Taxi drivers halt service over imposed fees and dress code
Just in time for the Thanksgiving travel season, dozens of taxi drivers are refusing to service Mineta San Jose International Airport over a conflict with the airport’s new taxi dispatch contractor, which has imposed new fees and a strict dress code on the drivers.
Safer, LLC is a Brazilian company hired earlier this year by San Jose airport as a taxi dispatch service. The company has sought to impose a 25% per-ride fee on drivers along with other smaller charges. Under a previous arrangement, taxi drivers paid $330 per month to service the airport, said cab driver Kirpal Bajwa, who is organizing the walkout.
The company also imposed a new dress code that requires drivers to wear a necktie emblazoned with the Safer logo, black dress shoes, black gloves and a black winter jacket.
“We are not Safer employees. We are independent contractors; we provide our own vehicles,” said Kabede Kaba, a taxi driver. “They want free advertising.”
Neither the San Jose airport nor Safer, LLC responded Friday afternoon to requests for comment.
The protest has threatened to upend cab service at the airport as the
Thanksgiving travel rush approaches. The taxi drivers said they plan to continue to strike through the holidays unless a new service fee agreement is reached.
Bajwa, who is heading the refusal of service, said the main issue for the drivers is not the neckties, which he adds are “very uncomfortable,” but the 25% charge on drivers. “We have so many other expenses. It’s too much.” He said Safer initially pitched itself to drivers as a way to recover some ridership from Uber and Lyft and that the 25% fee would only apply to rides organized through Safer partnerships with travel companies, not walk-up taxi requests. Instead, Bajwa says, Safer employees, are attempting to solicit walk-up riders away from interfacing with the drivers and toward their company kiosk.
According to a memo from John Aitken, the airport’s director of aviation, San Jose taxi rides have been decimated by Uber and Lyft. Taxi volumes averaged 1,100 trips per day prior to the rise of ride-hailing apps and plummeted to 360 daily rides before the 2020 pandemic. As of January 2021, taxi rides averaged 26 per day.
Safer is a technology company that integrates airline ticketing with on-demand and walk-up ground transportation. The company, which has never serviced a U.S. airport, is prominent in Brazil.
Safer was the only company to respond to a bid request from the San Jose airport to manage taxi and door-to-door shuttle service. The City Council unanimously approved the twoyear contract with an optional three-year extension in March.