As noted this morning: In recent weeks, two taxi cab companies have sued the Port for allegedly breaking rules during negotiations over an contract to pick up passengers the Sea-Tac Airport, the region’s single most lucrative locale. The Seattle-Tacoma International Taxi Association (STITA), which was created to service the airport in 1989, sued first, in an attempt to retain their exclusive service with the airport.
STITA’s lonely battle was joined Friday by Farwest Taxi, which filed a lawsuit against both the Port and Yellow Cab in King County Superior Court. Farwest’s basic claim is that Yellow Cab had also screwed them over. Yellow Cab and Farwest had partnered with Orange Cab in a joint bid for the contract, even as they were all bid individually. Giving the Port the option of signing with one company or with all three under the joint bid. Farwest claims that area lobbyist Chris Van Dyk wrote the Yellow Cab bid, then used that privileged information to undermine the joint bid (also penned by Van Dyk), thus securing the whole contract for Yellow Cab. The president of Farwest, also known as Rainer Dispatch, claimed in a statement that “the Port looked the other way.” Their suit attempts to not only get an injunction against the new contract, but bar Yellow Cab from future bidding.
But Port of Seattle officials say Farwest never issued a formal complaint before issuing the lawsuit, which could mean that they didn’t notice at the alleged infraction at the time or “We don’t have reason to believe anything of an illegal manner went on,” says Port spokesman Perry Cooper. “If other evidence comes up to show that it has, we would deal with it appropriately.”
This legal controversy has been growing for about two weeks, with roots going back twenty years. Here’s some of the background: Since the late 1980s,a non-profit company has had exclusive rights to taxi service from the airport. Other cab companies could only drop off passengers. Last year, the port opened up the contract for bidding after a state audit. This left STITA to compete against other for-profit companies, including the region’s three largest cab companies: Orange Cab, Yellow Cab, and Farwest. The Port Commission opted for Yellow Cab, the largest taxi association, after it offered up a $18.3 million concession fee (a full $8.3 million over STITA’s previous concession fee), and promising greater efficiency, as many of its cabs can pick up people on both ends of the trip, while most of STITA’s can only operate from the airport.
STITA could not match the concession offer, stating that they feared a negative effect on driver wages if they went higher than their new $14 million offer. The nonprofit taxi organization, which comprises around 450 employees?, filed suit two weeks ago over the allegedly illegal negotiations, citing Washington’s Airport Act. (The act attempts to limit concession fees “to the actual cost of service,” which STITA maintains the bidding process violated.) A judge issued a stay on the case and it goes to the appeals court on Friday.
Who is in the right here? Not being familiar with the nuances of state airport regulations, it’s impossible for me to say. But its looking increasingly likely that negotiations will have to begin again at square one. Meanwhile, STITA and Farwest share a common enemy, but their goals are very different. STITA drivers want to keep their jobs and Farwest wants to expand into their previously exclusive market. That doesn’t sound like a promising alliance to me. We’ll have to see how the legal drama plays out.
As per the lawsuit, Yellow essentially manuplated the bids by having a single person (Chris Van Dyke) control them. Yellow intentions are straight forward.. they want to create a monopoly in taxicab business and crush the competion. They would be able to do so by getting the Airport contract as they already control a large share within City of Seattle.
Port needs to re-evaluate it’s RFP process to ensure it is fair and equitable and that every company has equal opportunity to bid for the contract.
In the end, it would matter a great deal as to which company would provide the best service to the airport clients & visitors to Seattle. Today, STITA provides a service where customer wait time is less than 5 minutes. It would be hard for any company to match that unless it exclusively serves the airport (like STITA) or expands its fleet to accomodate all the airport customers.
@1, if Yellow or anyone else gets the airport contract, they will certainly have to expand their fleet. That’s a hell of a lot of new trips.
What I’m wondering is, what happens the first time an airport passenger gets in a Yellow (or Farwest, or whatever) cab and says “Tacoma”. Or “Bellevue”. Will the driver just tell ’em to get out? He can’t legally pick up a fare in those cities; I don’t even think he can enter the city limits with the meter on.
@2 – can you really not take a Yellow Cab to Bellevue? I’ve never tried, but that’s pretty surprising.
How does the party crowd get home from Pioneer Square? The ones that don’t drunk-drive, of course…
@3 – Legally, they should be able to drop you off outside Seattle, but besides the airport where drivers are more closely scrutinzed, I bet a lot of drivers would just tell you “no” if you asked.
Also, the “party crowd” drives, drunk or not.
@2 – in that case they’d take the passenger to Tacoma and ride back empty – just like every STITA taxi does now.
Yellow serves Tacoma as well, but I imagine that requires a different medallion. I’d think they’d be smart to have a dispatcher physically at the airport to try to optimize trips.
@5, but wouldn’t a Yellow driver want to just tell ’em to get lost and wait for a Seattle fare, that lets them get a return fare? Or, since they know there’s a better-than-even chance of a deadhead ride (Seattle is less than 1/3 of the airport catchment area), won’t they just say “screw the airport” altogether?
I’m pretty sure the Yellow Cab in Tacoma is a different company than the Yellow Cab in Seattle.
As someone who used to take cabs from Pioneer Square to Bellevue between 6 to 8 times a month (and who used them twice this weekend when we were home for a visit), I can say that a very large contingent of ‘party people’ don’t drive drunk AND that no cab we have ever gotten in has said no to taking us across the lake.
I got no idea why you people think taxis can’t cross the lake.
ANY Seattle or King County taxis can drop anyone off anywhere…. Including Bellevue, Kirkland, Tacoma, Canada or even California (yes, it has happened). The question is where a driver is picking up fares. A set of taxis, including STITA, are only licensed in King County and can only originate their trips in King County areas. Many Yellow taxis are licensed by the City of Seattle only and can only originate trips in Seattle. …Just a licensing deal. If you live in Tacoma, you need to call a taxi that can pick you up in Tacoma, obviously, you’d have a hard time getting a Seattle Yellow Taxi to drive from Seattle all the way to Tacoma to pick you up. But, if you are Pioneer Sq and want a ride home, Yellow would happily take you home to Tacoma. Nice fare.