East Hampton’s Advice to the Governor
Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo’s recent remarks about establishing a statewide licensing system for taxi and livery businesses, including services like Uber and Lyft that are summoned by an app, have prompted East Hampton Town Supervisor Larry Cantwell to send a letter to Albany, weighing in.
East Hampton has adopted its own licensing regulations to control the numerous taxis and other cars-for-hire that come here in the summer. The law was revised last year making licensing contingent on having an office in the town, which effectively took Uber drivers, who are independent contractors, out of the mix, over the company’s strong objections.
After describing how the vehicle-for-hire industry, including Uber, “profoundly . . . impact[s] our community,” Mt. Cantwell suggested that any statewide legislation should “augment local communities’ abilities to deal with the transportation-for-hire industry.”
Before East Hampton Town adopted its taxi laws, he wrote, the “questionable tactics and actions” of 89 taxi and livery companies, operating close to 1,100 licensed vehicles, were overwhelming the town’s public safety resources. He cited roadway congestion, use of limited parking, and “literally fighting over fares.” Among other common complaints, the supervisor told the governor, were “fare-gouging, passenger-stranding, and driver assaults (of one another and passengers alike). . . .”
Requiring vehicle-for-hire companies to maintain an office within the town would not only give riders a location to complain to and an accessible lost and found, but would also prevent drivers and companies from using “inappropriate properties, such as single-family residences and public spaces, as depots and offices,” Mr. Cantwell wrote.
The law also requires that cars for hire be registered to their associated businesses, “to prevent fraud and abuse,” he noted, adding that the new regulations “have been very successful,” and were welcomed by the local business community and the vast majority of those affected. “The fever pitch of public complaints has subsided,” he wrote.
The state legislation being discussed would apparently exempt certain classes of vehicles for hire, such as livery service cars. Mr. Cantwell took exception to this. A “patchwork approach of state regulations,” he wrote, would “confuse consumers and push the town’s hamlet centers and transportation hubs toward the type of chaos that my administration has spent two years cleaning up.”
Should the legislation move forward, the supervisor asked that the state allow local municipalities to prohibit or limit vehicles for hire from parking on certain public streets, set maximum rates, and prohibit drivers from sleeping in their vehicles.
In addition, he wrote, East Hampton would like to be able to regulate all vehicle-for-hire trips that begin in the town, regardless of the final destination. Currently, the town can only regulate trips that start and end within town limits.