Cathedral City Municipal Code Ch. 5.40 Passenger Carriers

A. Requirement — Exceptions. No person shall engage in the business of transporting passengers in a vehicle or vehicles over the streets of the city, where the passengers' trips originate from points within the city, whether any such vehicle used is a taxicab, bus, ambulance, limousine, automobile for hire, or other public transportation vehicle, unless the person operating the business or engaging therein is acting pursuant to a franchise, license, permit or contract to do so from the city council. This section shall also apply to any business carrying passengers from a principal point or points of origin outside the city but which regularly carries the passengers over the city streets as a major portion of the journey or journeys. This section shall not, however, be deemed applicable to any business of renting automobiles or other vehicles without drivers, nor to any passenger carrier operated by a public agency or entity or to any passenger carrier operating pursuant to express and specific permission granted by superior authorized agency such as the State Public Utilities Commission or the Interstate Commerce Commission.

B. Qualifications — Conditions. Before granting any license, permit, franchise, or contract to conduct a passenger-carrying business upon the streets of the city, the city council shall find and determine that the applicant is of good moral character and financially responsible, has and will carry adequate insurance to protect the public, and will use and continue to use vehicles safe and adequate for the intended purposes. The council may grant any entitlement for a fixed term or on an indefinite time basis, and subject to conditions and requirements deemed necessary or desirable in the public interest. The conditions and requirements attached to any such entitlement shall be subject to periodic review, modification, addition or deletion at such times as the council may prescribe in the entitlement or at the time of any periodic review, or at any time the council finds and determines the action to be necessary in the public interest after a change in circumstances.

C. Revocation or Suspension. Any such license, permit, franchise, or contract to conduct a passengercarrying business shall be subject to revocation or suspension by the city council after the holder thereof has been afforded opportunity for a due-process hearing, where the holder is found to have failed to maintain its operations up to standards prescribed in this chapter or as conditions or requirements contained in or attached to the license, permit, franchise or contract.

D. Fares, Charges and Prices. In any such franchise, license, permit or contract, or in the conditions or requirements attached thereto pursuant to subsections A and B of this section, the holder thereof may, in the discretion of the city council, be required during operations thereunder to have and maintain on file with the city manager an approved tariff or schedule of fares, listing any and all fares, charges, fees, prices, costs and the like which are to be charged to members of the public during the course of business. No such tariff or schedule or later revision thereto shall be deemed effective unless and until it has been approved by the city council upon appropriate determination that it is fair, reasonable and equitable to both the public and to the business operator. In the event the council has not required the filing of a tariff or schedule as stated in this section, then the holder of the franchise, license, permit or contract is prohibited from charging within the city any fare, charge, fee, price, cost, or the like, which exceeds the same then currently charged by the holder to patrons or customers in any area surrounding or near to the city; or in the event the holder does not service any such area outside the city, then no charge shall be made in excess of the same or similar charges as are prevailing and levied by other businesses of the same or similar nature which do so service the areas surrounding or near to the city.

E. City Fees. Any person seeking any entitlement or taking any other action prescribed or provided for by or within this section shall pay any applicable fee which may have been prescribed by resolution of the city council, to defray the expense of investigation and processing.

(Ord. 15 § 1, 1982)

No driver of any taxicab, automobile for hire or motorbus shall permit more persons to ride in the driver's compartment thereof than can be seated in the regular seats in the compartment, or permit any person to sit on or stand at any place in or on the taxicab, automobile for hire or motorbus where the person obstructs the driver's view of traffic ahead or to either side.

(Ord. 15 § 1, 1982)

When a taxicab or automobile for hire is engaged, the occupants shall have the exclusive right to the full and complete use of the passenger compartment, and no owner or driver of the taxicab shall solicit or carry additional passengers therein.

(Ord. 15 § 1, 1982)

It is unlawful for any person to refuse to pay the legal fare of any of the vehicles mentioned in this chapter, after having hired them.

(Ord. 15 § 1, 1982)

It is unlawful to charge, collect or receive any other or different compensation for the use of the taxicab or automobile for hire than that specified in the tariff or schedule of fares on file and at the time in effect.

(Ord. 15 § 1, 1982)

The terms and provisions of Sections 5.40.010 through 5.40.050, inclusive, of Chapter 5.40 are hereby suspended indefinitely, to continue so long as that certain amendment to the SunLine Joint Powers Transportation Agency agreement approved by the City Council by Minute Order Number 1420 remains in effect, and the regulation of taxicab service within the City of Cathedral City is controlled pursuant to ordinance of the SunLine Joint Powers Transportation Agency.

(Ord. 333 § 1, 1991)

A violation of Sections 5.40.010, 5.40.020, 5.40.030, 5.40.040 or 5.40.050 of this chapter by any person responsible for committing, causing or maintaining such violation shall constitute an infraction violation which shall be subject to the provisions set forth in Chapter 13.65, including, but not limited to, the imposition of any and all criminal penalties set forth therein.

(Ord. 506 § 3, 1999)

Any person convicted of an infraction shall, for each separate violation of this chapter, be subject to: (a) a fine in an amount not to exceed two hundred fifty dollars for a first conviction of an offense; (b) a fine in an amount not to exceed five hundred dollars for a second conviction of the same offense within a twelve-month period of the date of the first offense; and (c) a fine in an amount not to exceed seven hundred fifty dollars for the third conviction of the same offense within a twelve-month period of the date of the first offense. The fine for a fourth and subsequent convictions of the same offense within a twelve-month period of the date of the first offense shall be one thousand dollars.

(Ord. 506 § 3, 1999)

In lieu of issuing an infraction citation, the city may issue an administrative citation, pursuant to Chapter 13.58, to any person responsible for committing, causing or maintaining a violation of Section 5.40.010, 5.40.020, 5.40.030, 5.40.040 or 5.40.050 of this chapter. Nothing in this section shall preclude the city from also issuing an infraction citation upon the occurrence of the same offense on a separate day.

(Ord. 506 § 3, 1999)

Note: Former § 5.40.100, Administrative fine, adopted by Ord. 506 was repealed by Ord. 892, 10/22/2025.

A violation of Section 5.40.010, 5.40.020, 5.40.030, 5.40.040 or 5.40.050 of this chapter by the holder of a city permit and/or city license validly issued pursuant to this or any other chapter shall constitute grounds for modification, suspension and/or revocation of said permit and/or license pursuant to the provisions set forth in Chapter 13.150.

(Ord. 506 § 3, 1999)

Nothing in this chapter shall preclude the city from pursuing the remedies provided by Chapter 13.140, including but not limited to, as applicable, denial or revocation of certificates of occupancy, issuance of stop work orders and injunctive relief.

(Ord. 506 § 3, 1999)