Licensing Deadline Looms for Pedicab Owners

By SARAH MASLIN NIR

Get licensed or get out, is the message from the New York City Department of Consumer Affairs to the city’s pedicab professionals, who have until Friday to obtain business licenses and register their vehicles or else close up shop. The Nov. 20 deadline marks the end of a 60-day period in which the city invited pedicab operators to apply to become licensed, a process that entails submitting their rickshaws to a rigorous inspection, and retrofitting them with things like seat belts and turn signals to bring them up to new safety standards outlined in the law.

“Friday is an end and a beginning; it’s the end of a very, very long process in which the pedicab has been seeking regulation,” said Chad Marlow, a spokesman for the New York City Pedicab Owners’ Association, a group of about 70 rickshaw business owners who have pushed for the new rules. They include pedicab licenses for drivers who were unlicensed.

The city’s commissioner of consumer affairs, Jonathan B. Mintz, said in an interview that the move toward licensing would address concerns expressed over years about safety.

“There has been a significant concern, including from those in the industry, that an unregulated and rapidly growing industry posed some concerns to public safety,” he said. Though the city law setting the licensing requirements was adopted by the City Council two years ago, business owners sued because they were unsatisfied with certain points. A final compromise version went into effect two months ago.

After Friday, no business licenses will be issued for 18 months, after which point, the city will reassess its decision. There is no deadline for applying for a pedicab driver’s license — those will continue to be issued.

Although pedicabs entered the city’s streetscape around the mid-1990s, they became prevalent — some would say too prevalent — only about five years ago. At first, the human-powered carts had no oversight except by voluntary groups founded by those in the business, like the owners’ association.

In the industry’s early days, regulation wasn’t necessary because the small number of operators held one another accountable, said the association’s president Gregg Zukowski, who owns 22 pedicabs he rents out to drivers from his company, Revolution Rickshaws.

After Sept. 11, 2001, according to Mr. Zukowski, when pedicabs gained national attention and positive P.R. by ferrying people to cordoned-off areas downtown, the number of drivers and vehicles boomed. Industry estimates put the number now at more than 1,000. “The industry is taking its next steps into a more responsible era,” Mr. Zukowski said, “It got very big and unwieldy and it needed a little help from the city to get it into a more accountable sort of arena.”

One sticking point in the new licensing program is that it is heavily favored toward those who already own pedicabs. The licenses are limited to businesses with a fleet of no more than 30 cabs, and permit only the registration of existing cabs.

After the Friday deadline, owners may purchase registered cabs from one another, but there will be a cap on the total number of pedicabs. The pedicab businesses themselves can be sold, but only with the department’s permission.

As of Monday afternoon, 100 pedicab operations had applied for the necessary business licenses — which are awarded only if the company has insurance and its vehicles are deemed to be up-to-speed — with a total of 519 pedicabs.

But only 240 people have applied for the pedicab-driver licenses, despite what Mr. Mintz said was a rigorous long-term outreach program to make people aware of the deadline. (It is possible that some have not applied for the driver licenses because the Friday deadline is not as firm for them as it is for owners.)

Mr. Mintz speculated that some drivers were not prepared to meet the rigorous new requirements, because of financial and other reasons. “Our sense is that there are hundreds of operators out there right now who are not willing to make an investment, or not able to make an investment in insurance or retrofitting,” he said. “The process of professionalizing the industry will weed several out.”

One of those who may be weeded out is Nicholas Iacovino, 26, a pedicab driver for the past four years who says he makes $1,500 to $2,000 per week giving tourists rides through Central Park and other parts of the city. He said he had no plans to seek a license. “I think it is going fine the way it is now,” he said. “If I am doing something wrong, write me a ticket. Why do I need a license?”

The newly created pedicab licenses will be issued only to people who already have driver’s licenses. Because Mr. Iacovino, a native of the Lower East Side who has never had a driver’s license, owes $2,338 to the city in unpaid tickets from when he was a bicycle messenger (he says he didn’t believe traffic rules like pausing at red lights should have applied to those on bikes) he has been unable to get a driver’s license because he can’t afford to pay the fines.

“Strictly speaking, you don’t need a driver’s license to ride a bike,” said Mr. Zukowski, the president of the owners’ association, but “as a baseline, it’s a good way to make sure people are on the record, and insure that they know the rules of the road.”

Anecdotal evidence suggests that a large number of pedicab drivers are foreign, largely working illegally in the city, drawn to a job where it’s possible to make a living under the radar by paying just $20 to $50 to rent a rickshaw for the day. “We know that happens,” said Mr. Zukowski, who says he has rented his bikes to people from around the world. He says he pushed initially for drivers to be required to have a driver’s license issued in the United States.

“Immigration status is not a factor in getting either a business or a driver’s license,” said Mr. Mintz. “When we look at whether somebody is fit to get a pedicab license, we don’t ask what their immigration status is.”

Yet, some attribute the low application turnout to fear of discovery by some drivers and rickshaw owners who are working illegally. Mr. Iacovino, the pedicab driver, said that many of his colleagues say, “Why would I put my immigration status at risk just to ride a bike?”

“There’s a lot of guys in my situation,” said Mr. Iacovino. “They just say, ‘Hey you know what? We can’t do anything.’”

Friday, he said, will be his last day as a pedicab driver.