(A) For the purpose of this section, the following definitions shall apply unless the context clearly indicates or requires a different meaning.
PERSON. Includes both singular and plural and shall mean and embrace any person, firm, or corporation, their agents, servants, and employees.
PUBLIC VEHICLE. Any motor vehicle operated within the corporate limits of the city for the purpose of carrying passengers for hire, except motor buses operating on a fixed route as hereinafter specified, specially chartered buses, and rental cars. The term shall also include motor-driven vehicles with or without a taximeter and hired or rented where rates are charges on a time basis or otherwise.
STREET. Any street, alley, avenue, land, public place, or highway within the corporate limits of the city.
(B) No public vehicle shall hereafter operate for the transportation of persons as passengers for compensation or hire within the corporate limits of the city, without having first obtained from the City Council of the city, under the provisions of this section, a permit.
(C) Application for permit, for the operation of public vehicles within the city, shall be made to the City Council and shall set forth the name and address of the applicant, the trade-name under which the applicant does or proposes to do business, the number of vehicles the applicant desires to operate, the seating capacity, whether or not the applicant has been convicted of the violation of any national, state, or municipal law, and whether or not the applicant or any person, firm, or corporation with which he or she has been associated or employed has claims or judgments against him or her for damages resulting from the negligent operation of a public vehicle, the financial ability and responsibility of the applicant, his or her ability to respond in the event of injury to person or damage to property by reason of the negligent operation of a public vehicle, and if the applicant is a firm or corporation, its organization, personnel, the nature and character of service that the application proposes to render, facts showing the demand for such service, the experience that the applicant has had in rendering such service and the period of time that he or she has rendered it in the city, and any other information as may be required by the City Council.
(D) The City Council shall make or cause to be made any investigation as it may consider necessary, including any hearings that it may deem desirable as to any application for the permit, and shall determine whether or not the public convenience and necessity require the operation of the vehicle or vehicles, and whether or not the applicant is fit and proper to conduct the business, and may investigate the fitness of the officers and stockholders of any corporation making such application and in determining whether or not a permit should be issued.
(E) If the City Council finds that public convenience and necessity require the operation of a greater or lesser number of vehicles than that for which the applicant has applied, and the applicant is fit to conduct the business and that the other requirements herein have been complied with, it shall notify the applicant of its findings. If it finds that public convenience and necessity do not require the operation of any such vehicle or that the applicant is not fit to conduct the business, it shall forthwith refuse the applicant and no permit shall be issued to the applicant. The permit shall not be transferable without the consent and approval of the City Council and then only after application and hearing, as provided upon original application by the person to whom the permit is issued. But the applicant may, by appropriate endorsement made on the permit under the direction of the City Council, substitute another vehicle or vehicles in the place of that for which the permit was granted. It is further provided that, should the City Council find that public convenience and necessity at any time required additional taxicab service, preference shall be given to the person or company operating the existing service, should they be willing to furnish it.
(F) This section shall apply only to vehicles operating within the corporate limits of the city, and it shall not affect motor vehicles operating under a permit or certificate of the Railroad Commission of the State of Texas, or the Interstate Commerce Commission.
(G) Any person, firm, association of persons or corporation, owning, operating, or controlling any taxicabs within the limits of the city shall charge rates as set by City Council from time to time for the following:
(1) For each passenger, together with all hand-baggage of the passenger, transported anywhere in the city limits;
(2) Taxicab operated for hire by the hour within the city limits shall not charge in excess of each hour so used; and
(3) For each five minutes waiting time or fraction thereof.
(H) All persons, organizations, associations, and corporations using the streets of the city for the purpose of transporting passengers for hire, as herein provided, shall, on the first days of February, May, August, and November of each and every year, file with the City Secretary of the City a sworn report showing the gross receipts of the business conducted by the persons, organizations, associations, and corporations within the corporate limits of the city for the preceding quarter of the year ending on December 31, March 31, June 30 and September 30, respectively, and upon the date the sworn report is filed as a condition to the further use of the streets shall pay to the city a rental equal to 2% of the gross receipts received during the preceding quarter of the business conducted within the corporate limits of the city. Any permittee shall keep a book in which is posted each call and the amount of fare charged therefor, which book or books shall be accessible to the City Council at all times.
(I) No permit shall be granted until the applicant therefor shall have deposited with the City Secretary of the city a policy of insurance issued by a company acceptable to the City Council indemnifying passengers and persons for loss or damage to property and personal injuries in an amount to be determined by the City Council.
(Ord. 2-48, passed 1-13-1948) Penalty, see § 110.99