Audit Finds Portland Needs to Better Regulate Taxi Industry

The City of Portland is not doing enough to regulate the taxi industry, according to an audit released Wednesday morning. The audit found problems with taxi cabs providing required data and the city not doing all the analysis they should.

The audit focused on the year since the city changed the regulations governing the industry to allow companies such as Lyft and Uber to operate in Portland.

The changes set minimum standards for safety, service, and data reporting.

Auditors found four major problems:

1. The bureau did not regularly and systemically analyze data it collected from the industry
2. The taxicab industry did not report several required pieces of data to the City
3. The City does not require companies to share detailed data that would enable more analysis and veri cation
4. The industry designated its data as confidential, which makes it di cult for the City to publicly report it.

Auditors concluded that as a result, the city is not able to adequately assess how customers are being served.

None of the nine taxicab companies serving Portland provided the city with all the required data. Some failed to provide data on wheelchair rides, some on wait times. Some barely provided any data.

The city's bureau of transportation, which oversees the industry, admits they have more work to do.

"We are also collecting ridership data from the industry but have more work to do in collaboration with our industry partners to get the required data in both compliant and compatible formats," Transportation Director Leah Treat said in response to the audit.

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