The Long Branch City Council has postponed a vote on an ordinance that would double the number of taxi licenses available in the city, much to the dismay of a local cab company.
Council President John Pallone said during the March 25 meeting that the council would continue to gather input on the issue of making more licenses available before amending regulations.
“There are further amendments that we are going to make; therefore, what we’ll do is have a motion to table the ordinance at this time, pending the introduction of a new ordinance,” he said.
Director of Public Safety Jason Roebuck on Feb. 25 proposed the issue of making more licenses available. He suggested doubling the number of taxi licenses due to complaints about long waits for cabs.
Fifty licenses are currently in place and are split between Shore Cab of Long Branch and Jersey Shore Taxi, the only two companies licensed to operate in the city.
However, the ordinance amendment would double the medallions, beginning with an additional 25 licenses.
Resident Kathy English said during the public portion of the meeting that she is often forced to take a taxi to the Long Branch train station, which has become a problem.
“I do that because, even though I have a car, I can’t park in the train station overnight,” she said. “About one-third of the time the taxi either doesn’t show up, the line is busy or for some other reason I can’t get one.”
English said the problem is often worse in the summer.
“In the summertime, I get off the train, I try to get a taxi and more than half the time I’m told that they are waiting for a bigger fare,” she said. “They are waiting on a fare that they are going to make more money on that is going to go to Asbury Park or some other town. “I live in town and I have guests that come and visit me, and we can’t get cabs to take us around Long Branch because all the cabs that are parked at the train station want to go south.”
Long Branch only has jurisdiction over taxis that pick up passengers and drop them off within city limits.
The city does not have the ability to regulate taxis that pick up out-of-towners and bring them into Long Branch or taxis that pick up riders in the city and take them out of town.
Christine Griffith, a dispatcher with Shore Cab of Long Branch, said additional companies coming into the city would present a safety issue.
“As a parent in this town, I don’t want just any cab pulling up to the middle school and taking him to the mall,” she said. “We fingerprint and background-check all of our drivers; your police officers do.
“I think it is a safety issue to have taxis coming into this town and picking people up and taking them places.”
However, English said additional companies would solve some of the problems she’s encountered in accessing taxi service.
“I understand that they want to make money, but I’m asking you as a resident to please consider issuing more licenses,” she said. “When one company controls all the cabs in a town, you really have no recourse.”
However, Pallone said tabling the ordinance is a temporary measure, and the city would be adding more medallions.
“The plan is to offer 25 more licenses,” he said. “… In the last two weeks, we received some new information, so we want to see if there are further amendments that we can add before we adopt [the ordinance],” he said.
Under the current ordinance, any new medallions must be put out to bid, and the public safety director has the right to set the minimum bid price.
Roebuck said the bid should be set at a $50,000 minimum for the first 25 medallions.
Griffith suggested that, instead of making permanent medallions available, the city consider issuing temporary taxi licenses for the summer.
“Belmar does a summer license program — they put a sticker on the side of the cars and they can work from Memorial Day to Labor Day and pay for this temporary medallion,” she said.
According to Griffith, additional cabs would not be able to survive during the winter months.
“We live here year-round, and these men sometimes wait for an hour between calls in the wintertime to make $5, $6 an hour,” she said. “You’re talking about adding 25 more licenses to the winter business. We’re going to starve.
“The summer needs it when Pier Village empties out at 2 a.m., but in the wintertime you are going to kill these guys,” she added. According to Griffith, a taxi driver with a temporary summer license is more likely to stay in Long Branch rather than venture south for a larger fare.
“Seaside, Point Pleasant, Belmar [are] where all taxi drivers in Central Jersey go to make their money,” she said. “They are the seaside resort towns, we used to be one.
“We don’t have the volume of people that we used to,” she added. “The temporary medallions might actually keep taxis in the city of Long Branch because they paid for that summer spot.”
Griffith suggested the city research the ordinance further, but Mayor Adam Schneider said that had already been done.
“We looked at what other towns do, we looked at what we do, we talked to a lot of citizens,” he said.
The proposal also includes increasing fines for nonlicensed cabs, which are not allowed to operate within the city, from $25 to $250 for a first offense and from $50 to $750 for subsequent offenses.
Also included in the proposal is the elimination of taxi stands, considered obsolete, but the city may permit sandwich board signs with phone numbers and names of the licensed taxi companies.
Griffith also said the city should maintain the only existing taxi stand, which is located on Broadway behind McDonald’s, and add additional stands.
“We need more taxi stands, we need a taxi stand in West End to handle the business that comes out of those bars,” she said. “Where are these taxis supposed to sit — you’re talking about adding 25 more.
“They are sitting at the train station, and you’ll have 75 cabs sitting at the train station. I don’t think NJ Transit is going to appreciate that.”
The proposed amendment, which includes raising several annual fees and fines for taxi companies, would amend the city’s ordinance regulating taxicab services, which Roebuck said has not been updated since the 1970s.