people of modest means.
Glens Falls leadership has outlined changes to taxi service in the city which will allow taxicab companies to charge higher fares while also keeping the service affordable to senior citizens and people of low and modest means. The new concept would allow cabs to charge about $12 to $15 per ride in the city—up from about $4—and would give seniors and others access to taxi tokens as a subsidy to pay for those rides.
The outline was hammered out in a meeting between members of the city’s taxicab committee and the owners of Queensbury Taxi after the City Council meeting, Tuesday Sept. 14.
“I really like that idea, the concept of it,” said Ward 2 Councilman Bill Collins.
The plan would require assistance from local agencies that help senior citizens and the poor as the city would spread the tokens out to those agencies and ask them to monitor the use. They might be asked to set up the rides for their patrons and therefore could anonymize the information yet track where the rides originated and ended.
“It would be nice to know where the need [for taxi service] is,” said Ward 1 Councilman Jim Campinell.
He along with Collins, Ward 5 Councilman Jim Clark Jr., and city attorney Karen Judd attended the meeting.
Since the taxicab rules are written into the city’s code, any changes will require a public hearing, most likely some time this year, along with a city council vote, perhaps as late as January 2022.
The committee plans to bring new rates to the next city council meeting in November.
“We’ve got to nail down the rates. We’ve got to get that done,” Campinell said.
Current rates are too low to sustain a cab company, said Vance Cohen, co-owner with Melanie Cohen, of Queensbury Taxi. The Cohens were the only owners who attended the committee meeting.
Taxicabs charge the rate based on where the fare originates, so Queensbury Taxi will drop people off in Glens Falls, but will not pick them up.
“We just avoid the city,” Vance said. He and Melanie have kept an office in the city in order to be able to be a part of these discussions, they said.
He added that the typical fare in Queensbury is $15, but it will rise if the person needs a longer ride. He and Melanie said the flat rate fare helps with tokens so that there is no change. A token for $15 can cover most trips.
Vance said total revenue per hour that a taxicab is in use should be between $60 and $90 in order for the company to make money and the driver to earn a decent income. That time must include the downtime that a cab spends either sitting in traffic or waiting for the person to get into the cab.
The new rates will consider the miles travelled, how many people are in the cab, and wait times. Other changes might include allowing a cab to have advertising on the inside or outside of the cab.
The requirement that a taxicab company have an office in the city would be removed from city code.
Taxi stands will still exist, but the placement of them throughout the city would require approval from the city’s Board of Public Safety, officials said at the meeting. Placement and approval would be a next step, they said. [Read our previous coverage here.]