KCMO and KCAD are breaking Federal Law

Federal Law? What Federal Law?
The City of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Aviation Department are breaking federal law
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March, 26, 2009 - The City of Kansas City, Missouri is facing some critical budget issues in next year’s budget. But does the budget include income from sources that break federal law? The short answer, yes.

In November of 2002, H.R. Bill 2546, The Real Interstate Driver’s Equity Act (RIDE Act) (codified at 49 U.S.C. Sec. 14501(d)), passed Congress and was signed into law by President George W. Bush. This federal law prohibits States or any other political subdivision from requiring a fee or any other required payment on pre-arranged ground transportation of passengers involved in interstate commerce if the company providing the service meets all requirements of vehicle and intrastate licensing requirements within its state of domicile. An example of such a service provided where a fee would be prohibited is a car or van service picking up a scheduled passenger in Kansas City, Missouri and transporting them across state lines with a drop-off destination of Lenexa, Kansas.

The City of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Aviation Department (KCAD) continue to ignore this federal law and assess a “per trip” fee for any and all trips that originate from a commercial airline arrival at Kansas City International (KCI) Airport. This means that any time a limousine service, a livery service, or a van service is picking up a passenger at KCI and taking them across the state line with a final destination in a state other than Missouri, they are engaging in interstate commerce of pre-arranged ground transportation of passengers thus making the fee assessed by the Kansas City Aviation Department and KCI federally illegal.

Even if the fee were legal though, the City and KCAD do not apply the fee evenly. Full-size motor coaches are apparently exempt from paying this per trip fee. And why is that? It is believed that the City and KCAD exempt these vehicles because they operate under the regulations of the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration (FMCSA) and have a motor carrier (MC) number. What the City and KCAD may not know is that many of the other companies that do operate at KCI Airport also operate under these same regulations because they have vehicles in their fleet that must be regulated by the FMCSA and therefore their entire fleet is regulated by the FMCSA. So again, why are the full-size motor coaches exempt while other vehicles that operate under the same regulations are not?

But that isn’t the only thing that the City and KCAD is doing that isn’t right. Effective April 1, 2009, the Aviation Director has ordered the per trip fee to increase from $1 per trip to $3 per trip, a 200% increase! And what is the justification for such an increase? As many employees and contractors that are employed by the City, KCI, and KCAD have put it, other cities and airports are charging much more than $1 per trip, so Kansas City is going to charge more as well. And these fees are not assessed to all vehicles that operate at KCI. And what services are offered in return? Well, if you are a taxicab driver, you get your own facility complete with bathrooms, vending machines, tables with chairs, televisions, and of course, the “showers” that caused much controversy in April of 2007. If you are a driver of any other carrier of passengers, including limousines, livery vehicles, and van shuttles, you have no facility to use except for a large parking lot. It is said that the drivers of vehicles other than taxicabs are free to use the taxicab facility, but often times groups outside of taxicab drivers are banned from use of the facility.

Now, the City of Kansas City, Missouri boasts about its efforts to battle the war on climate change and the reduction of using foreign oil by utilizing alternative fuel vehicles. In May of 2008, Sam Swearngin stated that over one-quarter of the City’s vehicles were powered by natural gas. This includes over 160 vehicles in the Kansas City Water Services Department and all the red and blue airport shuttle busses operated at KCI (which at the time of report, KCI was saving $84,000 a month on fuel through use of CNG for its shuttle busses). But some of this reduction in emissions through the use of CNG vehicles is offset by the numerous passenger carrying commercial motor vehicles (CMVs) left idling at KCI. This is a result of the City and KCI not providing any facility for the drivers of those vehicles (excluding the cab drivers) to stage and wait for their next trip so they must idle their vehicles to keep warm during the cold winters and cool during the hot summers.

In addition to the City and KCI not providing a facility for the non-taxicab drivers, the lot that they are to use is poorly maintained. Throughout the winter, KCI Airport Operations does the bare minimum to treat the parking lot for use of the passenger carrying CMVs. The trucks used to treat the roads will often only make one pass through the parking lot to lay down salt until well after the weather event is over. This one pass does not cover the areas in which the vehicles are often parked, where the driver will get out of his vehicle to check the backseat for any trash left behind by previous passengers. During any icy conditions, a driver may get out of his vehicle only to slip and fall on the untreated parking lot, the untreated parking lot that he is forced to park and stage in, the untreated lot that is supposed to be maintained by KCI Airport. This lot is also the same lot that illegally parked vehicles are towed to. What will happen when the owner of a towed vehicle is forced to walk across this icy, untreated lot in order to claim the towed vehicle? The owner is also likely to fall be injured on the untreated roadway as a result of neglect from KCI Airport Operations. So, how long is it going to be before something happens that results in a lawsuit from this neglect since they have opened themselves open to liability?

All while this is happening, while the City and KCAD are breaking federal law, some operators of passenger carrying CMVs are flying under the scope of the radar by not even registering their vehicles with KCI and operating as “gypsies.” This results in the possibility that there are some vehicles that are operating with no authority at any level and without the minimum, or any, insurance as required by city, state, and federal laws. And while there are several vehicles that operate this way, very little is done within the KCI Airport Police Department to prevent this from happening. Often times, the illegal operator will be told to simply park in the parking garage as if they were any other non-commercial vehicle. Checks are rarely done on these vehicles to see if they are even remotely legal operators, or if the driver of the vehicle even has a valid driver’s license, and no citations are given. Again, by knowingly allowing these gypsy vehicles to operate in their current capacity and doing nothing to prevent it from occurring, the City and KCAD are opening themselves up to a huge liability.

In summary, the City and the Kansas City Aviation Department are breaking federal law by charging a per trip fee for all commercial airline arrivals at KCI regardless of the nature of the trip, they are unequally applying the fee to some operators while exempting other operators that have the same regulations, they are increasing their questionable legality fees by 200% while providing nothing in return including simple maintenance of the facilities mandated for use by passenger carrying CMVs, and they knowingly allow illegal gypsy operators to continue to operate at KCI while doing nothing to prevent it. The City of Kansas City, Missouri and the Kansas City Aviation Department need to get their acts together and stop breaking federal law. If the City and KCAD need to increase revenues generated at KCI, then they need to get the KCI Police Department to enforce the laws that are legal by issuing the tickets that need to be issued for parking, speeding, and illegally operating. By doing this, then the increases in illegal fees most likely would not be necessary.

The KC Limo Blogger can be reached at kclimoblogger@gmail.com.