CHAPTER 126

TAXICABS AND VEHICLES FOR HIRE

126.01    DEFINITIONS. For the use of this chapter, the following terms are defined:

1. “Operator” means any person, whether or not the owner or owners of a taxi and or vehicles for hire, that will profit financially by the operation of a taxi and or vehicle for hire, but does not include a taxi driver as defined in Chapter 127 of this Code of Ordinances.

2. “Taxi” means any motor vehicle that is used on the streets of the City for the purpose of carrying passengers for hire, except for publicly owned vehicles, buses, ambulances and private carpools.

3. “Vehicle for hire” means a motor vehicle used to transport persons for hire or other consideration and includes limousines, luxury limousines, jitneys, vans, horses and carriages, and taxicabs. “Vehicles for hire” does not include buses, the City of Burlington bus system, transportation services provided by contractors hired by the City transportation department, and vehicles used for volunteer transportation such as car pools and courtesy buses.

126.02    LICENSE REQUIRED. It is unlawful to operate a taxi or vehicle for hire without a valid license issued under this chapter. Taxis or vehicles for hire that are operated principally in other cities and that use the streets of Burlington only temporarily and on isolated occasions need not have a license under this chapter.

126.03    APPLICATION FOR LICENSE. An application for a taxi or vehicle for hire license shall be filed with the City. The application shall be verified under oath and shall contain the following information:

1. The name and address of the applicant. If the applicant is a corporation, the name and address of all stockholders, directors, and officers of the corporation, along with the principal place of business of the corporation. If the applicant is a partnership, names and addresses of all general and limited partners of the partnership, along with the address of the principal place of business of the partnership.

2. The financial statement or balance sheet of the applicant. A listing of any unpaid judgments pending either against the applicant or any person or legal entity owning any interest in the applicant, including a brief description of the nature of the litigation or proceedings out of which any such judgment arose.

3. Any facts which the applicant believes tend to prove that public convenience and necessity require the granting of a taxi license.

4. The number of vehicles to be operated or controlled by the applicant/business partnership and corporation. The application shall include the make, model, serial number, motor number, State license plate number, and insurance policy number of each taxi or vehicle for hire. A statement of the condition of each vehicle to be operated, including information as to the age and type of each vehicle, and the date on which the vehicle passed its most recent safety inspection, if any, conducted by the Police Department. The Council shall set the fee for each vehicle by resolution and the fee shall accompany the application.

5. All locations of business sites and/or where the applicant will operate its central dispatch service.

6. No taxi or vehicle for hire license shall be sold, assigned, pledged, or otherwise encumbered or transferred in any way to any other operator without the express prior approval of the Council.

126.04    INFORMATION AND COLOR. No taxi operator or owner shall be issued a taxi license unless the color scheme of the taxi is distinctly different from that of any other taxi operator or owner’s taxi. All vehicles owned by the same company shall be painted with the same color scheme. Every taxi licensed under the provisions of this chapter shall have the name of the company thereof plainly printed in letters at least two inches in height in the center of the main panel of each rear door or each front door and one top light with the name of the company plainly printed thereon in letters at least one and one-half inches in height.

126.05    INVESTIGATION AND REPORT. Before issuance of the license, the Police Chief shall investigate the character of the applicant and shall be furnished by the applicant with a current inspection certificate, pursuant to Section 126.12 of this chapter, for each taxi to be licensed, for compliance with the State motor vehicle law and this chapter, and shall report these matters to the Council.

126.06    ISSUANCE OF LICENSE. The Council shall review each application promptly and shall issue a license if it finds that issuance will be consistent with the safety, health, welfare, comfort and convenience of its residents.

126.07    CONTENTS OF LICENSE. A license shall contain the authorized signatures, the date of issuance, the period for which it is valid, the passenger seating capacity of the taxi or vehicle for hire, and the information contained in the application.

126.08    DISPOSITION OF FEES. Immediately after acting on a license application, the authorizing personnel shall deposit the license fee in the City treasury or return the disapproved application and fee to the applicant.

126.09    LICENSE TERM. No person shall operate a taxicab, limousine or vehicle for hire, where service originates upon the streets of the City, without a license for each vehicle for hire. A vehicle for hire shall also require such license or certificates as may be required by the Department of Transportation of the State of Iowa. A vehicle for hire license shall be issued as of April 1 of each year and shall be effective for the period of one year from such date.

