Enforce the Policy or Drop the Regulations
Archive Note — 2026: This post was written during a period of rapid change in St. Augustine’s transportation industry. Abraxi Taxi had spent considerable time and money trying to comply with new local taxi requirements, while I was frustrated by what I believed was inconsistent enforcement among taxis, rideshare services and other transportation providers. I’ve lightly edited the original to preserve that argument while making clear that it reflects my understanding and opinion at the time. Regulations and circumstances have changed since this was written.
I wish I had been notified that the new taxi regulations either no longer applied or that the October 1 deadline had been extended.
At Abraxi Taxi, we had struggled—and spent considerable money—to bring our fleet into compliance with the safety and mechanical standards we understood the city to require.
That wasn’t necessarily a bad thing.
Safe vehicles are good for passengers, drivers and the city.
What frustrated me was spending the money to comply and then wondering whether everybody competing for the same passengers was being held to comparable standards.
Is There a Level Playing Field?
The transportation business in St. Augustine was already changing rapidly with the arrival of Uber and Lyft.
For a small local company, investing in additional vehicles and drivers becomes a difficult decision when you don’t know which regulations will actually be enforced or whether competitors are operating under different requirements.
More drivers and vehicles don’t just benefit the taxi company. Local drivers earn money here and spend money here. Small businesses also have more opportunity to contribute to the community when they’re healthy enough to do so.
So my question was fairly simple:
What is the point of a regulation if it isn’t consistently enforced?
If the rules changed, tell us.
If the deadline changed, tell us.
If the regulations still applied, enforce them fairly.
Any of those answers would have been better than uncertainty.
Different Vehicles, Different Rules
At the time, St. Augustine’s transportation mix included traditional taxis, pedicabs, shuttles, golf carts and increasingly app-based rideshare vehicles.
They weren’t necessarily identical businesses, and different types of transportation could legitimately fall under different regulations.
But from behind the wheel of a traditional taxi company, the differences weren’t always easy to understand.
We were competing for many of the same passengers.
That raised questions about vehicle standards, commercial insurance, driver requirements and what types of markings or lights could be displayed on vehicles.
Rather than accusing every competitor of breaking the law, what I really wanted was something much less exciting:
Clarity.
Tell Us What the Rules Are
I wanted a current copy of the applicable transportation codes and a straightforward explanation of how they were being enforced.
If the city no longer required certain regulations, that was fine too.
Tell us.
Then Abraxi Taxi could make informed decisions about whether to purchase another vehicle, hire another driver or invest elsewhere.
Small businesses can adapt to rules.
What is much harder is adapting to rules that aren’t clear or aren’t applied consistently.
I wasn’t particularly interested in wasting everybody’s time at a commission meeting if somebody could simply explain what was on the books and what was being enforced.
That was the point of my complaint.
Not that Abraxi Taxi deserved special treatment.
Quite the opposite.
We didn’t want special treatment for anybody.
Establish the rules.
Explain the rules.
Then enforce them fairly.
And finally, despite our disagreements in the taxi business, I wished Denise May the best in her newest career venture.
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