Taxis do more than provide rides; they serve communities

Sometimes, in our desire to embrace the latest innovations, we fail to devote much thought to how it may affect us in the long term.

What do we have to gain and, on the flip side, what do we stand to lose? When change occurs, do we have any say in the matter, or is it forced upon us?

Our company, Charley’s Taxi, is now feeling the effects of Uber and Lyft entering the market. These two ride-sharing companies play by a different set of rules than Charley’s, which is to say they play by no rules at all. Unlike Charley’s and other taxi companies, Uber and Lyft have been allowed to ignore taxi regulations pertaining to passenger safety, insurance and how they price their fares. We call it unfair competition.

But there’s an even bigger difference between Charley’s and ride-shares like Uber. They are here to capture revenue, pure and simple. That’s their business model. Put as many Uber drivers on the road as possible, carry as many passengers as possible. Make as much money as possible. When one Uber driver quits, plenty more are waiting to take his or her place. Just about anyone with a car, in fact, can drive for Uber.

Charley’s has always seen things differently. Our company grew up with Honolulu. We were built to respond to the real-life transportation needs of our communities.

Sure, we want to carry as many passengers as possible. But we also operate pro bono services for the Visitor Aloha Society of Hawaii, which aids visitors who have fallen victim to crime.

We support DUI prevention, helping people who imbibe — and their cars — to make it home safely. Charley’s Medicab service assists our kupuna and the infirm, escorting them door-to-door for doctor and hospital visits. Our CabCourier makes deliveries and runs errands for the housebound. Through our professional driver education program, we train drivers to assist and communicate with special-needs passengers.

We communicate with Japanese visitors from a Japanese-speaking call center, and provide dependable, flat rate pricing for our men and women in uniform who are assigned to military bases on Oahu. We even perform roadside assistance for drivers whose cars have broken down.

In contrast to ride-sharing companies here, Charley’s has the most stringent driver and vehicle standards of any taxi company in the nation. It includes fingerprinting and FBI background checks, GPS tracking and security cameras that capture driver POV and the cab’s interior. Your safety — and that of your family — is our first concern, and we take it seriously.

If you find Uber technology dazzling, you should see Charley’s. Our operations center is a technological wonderland with advances like GPS ring dispatching, shared ride metering, passenger call-out by phone or text, and dynamic mapping of vehicles and bookings.

But the reality is, times change. We understand that. But if they’re going to change, shouldn’t we make sure the change is really for the better?

Mayor Kirk Caldwell is now deciding whether to sign or veto (or ignore) Bill 35, which would put a cap on surge pricing as used by ride-share companies.

If ride-sharing is allowed to operate unfettered, it could mean the demise of many of our taxi companies, crushing the hopes and dreams of more than 1,000 drivers whose families depend on them as the family breadwinners.

Ultimately, ride-sharing companies will also put their own drivers out of business, implementing driverless cars.

In the aftermath, will the people of Honolulu look back with perfect hindsight and realize that when our city replaced its taxi operators with heartless machines, it also lost a piece of its soul?