Are you a DC employee? Good news!
Since June, the District has been allowing DC employees who need rides for government business to hail cabs using the DC Taxi app on their smartphones. The program is the result of the Department of For-Hire Vehicles (DFHV) and the Department of Public Works (DPW) collaborating to solve different problems.
DFHV’s wanted to encourage taxi use to help cab drivers who are struggling to compete with other ride-sharing companies like Uber and Lyft, while DPW sought out to reduce the size of the government’s fleet. Furthermore, DPW wanted to cut down on the time employees spent driving around looking for parking and the costs the District was reimbursing for parking fees. According to their calculations, each taxi trip costs the District significantly less money than trips using government-owned or-leased cars.
Now there are more than 700 employees at 15 DC agencies piloting the program. Both the DFHV and the DPW are hoping those numbers will continue to rise as the program gains more traction.
If you are a DC employee whose agency is not currently part of the program, there are still a number of ways to get around town without using your personal vehicle:
- Zipcar
- MetroBus
- Walking
- Carpooling with others going to the same meeting
