THWARTED TAXI COMPANY EARNS BIG COURT WIN: State’s Supreme Court rules against PUC, which said new taxi company would degrade service by flooding the market

AURORA | The Colorado Supreme Court last month sided with a group of cab drivers who have been trying for years to start their own company,

In an April 22 ruling, the state’s high court unanimously sided with Mile High Cab and said the state’s Public Utilities Commission — which has blocked the start-up’s entry into the market — erred when it blocked the company.

Mile High officials said they’ll move forward with creating the new company, which will increase tax service in Aurora.

“Colorado law does not allow the PUC to shut new taxi businesses out of Denver just because the commissioners are uncertain whether the business is ‘necessary,’” Robert McNamara, a senior attorney with the Institute for Justice, which represented Mile High and litigates for taxi freedom nationwide, said in a statement. “The people of Denver don’t need a government agency deciding whether they have too many transportation options any more than they need a government agency deciding whether the city has too many restaurants or shoe stores.”

Specifically, the state’s high court said the PUC didn’t properly apply a 2008 state law when it rejected Mile High’s application. The court said the PUC can only reject an application if a company would be detrimental to the public, a finding the PUC didn’t reach when it rejected Mile High.

The court said the PUC must reconsider its decision.

Terry Bote, a spokesman for the PUC, issued a statement that said: “We respect the decision of the Colorado Supreme Court and will follow its instructions when the case is sent back to us.”

Mile High’s battle with the PUC stretched back to 2005.

State regulators have said that although the company was adequate financially and managerially, adding another cab company to the market would harm consumers.

The addition of 150 new cabs to the market would flood the market with too many cabs, meaning experienced drivers couldn’t make enough money driving cabs and would soon leave the industry, regulators said.

The state’s two largest cab companies — Metro Taxi and Yellow Cab — lobbied against Mile High to the PUC.

Mile High, which is made up of 150 cab drivers who pooled their money together to launch the company, have said the market is far from oversaturated and in its current form provides poor services to the suburbs.

Representatives of the company said they hope to focus their attention on Aurora and other suburbs, areas they say are underserved by a cab industry that is too heavily focused on downtown Denver and trips to Denver International Airport.