FAST (King County) sent me this very important information. I also had a King County regulator call me. There is good news for anyone currently operating a taxi or might be planning to. Please note this probably means that all Seattle/King County licensed cabs should eventually, in a year or two, be able to work the airport. Whether that means you first have to join the airport taxi drivers union, I don't know. That will be something you the individual cabbie will have to figure out. Contact the Port of Seattle after all the new rules are finalized. And if that permission is granted, please remember that Sea-Tac International Airport isn't a mythical taxi Shangri-La or that wonderful Goose laying all those Golden Eggs. Now that you will be able to work every King County road, street, village, town and city, take advantage and do it. Expand your taxi horizons. James Hilton would be proud.
Two Pages from King County
What you will be reading are the exact wording sent to me. Read all this very carefully, with some of the goals outlined positive, while some maybe not as much. Ultimately it will be up to all those still in the industry to decide what is best going forward for a taxi industry in deep flux. Personally, I have my doubts whether Seattle's, and America's taxi industry can survive Uber's ability to manipulate the personal transportation industry. Uber, as shown over the past 13 years, is not nice. The provisions listed here by King County are designed to assist in the taxi industry's survival. One can only hope.
Page One: What do the new ordinances do?
In 2023, the City and County plan to each transmit two ordinances affecting the for-hire transportation industry to the City Council and the County Council. The combined effect of the ordinances is streamlined taxicab and for-hire vehicle regulations located in new chapters of City and County codes. Key changes include:
1. Allow City Only and County Only medallions to operate throughout the region with a new reciprocity endorsement (a reciprocity endorsement-a medallion). (Editor note: my keyboard doesn't have the symbol used by KC, so I inserted a dash instead)
2. Convert all for-hire vehicle medallions to taxicab medallions.
3. Adjust insurance requirements and adapt to a changing insurance market and policy models that will attempt to make the Seattle market more attractive to other insurers.
4. Eliminate outdated operating requirements and align City and County requirements such as no longer referring to uniforms or personal hygiene and aligning differences in vehicle age limits.
5. Establish a new regional for-hire driver's license with the option to obtain an enhanced license that includes a fingerprint-based Federal background check and a third-party background check.
6. Require adoption of smart taximeters including integration with public facing regional trip-planning tools, integrated payment processing, and authorizing greater use of dynamic fare setting-all of which are key features of a modernized fleet.
7. Simplify enforcement and penalties and create a more coordinated appeals process:
a. The City and County will issue civil citations (monetary penalties) and license actions (suspensions, summary suspensions, revocations, and denials).
b. Appeals will go to the hearing examiner for the jurisdiction issuing the citation or license action.
8. Establish a uniform age limit of 15 years, lower the minimum for-hire driver age from 21 to 20, and adjust maximum allowable driver operating hours (these requirements align with the State TNC law adopted in 20220.
9. Authorize the County to set a minimum fare for short trips such as those from Sea-Tac Airport (the ordinances will not affect other decisions made by the Port of Seattle regarding ground transportation service).
10. Establish certain vehicle owner and driver protections, including provisions for advanced notice of contract changes and the opportunity to provide input on agency policies that affect drivers. (Editor note: Allowing owner input is some very important)
11. Plan for the use of all electric vehicles (EVs) when technology and infrastructure make EV's viable for for-hire transportation:
a. The ordinances will not require the use of EVs but will acknowledge as an option.
b. The City and County will work with partners to ensure drivers have access to programs for EV purchases and charging infrastructure.
Page Two: Key Deadlines
ORDINANCE ADOPTION: For-hire vehicle and taxicab associations are licensed as transitional regional dispatch agencies for at least one year, but not more than two years
ONE YEAR LATER: Owners of previously deposited, revoked, relinquished, etc. medallions must notify director of plans
MARCH 31ST, 2025: For-hire vehicles and medallions convert to taxicabs (deadline may change)
Adopt a smart taximeter system (requirements rule to be issued confirming deadline
Any remaining transitional regional dispatch agencies must apply for a regional dispatch agency license to continue operating
New Rules (dates TBD): Splitting a dual medallion into a City and a County Medallion
Vehicle markings
Dispatch system for WAVs
Rates
What is happening with medallions?
TYPES: For-hire medallions are eliminated and convert to taxicab medallions
---No changes to WAT medallions
CAPS: Before---City: 1,050 taxicabs & 200 for-hire vehicles
County: 561 taxicabs & 471 for-hire vehicles
After---City: 1,300 taxicabs
County: 1,300 taxicabs
JURISDICTION: City and County medallion reciprocity endorsements are created and are required for Seattle medallions and County medallions to operate regionally
Duel medallion owners have the option to split into a City medallion and a County medallion, obtain reciprocity endorsements for each, and put two vehicles on the road
SCHEDULE: Vehicle licensing will transition to an anniversary schedule, just like for for-hire driver licensing
Owners of previously medallions relinquished, revoked, deposited, etc. have one year to tell the City and County their plans or the medallion is permanently retired
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There you have it, guys and gals, taxi bureaucracy at its finest? or at its very worst? Only time will tell. I wish everyone luck with all these changes. But my final comment is that it would have been much better if the City of Seattle had kept their TNC (Uber & Lyft) Cap in place, and then maybe all you have just read would never have been written, no reason to, no cause. But welcome to the real taxi world as I know it: the taxi industry gets the shaft right up the you-know-where! shaved to the bone grizzly bear!
PS: Editor Note---For some reason, the "Page Two" section has decided to diagram some of its sentences like they were written by that Beat-era poet Lawrence Ferlinghetti. Crazee, man, crazee! Ain't it cool! I recommend highly his volume of verse "Coney Island of the Mind."
Just noticed it also happened on page one. Oh well, ain't it swell? No.
I don't understand how their would SUDDENLY be enough business for 2600 cabs, there can't be 1000 active city cabs now, could there be?
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