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D.C. Municipal Regulations (Last Updated: September 13, 2017) |
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Title 31. TAXICABS AND PUBLIC VEHICLES FOR HIRE |
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Chapter 31-8. OPERATING RULES FOR PUBLIC VEHICLES-FOR-HIRE |
Section 31-802. TAXICAB OPERATOR SURCHARGE ACCOUNTS
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802.1Each taxicab operator who uses a digital dispatch service (“DDS”) which does not ensure that the passenger surcharge is collected from the passenger and paid to the District for each taxicab trip shall open and maintain a taxicab operator surcharge account (“account”) as provided in this section and any applicable Office instruction, issuance, or guidance.
802.2An account shall be opened by the operator with the Office (which for purposes of this subsection shall include the Office of the Chief Financial Officer) within fourteen (14) days after the operator associates with the DDS.
802.3An account shall be opened by filing the documents and information required by the Office, and making an initial deposit of one hundred dollars ($100). No administrative fee shall be charged by the Office for opening or maintaining an account.
802.4The operator shall make monthly deposits to the account as necessary to ensure a minimum account balance at all times of fifty dollars ($50), provided however, that the minimum account balance may be maintained by the operator through automatic payments to the account if the operator chooses to provide the Office with account information for a payment card, or a checking or savings account belonging to the operator held as a federally-insured financial institution, to which the Office may post charges as necessary to maintain the minimum account balance.
802.5The Office may make monthly deductions from the account based on an assumption that the operator is conducting not more than one hundred (100) fare paying trips per month, for which the District is owed passenger surcharges of not more than twenty five dollars ($25), provided however, that an operator may request that the Office conduct an account reconciliation not more than once per quarter based on trip data or other reliable and verified information provided to or otherwise in the possession of the Office, and the Office shall then make such adjustments to the account as necessary based on the reconciliation.
802.6A request for a quarterly reconciliation of the operator’s account pursuant to § 802.5 shall be conducted by the Office within twenty-one (21) days of its receipt.
802.7The Office may at any time make an adjustment to the account, based on trip data or other reliable and verified information in its possession, to ensure that the account accurately reflects the amount of passenger surcharges owed to the District by the operator.
802.8The Office shall provide a statement of account activity to each operator annually at a time determined by the Office.
802.9Each reconciliation under § 802.5, each adjustment to the account under § 802.7, and each statement of account activity under § 802.8, shall be provided in writing to the operator.
802.10The balance of an account, if any, shall be refunded to the operator by the Office within thirty (30) days following any event, which results in the operator’s no longer being required to maintain an account, by providing the operator with a check, where appropriate, and a final statement of account activity, which may be mailed to the operator’s address on file with the Office, provided however, that if the operator owes any amount to the Office at that time, the account shall remain open pending the payment of all amounts owed, any collection activity by the District, and any enforcement action under Chapter 7.
802.11An operator may dispute any decision of the Office concerning an account, following a reconciliation, where appropriate, by appealing the Office’s decision to the Chief of Operations, and thereafter to the Commission, whose decision shall be a final agency action, provided however, that an appeal shall not stay an operator’s legal obligation to provide passenger surcharges owed to the District pending the outcome of any appeal regardless of any dispute by the operator.
802.12 An operator who fails to open an account as required by § 802.1, fails to maintain the minimum account balance as required by § 802.4, willfully fails to pay a passenger surcharge owed to the District through an account under Section 802, or violates any other provision of this section shall be subject to fines as set forth in Chapter 20.