D/FW Taxicabs Score Poorly in Inspection Study
By KEVIN KRAUSE / The Dallas Morning News
[email protected] Hailing a cab during rush hour in a major city can be a nerve-racking ride.
Yet for travelers landing by plane in Dallas County, there is an additional reason to hesitate before flagging down a taxi.
According to an analysis by the North Central Texas Council of Governments, 86 percent of the 2,200 cabs running at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport carry improperly issued vehicle inspection stickers. As a result, those vehicles may never have received the safety checks meant to confirm that brakes and other equipment function correctly.
County officials do not want tourists and business travelers climbing into those cabs after getting off a plane.
County Judge Jim Foster said taxi firms will also be barred from profiting from phony inspections at the cost of the region’s air quality. On Monday his office mailed letters to the cab companies, passing along the troubling figures and requesting their cooperation.
“I expected it to be widespread, but I’m shocked at how pervasive it is,” Mr. Foster said. “We intend to clean up the air. Anyone who thinks they can work around the system is taking a big risk.”
A clear majority of the cabs — almost 60 percent — went through inspection in five minutes or less, which means they were essentially not inspected at all. Another 335 cabs either received the wrong test in order to skirt emissions requirements, or a different vehicle was used to obtain a passing grade.
Still, for all the county officials’ tough talk, their options are limited. Under current law, police may impound vehicles and fine drivers only when the stickers are counterfeit or altered.
The airport cab owners who received the improper inspections did not break any law. The county, however, can pursue the inspectors who issued the stickers.
Last month deputies and constables started targeting inspection stations through a series of warrant roundups. The raids are carried out by the county’s Clean Air Emissions Task Force, which was created last month.
Most taxi drivers own their vehicles and work as subcontractors for the cab companies. They keep the fares they collect and pay the companies a weekly fee covering radio equipment, insurance and the right to display the company’s logo on their cars.
Consequently, the drivers are responsible for maintaining their own cars and having them inspected.
Some cab companies are taking proactive steps.
Yellow Cab Co., which runs roughly half of all registered cabs in Dallas, will start inspecting every one of its cabs monthly on Thursday to make sure the “check engine” light is off, said company president Jack Bewley.
A vehicle cannot pass inspection while that light is on. Mr. Bewley said drivers who skip Yellow Cab’s monthly checks will not receive the city-issued decal that allows them to operate at the airport. He added that cabs lacking a decal can be fined if airport police pull them over.
Richard McComb, an air quality analyst with the council of governments, said he ran checks on the cabs because the industry is highly visible and the cars cover 100,000 miles a year, compared with about 20,000 miles for most vehicles.
“This seemed like a good place to start,” he said. “I knew it would be bad, but not as bad as it turned out.”
Mr. McComb said his study does not cover cases in which inspectors deceive the analyzer machine to produce a passing score.
He estimated that more than 20 percent of the 1.6 million passing inspections recorded across Dallas County last year were invalid.
“This is just the tip of the iceberg,” he said.
His agency maintains an emissions database that participating police departments can consult to check whether a vehicle holds a current valid inspection. Mr. McComb said Dallas County officials will meet later this week with airport officials to find out whether their police department will sign up to use it.
Airport officials declined to comment on the meeting but released a statement saying they expect every cab to follow state regulations, as their operating agreements require. The statement added that the airport backs all efforts to make sure taxis carry valid inspection stickers.
“The airport has consistently demonstrated its deep commitment to environmental stewardship,” Jim Crites, the airport’s executive vice president of operations, said in the statement.
Mr. Foster said he also intends to meet with officials from Love Field and Tarrant County. He added that city officials have told him they will propose having police officers on hand when cabs are inspected.
Mr. Foster said that if the stickers turn out to be fake, officers would impound the cab and fine the driver. The city’s transportation regulation manager could not be reached for comment.
“These are all high-mileage vehicles,” Mr. Foster said. “And if they won’t pass inspection, there’s a reason for it. Those reasons need to be addressed.”
Questionable Inspections
The North Central Texas Council of Governments recently examined the 2,200 cabs operating at Dallas/Fort Worth International Airport and found that 86 percent carried improperly issued inspection stickers. Here is the breakdown:
1,283 were inspected in five minutes or less, which is impossible for a valid inspection.
255 received the wrong test in order to get around emissions requirements.
247 lacked current inspection stickers.
80 were tested with a different vehicle.
22 went more than 13 months without any vehicle inspection.
SOURCE: NCTCOG
