All of the following requirements herein pertaining to operation
of taxis shall apply to both the owners and drivers of taxis:
A. Loitering prohibited. No person other than the licensed driver or
paying passenger shall sit in the taxi while the taxi is parked at
a public taxi stand or providing service to a passenger, and no driver
shall encourage or permit loitering near his/her taxi while parked
in a public taxi stand, except that nothing shall prohibit the driver
from being accompanied by an adult companion for security purposes
while on duty between the hours of 8:00 p.m. and 6:00 a.m.
B. Personal appearance. All taxi drivers, when operating a taxi, shall
be clean and neatly dressed.
C. Smoking prohibited. Smoking shall be prohibited at all times in all
taxis licensed by the Township.
D. Lost articles. Every taxi driver shall, upon the completion of each
and every trip, make a search of said taxi for any property lost or
inadvertently left therein, and any such property, unless sooner claimed
or delivered to the rightful owner, shall be taken to the Police Department
within six hours of the finding thereof.
E. Conveyance of passengers in safe and expeditious manner. All taxi
drivers shall comply with all reasonable and lawful requests of passengers
as to speed and the route to be taken. Where such requests are not
made by the passenger, such driver shall use lawful and reasonable
speed and the most expeditious route to be taken to such passenger's
destination.
F. Misinformation to prospective passengers prohibited. No driver of
any taxi shall induce any prospective passenger to employ him/her
by misinforming or misleading any such prospective passenger, either
as to time or place of the arrival or departure of any train or motor
bus, or as to the location of any building or place, or as to the
distance between any two points.
G. Report of accidents. Any motor vehicle accident involving a taxi
and causing injury to a person or persons or damage to property in
excess of $100 shall be reported immediately by the driver to the
Police Department.
H. Illegal or immoral use of taxis prohibited. No owner or driver of
any licensed taxi shall permit the use of such taxi for any illegal
or immoral purpose.
I. Reasonable response period required. All taxi licensees or their
representatives shall answer all calls received for taxi service inside
the Township limits as soon as they can do so. If such services cannot
be rendered within a reasonable time, they shall then notify the prospective
passenger as to how long it will be before the call can be answered
and give the reason therefor.
J. Refusal to provide service. No licensee under this chapter or his/her
representative shall refuse to accept a call for taxi service anywhere
within the Township limits at any time when such licensee has a taxi
available. In particular, no licensee under this chapter or his/her
representative shall fail to or refuse to accept a call for taxi service
from the North Brunswick Police Department. More than one violation
of this section in any one calendar year may be cause for the denial
of the renewal or transfer of any taxi owner's license or taxi
driver's license.
[Amended 11-21-2016 by Ord. No. 16-20]
K. Restriction on number of passengers; federally approved car seat
required.
(1) No driver shall permit more than the following passengers in a taxi:
(a)
Any combination of five adults and children.
(b)
No more than two passengers shall be permitted to ride in the
front seat of any taxi.
(2) Each passenger shall have a working seat belt available to him or
her.
(3) In accordance with the New Jersey Child Restraint Law, no child under
18 months old shall be transported in a taxi unless the child is secured
in a federally approved car seat, and no child between the ages of
18 months and five years shall be transported in the front seat unless
secured in a car seat. Upon request, the car seat shall be made available
to older children.
L. Fare receipts. The driver of any taxi shall, upon request of a passenger,
render to such passenger a receipt for the fare charged. The receipt
shall state the name of the driver, the taxi license number, the amount
of the fare, the points of origin and destination, and the date and
time of the transaction.
M. Recordkeeping by owners. The holder of each and every taxi license
shall record in a book kept solely for such purpose the time each
licensed vehicle is available for service, the name of the driver
thereof, the license number of the driver and the license number of
the vehicle.
N. Refusal to pay legal fare. It shall be unlawful for any person to
refuse to pay the legal fare after having hired the taxi.
O. Demand of fare in advance. If the exact mileage from the point of
origin to point of destination is known, or if the taxi charges a
flat rate for a given trip, the taxi driver may require the passenger
to pay the fare before departure.
P. Limitation on hours worked by drivers. No taxi driver shall work
more than 12 hours in any twenty-four-hour period.
Q. Minimum hours of operation. The owner of a taxi owner's license
issued by the Township shall operate his/her taxi(s), for a minimum
of 40 hours each week.
R. Clean taxi required. The interior and exterior of a licensed taxi
shall be clean at all times.
S. No taxi shall be permitted to leak fluids. Except for trace amounts
of fluids and condensation normal to everyday operations, no taxi
shall leak fluids such as, but not limited to, gasoline, motor oil,
power steering fluid, brake fluid, transmission fluid or antifreeze
upon the streets of the Township or upon spaces designated as public
taxi stands. Condensation and trace amounts resulting from normal
operations shall not be considered a violation of this chapter.
T. Acceptance of more than one fare. No driver shall permit any other
person to ride in the taxi unless the person or persons first employing
the taxi shall consent to the acceptance of additional passengers.
U. Horns. No driver shall use the vehicle horn when arriving at a fare
destination to alert any person or persons for which the taxicab is
waiting. Horns shall only be used in accordance with the provisions
of N.J.S.A. 39:3-69, wherein horns may be used when reasonably necessary
to ensure safe operation or to give an audible warning.
The owner of each taxi licensed under the provisions of this
chapter shall keep or cause drivers employed by the owner to keep
a daily manifest of all trips showing the date, time and place each
passenger was picked up, the number of passengers, the time and place
each passenger was discharged, the trip distance and the amount of
fare charged for each trip. Manifests must also document the number
assigned to any public taxi stand that a taxi occupies, occupy, as
well as the time it arrives at the stand and the time it departs.
Such manifest shall be subject to inspection by the Code Enforcement
Office or the Township Director of Public Safety or his or her designated
representative, at their discretion. Manifests shall be maintained
for three months before they may be discarded.
[Amended 12-15-2014 by Ord. No. 14-13; 12-4-2017 by Ord. No. 17-14; 2-19-2019 by Ord. No. 19-03]
The fare to be charged by a taxi licensed by the Township for
any trip with both an origin and a destination in the Township shall
not exceed the maximum established herein.
A. A base fare of $4.50 shall be charged for the first two miles or
part thereof for all passengers, except senior citizens and handicapped
persons.
B. An additional fare of $1 shall be charged for each subsequent 1/2
mile or part thereof for all passengers, except senior citizens.
C. The maximum fares established in this section shall apply to the
transportation of one or two persons from the same point of origin
to the same point of discharge. The fare for each additional passenger
above two shall be $0.50 per person.
D. An additional dispatch charge of $0.50 shall be charged for all trips
in which the origin of the trip is not a designated public taxi stand.
E. Senior citizens of 62 years of age or over and handicapped persons
shall be charged a base fare of $3.50 for the first two miles and
an additional fare of $0.75 for each subsequent 1/2 mile or part thereof.
F. An additional administrative fee of $3 shall be charged for each
trip (one-way) provided to a registered participant under the Municipal
Senior Transportation Program and for trips scheduled by a municipal
official for programs organized and administered by the Municipal
Senior Center.
G. There shall be no additional charge for up to two grocery bags, laundry
bags or packages. Each grocery bag, laundry bag or package in excess
of two shall be an additional $0.25. Suitcases shall be an additional
$0.25 per suitcase.
H. Nothing in this chapter shall prohibit any licensee from establishing
flat rates for service between designated points as long as such flat
rates do not exceed the mileage rates established by this chapter.