Where to go
Taking a taxi matter to the right place
Three destinations cover almost everything, and the order matters because each one can only act on what the previous one could not.
- The dispatch agencyLost property, a fare that looks wrong, a driver complaint. It holds the trip record and can identify the vehicle from the number on the receipt.
- The licensing authorityAnything the company will not resolve, and anything about the licence itself. Which authority depends on the vehicle: the City of Seattle Department of Finance and Administrative Services, or King County Records and Licensing Services.
- The Port of SeattleMatters specific to ground transportation at Sea-Tac, including the fees charged on trips originating at the airport.
The reason the receipt keeps coming up is that it carries the vehicle identifier, and none of the three can begin without one. The practical guide covers what to do when the receipt has gone missing as well.
What can be raised
What the rule says a passenger may contest
The fares rule commits the Director to investigating a defined set of complaints, which is a useful list because it indicates what will be treated as a real grievance and what will read as a preference.
- Not being presented with a rate, fare or price to consider before confirming the trip, where an alternative to the meter was used.
- The rate, fare or price itself.
- A driver asking for or collecting a rate other than the one the dispatch agency established.
- An additional charge for transporting a passenger with a disability, outside a contract rate.
- A discriminatory charge against a passenger in a protected class.
A fuel surcharge added on top of one already applied by a smart taximeter falls in the same category, as does a convenience fee charged on a cash or voucher payment.
Writing to us
Reaching the desk
The company named on the receipt holds the trip record and the lost-property log for that journey, which makes it the fastest route to an answer about one particular trip. Everything on these pages describes the rules and the rates that apply to all of them.
Corrections to these pages are a different matter and are worth sending: a figure that looks wrong, a rule that has been superseded, a citation that points at a repealed chapter. Those reach the desk at [email protected].
A correction travels furthest with the source attached. The rate rule and the codes it cites are public, so a message naming the document and the clause can be checked and acted on the same day; one saying a number looks wrong usually cannot.
Before you write
What makes a taxi complaint answerable
A complaint about a fare turns on a small number of facts, and nearly all of them are printed on the receipt: the date and time, the vehicle and the company, the total, and the components that made it up. Naming the rate type that priced the trip is the single most useful addition, because the rule lists them and a complaint that says which one applied can be checked against what that type permits.
Where the objection is that a price was never shown before the trip was confirmed, the Director investigates that specific failure as its own matter, separately from an objection to the price itself. Both are worth stating plainly when they apply together. The practical guide sets out what a receipt should contain and what to do when one was not offered.