Rogue Rage

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Outside the Greyhound bus station at Seventh and Alameda streets in downtown Los Angeles last week, a few licensed taxis waited in the afternoon for travelers departing the station.

But less than a block away, a group of casually dressed men, including one who only gave his name as Antonio, were a bit more aggressive.

They approached pedestrians coming out of the bus station with a simple proposition: “Want a taxi ride for cheap?”

The men’s taxis don’t look like the brightly painted Crown Victorias popular among licensed cabbies. Instead, they are personal vehicles, such as Antonio’s 1995 Chevrolet Astro van. In fact, the men were operating illegally without a license.

Better known as “bandits,” some are unrepentant.

“The government shouldn’t have a right to tell me I can’t do this,” said Antonio in his native Spanish, as he sat in his van cluttered with old soda bottles and strewn with newspapers. “If people were happy with the fancy taxis, then why would people keep us in business?”

Bandit taxis have long operated in Los Angeles. But with the recession crimping business and higher gas costs squeezing profits, they are now more than just a thorn in the side of licensed cab companies.

Legitimate cabbies complain the bandits are unfair competition because they don’t have to submit to background checks; have commercial insurance; or pay various city fees, which recently rose about 10 percent. The city of Los Angeles estimates the bandits annually haul in $30 million.

Administrative Services Co-Op, which operates five taxi cab companies in Los Angeles County, including Yellow Cab, has sued 15 bandit taxicab operations in the past decade and has won permanent injunctions against most of them. It has three lawsuits pending.

“Especially at this time with the economy, it is hard to compete with them because they don’t have to follow any regulations like we do,” said William Rouse, general manager of Administrative Services.

Now, as complaints mount against the bandits, legislators are joining the fight. A state bill sponsored by the city of Los Angeles and authored by Sen. Jenny Oropeza, D-Long Beach, would increase the fines owners have to pay if their vehicles are used as bandit taxis. It is aimed at organized bandit taxi rings.

“We need a statewide, comprehensive solution to this because there are just too many jurisdictions facing this problem,” Oropeza said in a statement. “Having a patchwork quilt of regulations is too confusing.”


Bandit war

Bandit taxicabs aren’t anything new and it’s hard to track exactly how many are in Los Angeles. However, the L.A. Department of Transportation has estimated about 2,000 bandit drivers across the city, rivaling the licensed fleet of about 2,300. And that’s not counting the many who operate in other cities and unincorporated county communities.

Interviews with cab companies, law enforcement, city officials and the bandits themselves paint a rich picture of the underground industry. The bandits work 24 hours a day, from one end of the city to the other. Taxis range from retired police cars painted yellow with phony city seals on doors and nonworking meters to simple unmarked Toyota Corollas.

They can be found outside supermarkets in South Los Angeles where elderly people loaded with groceries need a short trip home; in Hollywood where tipsy clubgoers seek them out; and near places like the Greyhound bus station, where pedestrians likely don’t own a car or are in need of a ride.

Some drivers get into the business because they are undocumented and can’t get a valid driver’s license. Others don’t want or can’t afford to pay the fees to be a licensed driver. And some can’t pass a criminal background check.

The bandits weren’t widely seen as a big issue until a high-profile 1999 accident in which a bandit crashed his Chevy sedan into an empty Metro Rail Blue Line train, killing himself and five passengers. It turned out the driver’s license had been suspended after a DUI. The ensuing furor prompted local politicians and city transit officials to pledge a crackdown.

After a few off-and-on crackdowns, the Bandit Taxi Enforcement Program, a joint venture between the city Department of Transportation and the Los Angeles Police Department, was formed in late 2006. Funded by a 20-cent surcharge on cab rides and other fees, it has led to the arrests of hundreds of bandit drivers and vehicle impoundments.

Before the task force was formed, arrests of bandit drivers averaged 315 a year. That number rose to 1,110 in 2007 and 1,427 in 2008, when 446 vehicles were impounded, said Tom Drischler, taxicab administrator for the Department of Transportation.

In the first five months of 2009, the program has yielded 465 arrests and 430 impoundments. However, the bandits still operate openly, and in some telephone directories the listings for suspected bandits outnumber licensed companies.

(Simply advertising an illegal taxi service is not a crime. In order to make an arrest, police need to catch a bandit in the act of offering or providing a ride to a paying customer.)

One issue authorities said prevents them from closing down more bandit companies are the soft penalties. Although operating a bandit cab in Los Angeles is a misdemeanor offense subject to six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, most of those pulled over walk away with probation and lesser fines or with traffic citations, said Lawrence Webster, who prosecutes bandit taxicab cases for the L.A. City Attorney’s Office.

He said it’s very difficult to get a conviction that would carry the full penalty from jurors given that the defendants usually present themselves as down and out.

“Their situation engenders some sympathy with jurors,” he said.

Also, it’s not that hard to get impounded vehicles back. Bandit cabs can be impounded for up to 30 days, after which owners pay about $1,000 to get them back. Some owners wait until the vehicle is classified as “abandoned” and put up for public auction, as the law requires. Associates of bandit operators can end up buying a vehicle back for as little as $200.

And it’s even easier to get a vehicle back if the bandit does not own the vehicle, but leases it from the operator of a bandit ring. In that case, the legal owner can get it right away after paying a $500 fine and impound fees. The Oropeza bill would increase the fine to the legal owner to $1,250 statewide on top of impound fees.

“Of course you always want to a bigger hammer to hit them with,” Drischler said. “They escape paying the fees and insurance cost of operating legally, so they should face a fine for operating illegally.”


On the road

However, Drischler and others doubt even strengthening the penalties will eradicate the problem.

“It’s like chipping at what seems like an iceberg, but I think people want to know that when they get into a taxi that it’s safe,” Rouse said.

Antonio, who has no meter but displays a business tax license in the name of a taxicab company not permitted to work in Los Angeles on his dashboard, said he’s just providing a service for people who can’t afford the licensed cabs. And he has no intention to quit.

“I’ve been doing this for 28 years and it’s what I know how to do to put food on the table,” said Antonio in Spanish.

Some licensed companies understand the desperation.

At Fiesta Taxi, Marco A. Soto, the company’s vice president of marketing, frequently scouts bandit cabs and reports them. But he sees the challenges in cracking down.

“For some of these drivers, they are just trying to make an honest living,” Soto said. “But the fact of the matter is that our business is down 30 percent. We’re paying our dues to follow the law, and they aren’t.”

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