The V.I. Taxicab Commission oversees the operations of vehicles for hire through education, regulation and vigorous enforcement of laws, rules and regulations governing the taxicab industry.
That is the agency’s official description, but it’s actually the tip of an iceberg that extends into many pockets of the community. Taxi drivers are an integral part of the community, for better or worse, and Commission Executive Director Judith Wheatley is determined that it be better.
She makes one thing immediately clear, her mantra: "Taxi drivers are business people," she says. "They should be treated and treat themselves as such. They’re no different from any other business. In fact, taxis are the last locally owned business standing. Everything else is owned by somebody else."
The Taxicab Commission was re-established as a semi-autonomous agency in 2007 after spending a number of years as a division within the Department of Licensing and Consumer Affairs.
Wheatley has re-invigorated the office with purpose. She is an outgoing, dynamic personality, eager to share a "typical," day, though she says there really is no such thing.
She has just returned from Channel 2, where she was summoned to discuss a recent incident where a blind person was denied a taxi because he had his dog with him. The man had spoken about the incident publicly, and Channel 2 was investigating.
"The driver was in an area where traffic couldn’t stop to pick up a fare," Wheatley says, "but another taxi dropped off a passenger there, and then refused to stop for the man when he saw the dog.
"The drivers know the rules. We can’t refuse that kind of fare. It’s against federal regulations. It’s not good. It’s really sad."
Wheatley will call the driver in, but she told TV2 they should call the U.S. Attorney’s Office as well.
She has a 23-year career as a driver with Wheatley Taxi, a business she started. She makes it immediately clear, however, that she is in no way officially connected to the business now. "Don’t mix up that," she says. "My daughter runs the business. I am not active at all."
Wheatley is the first female commission director in a business that employs about 1,850 drivers, roughly 30 percent of them women. It is a challenge, and one that she clearly thrives on.
She has a staff of five enforcement officers, headed by Javier Estrill on St. Thomas with two more here, one on St. John, one on St. Croix and one administrative assistant. It is governed by a seven-member board of directors.
Estrill, a former Narcotics Strike Force officer, came to the commission a few months after Wheatley took over in 2008. He appears to have learned the ropes of his new job well.
Board member Camille Paris Jr., strides in the office for a lively discussion of a Senate hearing earlier this month on a bill proposed by Sen. Alicia "Chucky" Hansen to allow drivers to lend their taxis to anyone with a U.S. Virgin Islands drivers license for personal use and to any licensed taxi driver for taxi and personal use, an issue Wheatley vigorously objects to.
"The bills would make it virtually impossible to enforce regulations," she says. "We can’t allow uncertified drivers to cheat the system. We have enough problems with gypsy drivers now. A taxi can’t be a private car; how would we regulate it?" The bills are now in the Senate Rules committee.
How does this female get along with all the guys? Estrill is quick to answer.
"She knows when you’re doing something right. That’s when you get the most complaints. That’s why we have all this uproar," he says, casting an eye on Wheatley’s desk covered with green folders. Each folder is for a separate complaint.
Complaints range from customers claiming overcharging, speeding, accidents, but the most common is on the dollar run services.
Estrill says the dollar safaris are legal, though difficult to regulate. "It started years ago when Vitran had a shortage of buses and needed them for public assistance. It was a temporary arrangement, nothing in writing, but there still aren’t enough buses. They provide a service – they’re not illegal," Estrill says.
To further her aim to educate the drivers on their place in the community, Wheatley has been working on a professional development seminar for the past two years with Margaret Dean at the Caribbean Institute for Training and Development. "It’s not just customer service," she emphasizes. "The program has to change the profile of the driver so he or she understands the importance of what they do for a living."
It’s a five-point program, covering commission rules and regulations; customer service; crime prevention; emergency response and special needs passengers; and points of interest. The program is divided into four-hour seminars covering three days, with workshops scheduled on each island.
There are two challenges to the instruction. "Never say training," Wheatley says, as she whips out a well-worn copy of the V.I. Code. "This is my bible," she says, opening to a section prohibiting any "mandatory training requirement for license or badge renewal ….for owners or operators of automobiles for hire," a baffling law passed in 1993.
The second challenge is money. "It would cost $78,000 to pull the program off," Wheatley says. "I’ve reached out to the community and gotten positive responses. Mark Hargrove of the National Park Service has volunteered its Red Hook offices, the Westin Hotel on St. John and Jose Gonzales at Frenchman’s Reef have offered meeting rooms."
Wheatley says, "The money would cover trainers and travel territory-wide, for a series of three classes offered three times."
Meantime, she has initiated classes at the Police Academy, where she teaches a three-hour class on taxi issues to the recruits.
Wheatley conducts a tour of her handsome quarters. "Almost everything here was donated," she claims with pride. "One of our vehicles came from the Narcotic Strike Force, three from Property and Procurement upstairs, the plants from Agriculture, the copy machines from P and P. Everybody helped us set up shop."
The commission’s funding comes entirely from its own internal revenue sources, including license fees, bank liens, fees for an array of services and from the sale of taxi medallions.
Wheatley points out a small windowed enclosure. Ever optimistic, she says, "And this is where our cashier will be."
