Finally, some light at the end of a very long tunnel in the taxi dispute.

A city review of the taxi industry will be completed by the end of this year.

That comes directly from Mayor Jim Watson's office on Tuesday.

But while the mayor has realized changes to the taxi industry have to be made sooner rather than later, the taxi drivers themselves seem intent on driving away any goodwill they had left in the city.

You can almost hear Uber counting up their future earnings.

Watson has met with city staff and Gloucester-Southgate Coun. Diane Deans to ensure everyone supports expediting the review.

While the mayor was on holidays and unavailable for comment, the taxi drivers continued their job action -- slowing down traffic on the Airport Pkwy and attempting to block other taxis from picking up their fares in a timely fashion.

If their goal is to alienate the public and promote Uber, they're doing a great job at it.

A little background in case you've missed it.

Coventry Connections, the company which owns many of the taxi companies and dispatches for almost all of the cabs, increased from $2 to almost $5 the fee cabbies must pay to service the airport. In protest, the cabbies refused to pick up fares, so Coventry locked them out, and then allowed other cab companies to pick those fares up -- something not previously allowed. While the other taxis initially declined to take those fares, that quickly changed.

So much for solidarity forever. How about 24-hour solidarity!

Not so catchy.

Meanwhile, Uber has been cutting into their business.

(And you can be sure at this point, they're taking away even more.)

Even before this recent job action, cabbies were complaining they were losing about 40% of their business to Uber, which doesn't operate under the same rules and regulations as the licenced cabbies.

So yes, now the city is picking up the pace, and is promising a review of the entire taxi industry will be completed by the end of the year.

Good thing.

Deans, the chair of the city's community and protective services committee which oversees the taxis, said she met with the mayor and city staff Tuesday morning. She wants to see the review completed before the end of the year but, more importantly, she wants to make sure it's done right.

"I understand (Watson) is interested in expediting the process and to the extent we can do that, we will. But I pointed out to the mayor, it is absolutely critical we do our due diligence, we need a fulsome consultation with all of the parties," she said.

With time of the essence, the city is hiring an outside consultant -- with a maximum budget of $300,000 -- to do the review. While the RFP has closed, no one has yet been hired.

"I think we can do that, but I'm not prepared to compromise on public consultation," Deans said.

She makes it clear the city regulates the taxi industry to ensure accessibility for the customer and public safety.

And while the emergence of new hailing technologies may have allowed Uber to enter the market in a big way, that will only be part of the study.

As for the cabbie war going on right now, Deans said that's not something the city would get involved with directly.

However, if cabbies are obstructing traffic, the city and police can enforce the Highway Traffic Act, she said.

Susan Jones, the acting deputy city manager, believes the review's end-of-year deadline can be met.

"We believe that we can come up with a common sense approach which incorporates the new technology and is meeting service demands," she said.

"This present model has been in existence for 30 years and we never contemplated this kind of new technology. So we need to determine how you can improve service. We're in the business of regulating public safety and the protection of the consumer, there are lots of components."

Jones is smart enough to know technology will continue to influence the industry.

"This review needs to have some outside-the-box kind of thinking. We don't know what the industry will look like in the future. There may be driverless cars, who knows what's it all going to look like."

Twitter: @susansherring