Hard life on the streets

Taxi drivers push for right to form their own service

Stuart Steers, Rocky Mountain News

Published March 26, 2007 at midnight

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Nur Negawo, Denver taxi driver, starts his day on his knees, dropping to the carpet at the Colorado Muslim Society for 5:30 a.m. morning prayers.

The call and response to ancient Arabic songs are something he has heard since he was a boy in Ethiopia, and he joins 30 other men - most of them fellow immigrants from Africa - for the morning ritual.

Negawo has already said goodbye to his sleeping wife and two small children in their Aurora apartment, kissing their eyes before climbing into his van, decked out in the colors of a local cab company.

After the 20-minute service at the mosque, he will begin an exhausting day that may last more than 12 hours, driving to every part of the Denver metro area in search of passengers.

He doesn't know if he'll make enough money to cover gas and maintenance costs, but he does know his children will be in bed already by the time he gets home.

"If you go two or three days without seeing your kids, what kind of father are you?" asks Negawo.

"Sometimes I talk to my daughter on the phone and she says, 'Daddy, come home.' "

'Modern slavery'

This hard life is what brought Negawo and dozens of other immigrant cabbies to the state legislature earlier this month, where their allegations of abuse at the hands of company managers brought one lawmaker to tears and prompted Negawo and other drivers to cry as well.

"I was crying too because I felt it," said Negawo. "This is modern slavery; you just slave for the company."

What the cabbies want is the right to form their own taxi service, something they thought was a given in America, but that Colorado law makes impossible.

Negawo says he pays about $500 a week to the cab company. In return, he gets insurance and the use of a dispatch service.

Many of the drivers say they take home less than $300 per week and are being exploited by the three taxi companies that control the Denver market.

"We want to live the American dream," said Jamal Said, an Ethiopian immigrant. "While the driver's pocket is empty, the company is making lots of money."

The taxi companies say they provide valuable services to the drivers, including liability insurance coverage, marketing and a steady flow of customers.

"There's money being made by the driver," said Ross Alexander, general manager of Yellow Cab, who said the average driver pays the company $350 a week.

"There are drivers making $50,000 to $60,000 per year."

He predicted that if the legislature abolishes the regulations that govern taxi service, there would be a flood of drivers heading to the airport for the higher fares that can be earned there.

"The cab companies are required to pick up everybody who calls in. If it's deregulated, they won't be required to do that," said Alexander.

As for allegations of abuse, Alexander said he had never seen any physical threats but acknowledged that "tempers can flare" between management and the drivers.

A constant struggle

Many of Denver's taxi drivers are Africans who fled civil war and political violence.

Daniel Negash, 41, came to the U.S. in 1993. An Ethiopian Christian, his life was in danger because of his opposition to the Communist government then in power.

He and his family walked four days through the desert to reach a refugee camp. After several years there, he was granted political asylum in America.

Even though he often drives 16 hours a day, Negash says he is grateful he had the chance to come to Colorado.

"For me, this is the best place in the world," he said.

After paying fees to the taxi company, Negash said he takes home $200 to $300 per week.

While he likes having the freedom to set his own work schedule, he despairs over the constant struggle to make ends meet, especially when his three small children need something.

"Sometimes you can't afford to buy the kids clothes," he said. "They say 'Daddy, can you buy me this?' You feel like crying."

Negawo's family came here in 1999, when he was still a teenager. They fled Ethiopia's civil war and spent years in a refugee camp in Kenya. An older brother came to the U.S. in 1988 and worked for years to bring his parents, five brothers and three sisters here.

Now 26, Negawo previously worked at Quizno's and Budget Rent-A-Car. Despite the long hours, he likes the freedom that comes with driving a cab. If his kids need to go to the doctor, he can drive them, and he can take time off to visit relatives.

"That's why the taxi business is good for Africans. They can do two things at once - they can drive and help their families," said Negawo, who put 73,000 miles on his van last year.

He doesn't plan to drive a cab forever, though. He travels with a laptop and several books about computer programming, and he plans to take classes at Aurora Community College later this year to improve his English.

"My dream is to go back to school. I like computers," he said, adding proudly that he had to get glasses because he uses the computer so often.

Drivers organize

The taxi drivers lobbying to change state law have formed their own organization, known as Pro Taxi. The group says it represents more than 400 drivers, and it has led many of its immigrant members into the strange land of the Colorado legislature.

The drivers began their foray into politics over the summer, when they met with August Ritter, son of Gov. Bill Ritter who was helping his father's campaign at the time.

After that meeting, dozens of Denver taxi cabs sprouted Ritter bumper stickers.

"We hope Bill Ritter will change the worst experience we're having and lift the shadow covering the state legislature," said Jamal Said.

The drivers won an initial victory in a House committee on March 1; the bill will be considered again this week .

Gov. Ritter greeted the taxi drivers when they held a rally on the west steps of the Capitol in early March. A spokesman said the governor is waiting to see what kind of bill emerges from the legislature before taking a position.

For many of the drivers, the American dream is now about being able to form their own taxi company.

Whether that will solve their problems is debatable, but they want the chance to try.

"We've already had somebody bossing us around," said Negawo, noting that the African drivers have all fled dictatorships. "Now we're in a free country and we don't want that anymore."

A cab driver's expenses

• Taxi company fees: Drivers pay the company they work for from $275 to $600 a week, depending on whether they own their own vehicles and how often they drive.

• Driving fees: The driver is responsible for gas, parking fees, permits and tickets.

• Maintenance fees: Most drivers own their own vehicles and pay all maintenance costs, which typically run at least $1,000 a year.

steerss@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2282

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