Union Taxi, founded by formers drivers and operators of other local cab companies, has received initial approval to commence business with a maximum of 220 cabs at any given time. (That number required by PC regulation.)

This is good news for folks like me who live close enough to downtown to walk or bike places at night, but prefer a taxi come real late or in the dead of winter.

Denver currently has two large taxi companies: Yellow and Metro Taxi. There’s also Freedom Cab, which is seen around town but in far fewer numbers. A fourth, Taxi Fiesta, is relatively new and targets the Latino community. All of these are regulated by the public utilities commission, which controls demand, and therefore ultimately doesn’t foster much competition or reason to improve service.

From my experience drivers are friendly and dependent once you are IN a cab, but getting a cab to your door is more burdensome, and on the streets it’s often difficult to accomplish this at night.

In many big cities you can step out of a restaurant on any major street and hail a cab. That’s not done as much in Denver. Procedure is to call first, give your name and address, then a cab shows up 5, 10 or however many minutes later. Again a roadblock of the regulatory nature, but it also creates a buffer of safety for drivers by having dispatch collect a name and number. Many including myself ignore this in the downtown area and flag cabs anyway, and available drivers will pick them up if not en route to a call. And on weekend nights downtown I’ve picked up a cab quicker by flagging one than calling.

With flagging a cab however comes spotty following of the rules. There have been situations where drivers have declined passengers based on distance. (Few drivers want a short hop.) Profiling by appearance comes into account when hailing a cab, and on busy nights cabs can be extremely hard to come by.

Taxi drivers worry about a flood of cabs eating into their slim margins. It’s not an easy job, and long hours are worked to squeeze out a profit. But I do I believe that with more competition, and perhaps someday deregulation, Denver’s service will be a step closer to being “world class.”