126.10    LICENSE NOT TRANSFERABLE. Each vehicle for hire license shall be issued for one specific vehicle for hire only and shall not be transferable from vehicle to vehicle or to a different operator. The operator shall notify the City when a licensed vehicle for hire is withdrawn from service. No portion of this fee is refundable.

126.11    REVOCATION OF LICENSE. The Police Chief may revoke or suspend any license under this chapter for the following reasons:

1. The operator has made an untrue, misleading or fraudulent statement in an application for license or in the conduct of business.

2. The operator has violated requirements of this chapter or the Code of Iowa.

3. The operator or employees of the operator conducted business in a manner that substantially endangers the public safety, health, welfare, order or morals.

Except as noted in subsection 126.16(4), the Council must conduct a hearing before revoking or suspending a license. The operator shall be given notice of the hearing at least five (5) days and not more than thirty (30) days before the date of the hearing. The notice shall be in writing and shall be served personally or as required for personal service by the Iowa Rules of Civil Procedure. The notice shall state the time and place of the hearing and the reasons for the intended revocation or suspension.

126.12    SUPERVISION AND INSPECTION. The Police Chief shall have the power, at any time, to investigate the conduct of any vehicle for hire business and the operation of the licensed vehicle and to inspect, or order the reinspection of, a licensed vehicle for hire for possible violations of the State motor vehicle law or this chapter, and shall report on these matters to the Council. Vehicle for hire operators shall furnish to the Police Chief a current inspection certificate for each vehicle for hire within ten (10) days following the first day of January and July. Such inspections shall be made by commercial establishments which service and repair motor vehicles on at least a weekly basis, and shall cover such of the following equipment as is applicable to the vehicle: brakes, lights, turning signals, steering, sound devices, glass, mirrors, exhaust system, windshield wipers, seat belts, tires, and such other safety equipment as may be prescribed for inspection under rules adopted by the Police Chief.

126.13    TAXIMETERS REQUIRED.

1. No person shall operate any taxi upon the streets of the City unless it is equipped with a taximeter of such type and design as may be approved by the Council. Such taximeters shall be fastened to that portion which is directly to the right of the driver’s seat and maintained in such position that the fares will be visible to passengers at all times, day or night, and after sundown, the face of the taximeter shall be illuminated. Such taximeter shall be mechanically operated by a mechanism of a standard design and construction either driven from the transmission or from one of the front wheels by a flexible and permanently attached driving mechanism.

2. Taximeters shall have thereon a flag or digital display to denote when the taxicab is employed and not employed. It is the duty of the driver of every taxi to engage the taximeter immediately before starting the motor vehicle in motion to deliver the passenger to the destination requested and to a non-recording position only on stopping at the destination requested.

3. Taximeters are subject to inspection from time to time. Any inspector of the City is authorized, on the complaint of any person, or without such complaint, to inspect any meter, and upon discovery of any inaccuracy of such meter, to notify the person operating the taxi to cease operation and such taxi shall be kept off the streets of the City until such taximeter is repaired and put in the required working conditions. Taximeters shall be in such condition as not to be over five percent (5%) incorrect to the prejudice of the passenger.

126.14    RATES.

1. Taxi and vehicle for hire operators shall submit proposed rate changes at the time of license renewal.

2. It is unlawful for any person to charge any fare other than the amount registered on the taximeter or the agreed charge when the vehicle is employed by the hour or for transporting goods, wares and merchandise.

3. Every driver shall have the right to demand payment of the legal fare in advance and may refuse employment unless so prepaid.

4. It is unlawful for any person to fail to pay or to receive payment for the fare in accordance with such determination or for any person to willfully fail to pay the established rate if there is no reasonable dispute as to the amount owed.

5. Each person or group of persons that calls a taxicab will be charged a separate fare at the regular metered rate. Transportation between the local depot or airport and any local hotel or motel shall be charged at the regular meter rate for each passenger. Any persons not wishing to share a taxicab with another person may request a taxicab by themselves.

6. The person driving a vehicle for hire shall be equipped at all times to render a receipt for the amount charged, either by mechanically printed receipt or by a specially prepared receipt on which shall be listed the name of the owner, license number or motor number, amount of meter recording, if so recorded or charges and date of transaction.

