Gulfport Opposes Pulling Out of Motor Vehicle for Hire Commission

The Gulfport City Council does not want to follow in the footsteps of Biloxi, but it may be forced to pull out of the Motor Vehicle for Hire Commission. That’s according to Gulfport City Council member, R.Lee Flowers. Tuesday at the Gulfport City Council meeting, local independent cab drivers encouraged council members to leave the commission.

The cab drivers say the regulations of the commission are too harsh. The Motor Vehicle for Hire Commission was created earlier this year by the cities of Biloxi, Gulfport, D’Iberville, and Pass Christian to regulate taxis and ensure they are regularly being inspected, but two weeks ago, Biloxi effectively pulled out of the commission. Biloxi contributed a significant amount of funding to the commission. Flowers tells News 25 if Gulfport has to leave the commission, then the City Council may explore other options, like only allowing one cab company to operate in the city. This would effectively put an end to independent taxi service.

Flowers says, “Now, that’s going to shut down these smaller independent taxi cabs from doing business in the city, and I don’t think they want to do that to themselves. They want to be protected from Uber, they want to be protected from one bigger taxi cab company from getting all the business. So I think this is a give and take situation.”