City Council to Review Taxi Law in Hoboken after Cab Drivers Protest

Dozens of Hoboken taxi drivers protested a two-year-old city ordinance on Wednesday night.

The law —which was voted on in 2011 — dicates that a taxi can't be older than four years or have driven more than 125,000 miles, whichever comes last. 

The law will be reviewed by a council sub committee.

Currently, there are 65 licensed Hoboken taxi cabs, 38 of which do not comply with those rules, according to Evelyn Hernandez, the owner of eight taxi licenses.

José Colon, who owns four licenses in Hoboken, said that the law is "outrageous."

"Hopefully it was just a misunderstanding," Colon told the city council on Wednesday, "and you guys didn't really know what you were signing into law."

Enforcement of the law over the past two years seems not to have been strict. The city went down from three people enforcing taxi policies to only one person, according to one cab license owner.

When buying a new car, taxi drivers in Hoboken are required to buy a hybrid car. Some of the license holders buy used hybrid cars, which already have thousands of miles on them.

Before the meeting on Wednesday, Hernandez and Colon said that Hoboken is the only municipality they know of that has a mile-limit on the cars.

On average, a Hoboken taxi drives about 75,000 miles a year.

"It does appear it’s being enforced for the first time," said Council President Peter Cunningham. "It should probably be enforced when the law was passed."

The cab drivers showed up during Wednesday night's council meeting, because the deadline to renew their licenses is coming up.

The city council decided to take a look at the law, and in the meantime have postponed the deadline for the cab drivers to renew their licenses as a "good faith effort."