Taxi vendors get $600K schools deal

Contract OK’d after investigation into fraud charges

The Baltimore City Board of School Commissioners unanimously approved a transportation contract Tuesday for two taxicab services that were investigated last year for potential fraudulent charges to the system.

Richard Henry, the state’s inspector general for education, found taxicab vendor WHC MD, LLC, which does business as zTrip, billed city schools for over $631,000 in charges between 2018 and 2022 that did not match attendance records. The audit also found Silver Cab, which does business as Diamond Cab, charged $2,255 for transporting five students who had already graduated.

The school board approved an annual $600,000 contract for the next three years for zTrip and Silver Cab without discussion Tuesday. A total of four vendors bid on the contract.

“Our original investigative audit proved that the [BCPSS] taxi transportation contract lacked the fundamental elements of checks and balances. These elements are critical for ensuring service obligations and accountability,” Henry said in a statement Tuesday. “I hope that [BCPSS] has addressed the issues identified by my office in this proposal and ensures that past practices are not repeated.”

Henry referred the case to the Maryland Attorney General’s office last year. A spokesperson for the office did not respond to a question about the status of the referral.

BCPSS pays for taxi rides for a small percentage of students, such as those who are homeless, in foster care, have physical or intellectual disabilities, or who live in areas that lack bus routes or safe walking paths. The district has school buses and vans but still relies on taxicabs for certain students. The vendors will transport 75 students from April through June 2027.

“As City Schools noted in its response to the OIGE’s report, we have engaged in strategic shifts to our approach to student transportation that have significantly reduced student taxicab ridership in favor of school buses and vans,” Sherry Christian, a city schools spokesperson, said in a statement Tuesday. “However, we continue to rely on vendors for those students who are transported by taxicab. We are working with law enforcement authorities and the vendor to ensure that all findings in the report were addressed.”

Last year, state investigators discovered dozens of invoices and vouchers that didn’t match student attendance and enrollment records. In one instance, zTrip submitted invoices for 18 roundtrip rides in a month for a student who was only marked present for nine days.

Silver Cab could not immediately be reached for comment. Bill George, zTrip executive, did not provide a comment Wednesday. Last year,

George said the company purchased vehicles and equipment from Yellow Cab.

State investigators, who said zTrip was formerly Yellow Cab, discovered that Yellow Cab provided signed vouchers and invoices for a student it claimed to have transported 317 times during the 2018-19 school year — even though the student had transferred to another school system. It also invoiced the school system for rides attributed to 46 students who were found to have already graduated.

State investigators didn’t conduct a detailed review of vouchers from other vendors due to the smaller number of discrepancies. The school system also potentially overpaid four taxicab vendors by $86,700 since 2019 based on mileage rates that exceed agreedupon rates.

Henry recommended that city school officials recover funds from the vendors and enforce a requirement that taxicabs provide access to GPS tracking information.

Christian did not immediately respond to a question about how much money the school system has recovered.

Last year, BCPSS officials said the city school system has reduced its taxi ridership by about 90% since the 2018-19 academic term by using them only when “absolutely necessary.”

The shift followed a 2018 review by the state Office of Legislative Audits that found the school system overpaid its taxicab vendors by about $1.2 million due to an incorrect mileage rate and payments that were not always supported by ride vouchers. In response, the mileage rate was corrected, and the school system started requiring signed ride vouchers for all invoices.

Last year, state investigators discovered dozens of invoices and vouchers that didn’t match student attendance and enrollment records.