Court complaint filed seeking to block $40 minimum vehicle for hire charge

THE STATE'S Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, in November 2013, enacted a minimum fee of $40 for all vehicles for hire. Now, a group of Rhode Island motor vehicle companies has filed a court complaint seeking to block that state requirement. The fee has not been enforced due to litigation.
THE STATE'S Division of Public Utilities and Carriers, in November 2013, enacted a minimum fee of $40 for all vehicles for hire. Now, a group of Rhode Island motor vehicle companies has filed a court complaint seeking to block that state requirement. The fee has not been enforced due to litigation.

PROVIDENCE – A group of Rhode Island motor vehicle companies has filed a court complaint seeking to block a state requirement that all vehicles for hire charge customers at least $40 a trip.
The state’s Division of Public Utilities and Carriers enacted the minimum fee in November 2013, but has not enforced it. Initially, the state waited because several transportation companies, including San Francisco-based Uber, filed appeals.
In November 2014, the state announced it would enforce the minimum fee, but held back again after an attorney representing five public motor vehicle companies and 35 customers filed an appeal in Providence Superior Court. The request for a stay of enforcement, filed by attorney Keven McKenna, is expected to be heard in Providence Superior Court on Jan. 22. Until the issue of the stay is resolved, the state has agreed to not enforce the minimum fee, a state spokesman said.
McKenna could not be reached immediately for comment. According to his filing, he represents Corporate Limousine Services; Providence Coach, Exclusive Sedan and Van Transportation; DLL Transport; L.C. Taxi; Economy Cab; and 35 people described as company passengers.
The lawsuit, filed Dec. 12, argues the state division went beyond what the state legislature authorized, and enacted an “overcharge” that would prevent competition for traditional taxicabs.
“The defendant is acting and regulating on the basis of what it would apparently like the statutes to say and the legal and statutory power it would like to have,” McKenna wrote.
According to the lawsuit, the $40 base fee will cause “irreparable harm” to both the operators and passengers of the services, many of whom McKenna said are elderly residents who rely on the carriers because they have a limited fare. The drivers have for years maintained small charges for the trips, often less than $10, McKenna wrote.
“The passengers call for short trips to nearby places, such as drug stores and doctor’s appointments – trips for which they have never been – and clearly should not be – charged over forty dollars,” he wrote.
In his decision to restore the $40 minimum charge, Division Administrator Thomas F. Ahern rejected criticism of the price floor and said drivers without public motor vehicle certificates also would be subject to state regulation, including the fee.
Uber, which is not a part of the public motor vehicle lawsuit, had previously challenged the $40 minimum fare, saying it would drive it from the Rhode Island market. The ride-sharing service began in Providence in 2013.
The Rhode Island General Assembly has created a study commission to review how new technologies, including those that dispatch car-sharing services, are impacting the state’s public transportation policies. That report is expected to be released by March 1.

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