Tafere Tayachew owns one of the 530 available taxicab licenses in Columbus. As owner of the one-vehicle Sunshine Taxi, he has enjoyed most of his last 25 years driving and meeting new people, secure that the supply of cabs is limited by the number of licenses.

But as taxis compete with app-based ride-sharing services such as Uber and Lyft, Columbus officials are talking about changes to the cap on new taxi licenses. That leaves taxi drivers even more worried.

"With what we have already, we don't make enough," Tayachew said. "Now, the owner who has only one car, we're just barely surviving."

The topic is expected to be on the June 29 agenda of the city's Vehicle for Hire Board.

The city first capped licenses in 1989 and has allowed 500 licenses since 1997, with an additional 30 allowed for wheelchair-accessible vehicles.

The restriction was first put in place to give the city time to gauge supply and demand and as a safeguard against taxicabs overrunning the city, said Ramona Patts, chairwoman of the Vehicle for Hire Board.

Now, cab owners and city officials will have to weigh the transportation needs of a growing Columbus population with a bevy of transportation options already available.

“There are a lot of options for our community when it comes to being transported from point A to point B, whether it’s taxicabs, transportation network companies, pedicabs or, now, we have the micro-transit vehicles (multi-seat, golf cart-type vehicles) that are running around Downtown," Patts said. "There’s UberBlack, there’s Lyft; there are a lot of choices.”

Demand for taxi licenses might be weakening.

Acme Contract Services, formerly Acme Taxi, sold off all 38 of its licenses between 2008 and last year because there wasn't enough business to support keeping them, president and CEO Michael Goldsbury said.

Of the city's 530 taxi licenses, 12 have yet to be redistributed. Among licensed taxis, seven vehicles have failed their annual vehicle inspection and another 125 had yet to show up for inspection by Thursday, less than one week before the May 31 deadline.

If the city removes the cap on taxi licenses, it would become more difficult for taxi drivers to support their families, said Yellow Cab of Columbus owner and CEO Morgan Kauffman.

"If we put out too many vehicles without optimizing the vehicles that are on the road right now, then the drivers can't make enough money to support themselves," he said. "And then that's the end of taxis in Columbus."

Services such as Uber and Lyft and their drivers are regulated by the state and are not required to obtain special licenses through the city. The number of Uber and Lyft drivers operating in the city is not limited.

With the influx of the ride-share company vehicles, Patts said, she doesn’t think the city needs any more taxis on the streets.

Cassie D’Aula, a part-time Uber and Lyft driver who represents app-based transportation network companies on the city's Vehicle for Hire Board, said there is ample demand for both ride-share services and taxis in Columbus.

Kauffman said he doesn't think the city needs more licenses. Rather, he believes cabbies need to better use the existing ones. He suggested that taxi companies come together under a single dispatching service.

mhuson@dispatch.com

@Mike_Huson