Taxi drivers want 50 cents more for gas

Boston's taxi drivers will ask the city today for permission to charge an extra 50 cents for every ride, saying the high cost of gas is cutting too deeply into take-home pay.

''The cost of fuel is shooting up,," said Larry Meister, vice president of the city's Independent Taxi Operators Association. ''The price has never been higher than it is now, and the drivers are really feeling it. Nobody really wants to raise the price of a cab, but it's becoming a necessity."

Local taxi company officials said that with gas prices now over $2 a gallon they intend to raise the issue at a meeting today with officials in the Boston Police Department's Hackney Unit, which oversees the city's taxi industry.

Meister and others in the industry said they haven't worked out such details as how long the surcharge would remain in effect, but they hope Hackney officials would consider a temporary surcharge that would end if the price of gas drops.

Hackney officials, however, said a gas surcharge would amount to a backdoor rate increase.

''A surcharge is a convenient euphemism," said Mark Cohen, director of the Police Department's licensing division, which oversees the Hackney Unit. ''Taxis in Boston are some of the most expensive in the country. Before we rush willy-nilly into a solution that's clearly on the backs of riders, I think the discussion has to be fuller than slapping a surcharge."

Still, Cohen said city officials recognize the pain many cabdrivers are feeling and are open to other ways to cut their costs.

For example, he said the city and industry should consider ways to improve fuel economy and, perhaps, reduce the rates taxi companies charge drivers to rent their cabs.

''We're not shutting down the discussion, but we have to look at the driver's side and the passenger's side," Cohen said.

The city's taxi rates are usually reviewed every five to seven years.

The last fare increase went into effect in September 2002, when meter rates rose 25 cents to $1.75 for the first 1/8 mile or less and 5 cents to 30 cents for each additional 1/8 mile. Fees then also rose to $2.25 for traveling to Logan Airport and to $6 for passengers leaving the airport.

Drivers of the city's 1,825 taxis gross from about $75 to $150 during a typical 12-hour shift, depending on factors such as weather and the day of the week, industry officials said. Of that, they often have to pay about $80 to rent a cab for the day and about $20 for gas at current prices.

Andrew Hebert, an assistant manager for USA Taxi and publisher of Rearview Mirror, a newsletter for the Boston taxi industry, said many taxi drivers are suffering.

''A lot of drivers are more worried about what will happen in the future, if gas prices don't fall," Hebert said. ''Something has to be done."