MTLC recommends allowing smart taxi meters, removes mandatory transition deadline from draft ordinance

The Metropolitan Transportation Licensing Commission voted to advise Metro Council to amend Metro code 6.72 to allow either traditional hardwired taximeters or app-based “smart” meters for taxi service, and to omit the sections of the draft ordinance that would have set a mandatory transition deadline for all companies.

Commissioners, staff and taxi industry representatives spent more than an hour debating whether the change would reduce passenger overcharging, how quickly companies could afford new hardware and whether permitting the technology would create a de facto advantage for providers that already use app-based systems. MTLC staff framed the proposal as both a clarification to existing law and a step toward “a…