NASHUA – Mike Foster has worked on and off as a taxi driver in the city for years, earning some extra money when business at his small moving company is slow.

And while he said he loves his job and is looking to start his own company, he’s concerned about the state of the taxi business in Nashua and wants to see some changes.

Foster filed a series of complaints with the city clerk’s office last week, requesting that all taxis have required vehicle inspections performed at a non-affiliated, certified inspection station and that any taxi violating city code be removed from service.

“Taxicabs play an important role in our community and consumer safety should be paramount,” he wrote in a letter to the city clerk.

Some city taxis, Foster said, are being checked at inspection stations owned by the taxi company owner.

“Why should the foxes be allowed to guard the hen house?” he asked.

In his complaint to the city, Foster asked that all companies be required to have mandatory checks performed by a third-party shop, selected by the city, a change that city clerk Paul Bergeron said would require an ordinance amendment by the Board of Aldermen.

A look at city taxi records show that at least one company has done what Foster claimed.

S.K. Taxi vehicles with 2012 mid-year inspection reports on file in the city clerk’s office show that they were inspected at Eddie and Abe Auto Service Station on West Hollis Street, a garage S.K. Taxi owner Samia Khoury also owns.

But Khoury says she has done nothing wrong, and according to state and city rules regulating taxis, it appears she’s right.

The Telegraph looked into Nashua’s taxi inspections earlier this month after news surfaced that all 18 taxis operating in Manchester were pulled off the road after failing inspection checks.

In Nashua, in addition to annual state inspections that taxi owners receive when they re-register their vehicles, the city requires taxis to get a mid-year inspection, performed by a registered inspection station, as well as an inspection by the Nashua Police Department.

City records show that not a single Nashua taxi cab company got all three of the city’s required inspection checks done in 2012.

City ordinance requires that taxis have their annual and mid-year inspections performed at a state-certified inspection station but does not address taxi owners who may also own such a station.

An employee with the state Department of Motor Vehicle’s inspection station unit said state law also does not specifically address that scenario but that inspecting one’s own vehicles is not recommended.

Bergeron agreed.

“Certainly I think we would feel better if it was a third party doing the inspection,” he said. “At least it removes the appearance of a possible conflict of interest. That in itself is probably good cause for having a third party doing it.”

Opinion among taxi drivers and company owners in the city is mixed.

Doreen Evans, co-owner of D&E Taxi, said she filed a complaint similar to Foster’s with the state about five years ago but that nothing ever came of it. She said she hopes the city looks more closely at this issue and considers making a change in ordinance.

“You shouldn’t be allowed to attend to your own cars,” she said. “You can fix and repair them. My concern is the inspection part. I just think that’s a conflict of interest.”

But Khoury was outraged by the suggestion that having her taxis inspected at the shop she owns is a conflict of interest.

“There is no way on earth that we’re going to overlook anything that would cause a safety issue,” she said. “I have my own garage, but I pay to fix my cars. Conflict of interest? Do you think I’m going to take a chance to lose everything I’ve got because I don’t want to fix my cars?”

Khoury said S.K. Taxi can spend thousands a week making repairs on its vehicles and that they bring a car off the road at the first sign of a problem.

Still, she said she would not be opposed to bringing her taxis to a third-party location for an inspection if the ordinance changed.

“I’ve been in business for 22 years,” she said. “Let them check the cars. I have nothing to prove.”

Whether or not Foster decides to take his complaints to the Board of Aldermen, the city’s taxi regulations will likely get some attention in coming weeks.

Bergeron said the city clerk’s office will be working to ensure that all taxi companies are following the ordinance and that his office is doing its part to keep taxi records up to date.

Office employees are doing a close reading of the ordinance to ensure that they understand all the provisions and requirements, and Bergeron has begun looking at taxi codes from Manchester and Portsmouth to see how they compare to Nashua.

He said it is the perfect time of year for this review, since taxi licenses are renewed at the end of the month.

“All cab companies are going to be coming in this month to renew their licenses, so we’ll be able to have discussions on a one-on-one basis if necessary,” Bergeron said. “We really don’t have a lot of issues with the drivers or the cab companies. They work with us quite well.”

Danielle Curtis can be reached
at 594-6557 or dcurtis@nashua
telegraph.com. Also, follow Curtis on Twitter (@Telegraph_DC).