Courtesy Saratoga Taxi (2021)
The city of Saratoga Springs will not be changing the insurance requirements for taxicabs in the city at this time, Commissioner of Accounts John Franck said during the city council’s pre-agenda meeting Monday morning, Nov. 1.
However, the provision in the code that would normally require a cab to be retired at 10 years old will be changed for the next 24 months to allow older cabs to run on city streets, given the difficulty in finding both new and used cars, Franck said when introducing a resolution on that topic. The city will consider the resolution this evening because the normal meeting day, Tuesday, is Election Day. The city also has five public hearings on various topics this evening.
A brouhaha erupted this weekend over social media when Saratoga Taxi owner Larry Kupper told his clients that he would be forced to shut down his cab company because the insurance had gotten too high. In an interview Monday morning with FoothillsBusinessDaily.com, Kupper said that the requirements that taxis carry $300,000 of liability insurance was too burdensome for a cab company.
He was asking for a 24 month moratorium on the insurance requirement, but staff in the Accounts department said if anything insurance coverage for cabs will have to go up in the future, maybe as high as $1 million in coverage.
The Taxicab code actually requires a cab that operates in the city to have coverage of $100,000 for a single accident and $300,000 in aggregate coverage. This is nothing new and has been the law since changes went into effect in 2018.
The cost of this insurance is affected by the number of cabs, the number of drivers, each driver’s background and other information, said Franck and Marilyn Rivers, the city's director of risk and safety. It’s not a simple policy they said, and accidents and bad drivers affect premium prices.
Kupper says that many localities such as Wilton, Gansevoort, Ballston Spa, Clifton Park and Glens Falls all have the state-mandated minimum of $50,000, and he added that Uber drivers need only have $75,000 in coverage. However, Franck countered that Uber itself has a $1 million umbrella policy over its drivers in the area.
Kupper says that he is asking just for a moratorium to help get his feet back under him after the pandemic.
“Our staff and drivers worked every day 24 hours during the pandemic serving the citizens of Saratoga Springs, without concerns for themselves, rather their service to their community,” Kupper wrote in an email. “We survived covid but we can’t survive the city.”
Kupper believes other cab companies might be skirting the system by registering just one of their cabs in Saratoga Springs though more than one might ply the streets. Franck says if there is any proof, show code enforcement, and they will investigate.
Kupper has six cabs and all are registered in the city. He also wrote that he has 25 employees that will lose jobs if he goes out of business.
A local State Farm insurance agent, who spoke off the record because she was not given permission to talk, said that people who she covers who drive for Uber must get the special business coverage for an Uber driver.
Another person in the company confirmed that adding that the company has policies that they offer Lyft drivers. All involved said it is not a simple task to insure a cab company.
The Accounts department staff was not backing down on the need for liability insurance, which covers the cab and the people inside in case of accident.
“We thought we were doing them a favor” by extending the useful life of the cab, Rivers said after the pre-agenda meeting, and then the complaint came in on the insurance, which they had no plans to change.
Franck was a bit more terse on a subject that he feels is already decided: he said he pushed the committee that was looking at the taxi laws not to raise the insurance requirements at this time, and that under the new resolution, the cabs can be older.
“If they [Saratoga Taxi] close, it has nothing to do with us,” he said.