Confused by the D.C. Taxicab Commission's ruling Monday to categorize and regulate every vehicle for hire? You’re not alone.
The commission will have one set of rules for taxis and another set for sedan services. A sedan service will cover hired cars such as town cars.
Sedans will be required to have an L-license tag for "livery." They will not have meters and will not accept street hails - only electronic or advanced reservations - and the vehicles must be a dark, solid color.
The D.C. Taxi Commission defines a sedan as a vehicle 95 cubic feet or larger. That means any vehicle smaller than regulated sedans will have to meet the commission's taxi regulations.
Taxis must have an H-Tag, a meter, a dome light and charge the $3.25 base fare.
This has companies like Uber complaining the new rules limit competition. Its UberX service for example, wanted to offer midsize vehicles at a cheaper rate from sedan service but didn’t want to comply with D.C. taxi rates and rules.
These new rules take effect November 1.
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As a reminder, other taxi changes are coming. By Aug. 31,all D.C. taxis must accept credit card payments unless they have filed for an extension until Sept. 30. And by Dec. 1, all D.C. cabs will have backseat video monitors that will display public service announcements, weather and advertisements.
