BILL ANALYSIS �
SENATE TRANSPORTATION & HOUSING COMMITTEE BILL NO: AB 807
SENATOR MARK DESAULNIER, CHAIRMAN AUTHOR: solorio
VERSION: 6/7/11
Analysis by: Carrie Cornwell FISCAL: no
Hearing date: June 14, 2011
SUBJECT:
Taxicab drivers: driver reports
DESCRIPTION:
This bill allows local agencies that regulate taxicab services
to have access to employer-maintained driving records of taxicab
drivers.
ANALYSIS:
Existing law requires every city or county to adopt an ordinance
or resolution establishing a policy governing how businesses
enter into the taxicab transportation service business and how
the jurisdiction will issue permits to taxicab drivers. The law
defines taxicab transportation service as being rendered in
vehicles designed for carrying not more than eight persons,
excluding the driver, which are operated within the jurisdiction
of the city or county. Existing law also establishes minimum
standards that a local government must include in its policy but
allows a city or county to adopt additional requirements for a
taxicab to operate within its jurisdiction.
Existing law also establishes the employer pull-notice system,
through which the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) provides an
employer of a driver with a report at least once a year that
shows the driver's full driving record as well as notification
of any subsequent convictions, driver's license revocations,
failures to appear, accidents, driver's license suspensions,
driver's license revocations, or any other actions taken against
the driving privilege. The pull-notice program allows an
employer to monitor the driver's license records of its drivers.
Existing law requires employers of drivers of specified
vehicles, such as commercial trucks, school buses, farm labor
vehicles, and vehicles that transport hazardous materials, to
participate in the pull-notice program. Other employers may
participate voluntarily.
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When the employer receives reports on its drivers under the
pull-notice program, the employer must sign, date, and maintain
the reports and then present them upon receiving a request from
a representative of the California Highway Patrol.
This bill requires that the employer of a taxicab driver that
participates in DMV's pull-notice program must in addition make
the reports available upon request from the local agency that
regulates taxicab services.
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COMMENTS:
1.Purpose . The author notes that currently local agencies
regulating taxicabs within their jurisdictions cannot directly
access the driving records of the taxicab drivers they permit.
The proponents believe that access to these driving records
is necessary to ensure that each taxicab driver maintains a
valid driver's license and has not been involved in a
disqualifying incident, such as a driving-under-the-influence
conviction. The author notes that this is particularly
important as taxicabs are increasingly being used in a variety
of purposes, including as a supplement to paratransit
services.
The author introduced this bill to provide local regulators
with access to taxicab driver records and thereby provide
additional safeguards to the traveling public. With access to
the information from DMV's voluntary pull-notice program, the
administrative agencies responsible for permitting taxicabs
could act quickly to prevent drivers with unsafe driving
habits or who lack a current license from continuing to
transport passengers.
2.Taxis not in mandatory pull-notice program . Existing law
requires that employers of drivers of specified vehicles,
including ambulances, school buses, and tow trucks, among many
others, participate in the DMV's pull-notice program. This
bill does not add employers of taxicab drivers to the list of
those who must participate in the pull-notice program.
Instead the bill requires employers of taxicab drivers that do
participate in DMV's pull-notice program to make available
reports on its drivers received pursuant to the pull-notice
program when the local agency that permits taxicab requests.
Within Orange County, the Orange County Transportation
Authority (OCTA), develops the policy governing taxicab
businesses and permitting of their drivers. Each city then
adopts this policy individually, but OCTA administers the
policy, which is called the Orange County Taxi Administration
Program (OCTAP). The OCTAP regulations require that each
taxicab driver in Orange County to maintain a valid California
driver's license and that the employer enroll in the
pull-notice program. OCTA reports that some employers of
taxicab drivers have refused to allow it to review pull-notice
reports on drivers. In response, OCTA is sponsoring this
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bill.
Assembly Votes:
Floor: 76-0
Trans: 14-0
POSITIONS: (Communicated to the Committee before noon on
Wednesday, June 8,
2011)
SUPPORT: Orange County Transportation Authority (sponsor)
OPPOSED: None received.