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ENROLLED ORIGINAL
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A RESOLUTION
26-245
IN THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
November 4, 2025
To declare the existence of an emergency with respect to the need to amend the Department of
For-Hire Vehicles Establishment Act of 1985 to clarify the definition of a private vehicle-
for-hire operator.
RESOLVED, BY THE COUNCIL OF THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA, That this
resolution may be cited as the “Private Vehicle-for-Hire Operator Clarification Emergency
Declaration Resolution of 2025”.
Sec. 2. (a) The District’s for-hire vehicle laws are designed to authorize only properly
licensed, insured, and identifiable vehicles and operators to transport passengers for
compensation. Specifically, private vehicle-for-hire operators are required to be registered with a
private vehicle-for-hire company that is registered to operate in the District and must provide
service only through the registered digital dispatch of such a company. These legal requirements
are carefully tailored to safeguard public safety, accountability, and passenger trust.
(b) For several years, the Department of For-Hire Vehicles (“DFHV”) and the
Metropolitan Police Department (“MPD”) have identified an increase in illegal vehicle-for-hire
services wherein certain operators are not registered with a private vehicle-for-hire company that
is legally authorized to operate in the District. In these instances, vehicle-for-hire service is being
provided without confirmation that the operator holds required commercial insurance, without
internal processes to screen out dangerous or predatory drivers, and without proper trade dress as
required by District law.
(c) Failure of such vehicle-for-hire services to comply with insurance and registration
requirements poses an immediate and irreparable risk of harm to passengers, operators, and the
public. In the event of a crash, unregistered or uninsured operators cannot provide coverage or
recourse for injuries or damages.
(d) Further, for illegal operations, there is no guarantee of processes to appropriately
identify and screen out dangerous operators, both in terms of operators who have demonstrated a
record of unsafe driving or those who pose a meaningful risk of harm to passengers. Illegal
operations may also lack a process for passengers to file complaints or otherwise seek reasonable
redress following an incident involving operator misconduct.
ENROLLED ORIGINAL
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(e) Where vehicles used to provide illegal service lack proper trade dress, passengers are
prevented from verifying the vehicles as legitimate. This practice impedes enforcement officers’
efforts to determine whether a particular operator is providing service legally.
(f) This illegal activity has a harmful effect on the broader for-hire vehicle industry,
eroding public confidence in legitimate for-hire services and undermining safety, fair
competition, and the District’s consumer protection framework.
(g) Recent proceedings in Superior Court have challenged DFHV’s authority to enforce
illegal for-hire-vehicle operations, as described in subsections (a) through (f) of this section, with
an unregistered private vehicle-for-hire company attempting to take advantage of ambiguity in
the Department of For-Hire Vehicles Establishment Act of 1985, effective March 25, 1986 (D.C.
Law 6-97; D.C. Official Code § 50-301.01 et seq.).
(h) Emergency legislation is therefore necessary to clarify that DFHV has had and
continues to be empowered with the authority to address the range of threats to passenger and
driver safety caused by illegal for-hire vehicle operators and companies, empowering DFHV to
continue enforcing registration, insurance, and trade dress requirements.
Sec. 3. The Council of the District of Columbia determines that the circumstances
enumerated in section 2 constitute emergency circumstances, making it necessary that the Private
Vehicle-for-Hire Operator Clarification Emergency Amendment Act of 2025 be adopted after a
single reading.
Sec. 4. This resolution shall take effect immediately.