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Consumer Affairs Taxicab Regulatory Program The Consumer Affairs Unit performs the licensing, enforcement and strategic planning of the Seattle Taxicab and For-Hire Vehicle Program. There are 929 taxicab within the program. We inspect an additional 115 taxicabs through interlocal agreements with other cities. This provides the public with safe conditions regarding the taxicab vehicle. There are 2 full time taxicab inspectors that enforce the regulations during work hours. There is a half time taxicab inspector that does street enforcement week nights and weekends. Street enforcement consists of taxicab and for-hire driver compliance. The Consumer Affairs Unit assists with the driver training. During the initial for-hire driver application process, King County provides a basic skills tests to applicants which is required to obtain a for-hire driver license . The driver taxicab and for-hire vehicle law enforcement portion of this driver training is provided by the taxicab inspectors. Strategic planning encomposes a variety of information. Industry activity reporting is one tool used to retrieve some information. The Consumer Affairs Unit monitors industry activity through various methods. Some of the methods include reporting by the taxicab associations, taximeter inspection statistics and the surveying of other cities with taxicab programs. Recently, laws have been passed to grant the City of Seattle the authority to issue new taxicab licenses. Rules regarding the new laws also have been passed for the implementation of these laws. In the next few weeks, the process will begin to issue 15 new Wheelchair Accessible Taxicab (WAT) licenses. On March 1, 2010, Seattle held a lottery drawing for WAT licenses. A total of 534 application tickets were drawn and ranked in the order drawn, as shown on this list.
On January 11, 2010, Seattle released the names of the drivers awarded the Wheelchair Access Taxicab licenses from the license lottery. See letter for awarded driver names below.
On June 8, 2010, Seattle released the names of the drivers awarded the Wheelchair Access Taxicab licenses from the license lottery. See letter for awarded driver names below.
******Important Taxicab Lease Information****** On September 28th there is a public hearing on a taxicab rule regarding raising the lease caps.
If you have a specific question you would like answered, please contact Consumer Affairs Unit at (206) 386-1298.
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Taxicab Associations & For-Hire Vehicle Companies File Taxicab Complaints Or Call (206)296-TAXI WAT (Wheelchair Accessible Taxicabs) International Association Transportation Regulators (IATR)
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