126.15    DISPLAYING LICENSE AND RATES. Operators shall display within the taxi and vehicle for hire, in full view of passengers, the taxi license and a schedule of rates.

126.16    FINANCIAL RESPONSIBILITY.

1. Before beginning operation of any vehicle for hire the operator shall file with the Clerk evidence of financial responsibility in the form of an indemnity bond with a corporate surety authorized to do business in the State, or an insurance policy issued by a company authorized to do business in the State, to cover possible liabilities arising out of the operation of each licensed taxi.

2. The minimum limits of liability of such evidence of financial responsibility shall be as follows:

1. To cover the operator’s legal liability for personal injury or death resulting therefrom, for each taxicab, for any recovery by one person as a result of any one accident or other cause, one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000); and for all persons receiving personal injuries as a result of any one accident or other cause, three hundred thousand dollars ($300,000);

2. To cover the operator’s legal liability for damage to or destruction of any property other than that of, or in charge of, the operator as a result of any one accident or cause, fifty thousand dollars ($50,000).

3. Every bond or insurance policy filed with the Clerk shall have attached thereto the following endorsement: It is understood and agreed that before the policy, or bond, to which this endorsement is attached may be suspended or canceled, the City of Burlington, Iowa, will be given ten (10) days’ prior written notice of such proposed suspension or cancellation.

4. Such bond or insurance policy shall be issued for a period to cover the life of the license applied for. Failure to keep such insurance policy or bond in full force and effect shall be a cause for immediate revocation of the license.

126.17    MAXIMUM WORKING HOURS. No operator shall require or permit any person to drive a vehicle for hire in excess of these maximum periods: not more than twelve (12) consecutive hours in any 24-hour period except that a driver may begin work again after he or she has been off duty for ten (10) hours.

126.18    SOLICITING BUSINESS. A vehicle for hire operator or owner shall not require or permit vehicle for hire drivers to stop, park or drive about the City streets or public places to solicit passengers by words, signs or signals, but they may take on a passenger anywhere in the City at the passenger’s request.

126.19    RESTRICTION ON NUMBER OF PASSENGERS. A vehicle for hire operator or owner shall not require or permit a driver to permit more passengers to be carried in a vehicle than the rated seating capacity of the vehicle as fixed by the Council and stated in the license, and each passenger must have available and be required to wear an approved seat belt whenever the vehicle is in operation.

126.20    DUTY TO CARRY PASSENGERS. No driver or operator shall require or permit a driver to refuse to convey an orderly person upon request, unless previously engaged, or unless said driver is unable or forbidden to do so by the provisions of this chapter.

126.21    DISPATCH SERVICE. The receiving of calls for service and dispatching of vehicles for hire by radio or telephone shall be accomplished only through a centralized dispatch service conducted or retained by the operator, who shall comply with all Federal Communication Commission requirements, including radio system licensing if necessary. Documentation of a contract for dispatching service or a copy of the FCC license must be submitted with each license application.

126.22    TAXICAB SERVICE. All persons engaged in the taxicab business in the City and operating under this chapter shall render an overall service to the public desiring to use taxicabs. The operator shall maintain a central place of business and keep the central dispatch service open between the hours of six o’clock (6:00) a.m. and twelve o’clock (12:00) midnight, Monday through Saturday, and six o’clock (6:00) a.m. through six o’clock (6:00) p.m. Sunday. Unless otherwise engaged on a call, at least one of the operator’s taxicabs shall be available to be dispatched during such hours. Nothing herein prevents a taxicab operator from making service available during other times as well.

126.23    CITY HELD HARMLESS IN USE OF VEHICLES FOR HIRE. In accepting a vehicle for hire license under this subchapter, the operator receiving it, including all persons having an ownership interest, agrees to indemnify and hold the City harmless from any and all claims, demands, damages, causes of actions, and costs, including all costs of litigation, costs of any kind including attorney’s fees, based on or arising out of the operation or use of vehicles for hire under the license issued under this chapter.

126.24    PENALTY. Any person violating any of the provisions of this chapter shall, upon conviction, be subject to the penalties set forth in Section 1.14 of this Code of Ordinances.