[HISTORY: Adopted by the Mayor and Council
of the Borough of Hopatcong 8-6-2008 by Ord. No. 19-2008.[1] Amendments noted where applicable.]
GENERAL REFERENCES
Vehicles and traffic — See Ch. 231.
[1]
Editor's Note: This ordinance also repealed
former Ch. 219, Taxicabs, adopted 11-5-1970, as amended.
As used in this chapter, the following terms
shall have the meanings indicated:
Includes any motor vehicle used in the business of transporting
persons for hire from or to points within the Borough of Hopatcong,
including vehicles hired by charter or special contract, whether the
fare or price is agreed upon in advance or not. This term includes
any commercial vehicle known as an "autocab" or a "limousine" and
all vehicles used in a livery service. Nothing in this chapter shall
be construed to include taxicabs, hotel buses or buses employed solely
in transporting school children or teachers or autobuses which are
subject to the jurisdiction of the Board of Public Utilities or interstate
autobuses required by federal or state law or rules of the Board of
Public Utilities to carry insurance against loss from liability imposed
by law on account of bodily injury or death.
No person shall operate any taxicab business
or taxicab based in the Borough of Hopatcong, as hereinabove defined,
for the transportation of passengers without first having obtained
a license from the Borough of Hopatcong or another municipality for
every vehicle to be so operated.
[Amended 4-20-2016 by Ord. No. 11-2016]
Every application for a license shall be filed with the Borough
Clerk on a form furnished by the Borough of Hopatcong, accompanied
by a fee of $50 or the amount set forth in N.J.S.A. 48:16-2 or 48:16-18.1,
whichever is higher.
The annual fee to be paid for such license shall
be $100 per vehicle.
No taxicab shall be operated wholly or partly
along any street in the Borough of Hopatcong until the owner shall
have filed with the Borough Clerk of Hopatcong a certificate of insurance
from a company licensed to transact business under the insurance laws
of this state in the minimum sum of $250,000 against loss by reason
of liability imposed by law upon every autocab, limousine or livery
service owner for damages on account of an accident occurring by reason
of the ownership, maintenance or use of the taxicab upon any public
street. The insurance shall provide for the payment of any final judgment
recovered by any person on account of the ownership, maintenance and
use of such autocab, limousine or livery service or any fault in respect
thereto and shall be for the benefit of every person suffering loss,
damage or injury in the aforesaid.
The Borough Clerk, upon the filing of the required
certificate of insurance, shall issue a license, in duplicate, showing
that the owner of the taxicab has complied with the terms and provisions
of this chapter. Such license shall recite the name of the insurance
company, the number and date of expiration of the policy, a description
of the vehicle licensed. The original license shall be posted in a
conspicuous place within the vehicle. The Borough Clerk shall keep
a register of the licensed taxicabs or other vehicles under this chapter.
The Borough Clerk's decision to deny or revoke
a license may be appealed to the governing body by written request
within 30 days of the Clerk's action.
A.
Refusal of fares. No taxicab operator, owner, dispatcher
or employee shall refuse to carry any orderly person to any destination
within a fifty-mile radius of the Borough of Hopatcong, provided that
said person agrees to pay the proper rate of fare, and this regulation
shall apply regardless of whether the aforesaid request for transportation
shall be made directly or by telephone and whether made at a taxicab
stand or at any other place; provided, further, that compliance with
said request would not result in a violation of any other provision
of this section.
B.
Posting of rates. A schedule of the rates of fare
shall be conspicuously placed inside each licensed taxicab and filed
with the Borough Clerk.
Any person violating any of the provisions of
this chapter shall be subject to a fine up to $500.
