Some taxi drivers don't like new Port Canaveral rules

Some commercial providers of ground transportation at Port Canaveral have expressed concerns about new rules implemented this month.

Among the concerns of taxi, Uber and other drivers who drop off customers at the port: a required $500 security deposit designed to assure that the drivers pay their entry fees to the port each month and the requirement that they have $1 million in insurance.

"We have an affirmative duty to protect the public we serve," said Eddie St. Clair, the port's senior program manager, in explaining the new regulations for ground transportation providers.

St. Clair said the new rules also are designed to reduce traffic congestion.

But Patricia Barnette, a driver for the ride-hailing service Uber who transports cruise passengers and crew members to the port, sees it differently.

"This is just pure greed. This isn't protecting anybody," said Barnette, who in the past has owned her own taxi business for 22 years and has been a spokeswoman for the Taxi Association of Brevard, a coalition that had about 60 taxi drivers, most of them independent of large cab companies.

Barnette said "it was a shock" to her when she realized what the new rules would entail.

Barnette said it would be difficult for many drivers to afford the new security deposit and the insurance.

"They want us to spend a fortune," Barnette said.

Mike Minucci, owner of Cocoa-based National Taxi, said the new rules are forcing him to stop doing business with the port, citing the new insurance requirements as an example.

"It's unreal," Minucci said. "They've made it to where it's financially impossible" for his company, which has a fleet of eight cabs, to work at the port.

Minucci said that also will limit the choices of cruise passengers and crew members looking for a taxi or other commercial vehicle to get to the port.

Port warns transportation firms: Obey rules or face fines

St. Clair said "there have been a lot of conversations that have been generated" by the new fee structure, between port officials and ground transportation drivers, both ones based in Brevard County and based in the Orlando area.

But he said there have been "relatively few complaints" about them.

St. Clair said the port worked with existing ground transportation providers to develop the rules, and also examined rules now in effect at other Florida cruise ports and at Orlando International Airport.

Port Canaveral Chief Executive Officer John Murray said, in general, "the people who have been playing by the rules are very happy" about the new regulations.

"That is a positive kind of thing," Murray said, adding that businesses and individuals who have been operating ground transportation businesses surreptitiously may be among those raising the most fuss about the regulations.

The new rules were implemented in advance of a new transponder system at the port's cruise terminals. Under that system,  holders of commercial ground transportation permits will be automatically charged a fee each time they enter the port cruise terminal areas.

The fee is $3 per trip for a taxi. For other types of vehicles, the fee is based on the vehicle length — $5 for a vehicle 21 feet or less; $10 for a vehicle more than 21 feet to 30 feet; and $15 for a vehicle more than 30 feet.

Port cracks down on unpermitted transportation companies

The ground transportation permit costs $50 a year, and the transponder costs $20, although drivers can instead use their own E-Pass or SunPass transponder, and ask the port to link it into the port's system.

St. Clair said the port's 296 existing ground transportation permit holders will go under the new system when their permits are renewed in January.

New permit holders had to pay the security deposit and permit fee immediately, although their permits will extend through the end of 2017. Thirty people have bought permits since the system took effect Oct. 1.

Barnette, though, said it is not worth it for her financially to go through the port permitting and deposit system, considering the expense of the entry fee into the cruise terminal area and the cost of gas.

She typically works three days a week, and may have two $15 fares a day involving trips to the port's cruise terminals from Cocoa Beach or Merritt Island, for example.

"You'd have to be insane to do it," Barnette said. "This will put all of us out of business," as far as serving the port.

St. Clair said the $500 deposit to the port is refundable if a ground transportation provider wants to get out of the business of transporting passengers to the port. He said it is designed to assure that the drivers pay their monthly bills to the port, based on trips to the cruise terminal areas.

He said just one citation has been issued so far against an alleged violator of the rules, against the driver of a "vehicle for hire" that was neither a traditional taxicab nor a Uber vehicle.

St. Clair said transportation providers have received verbal and written warnings before the port takes the step of a citation, which can carry with it a $250 fine.

"We have tried to work with the ground transportation permit holders," including by distributing fliers and pamphlets explaining the changes, St. Clair said.

Contact Berman at 321-242-3649 or dberman@floridatoday. com, on Twitter at @bydaveberman and on Facebook at www.facebook.com/dave.berman.54