From the Richmond Dispatch, 8/22/1864, p.1, c. 6

The Hack Drivers. – The extortionate demands of the hack drivers of this city is not only unendurable, but in direct violation of law. Several instances have been reported where parties have been charged twenty and twenty-five dollars to take a single person from any of the railroad depots to their residences, no matter how short the distance is. For the information of strangers in the city, and other uninformed about the matter, we append the following extract from the latest ordinance passed by the Council relative to the charges for hack-riding:

“For carrying a person not more than ten squares, two dollars; for each additional square, ten cents. – The charge for carrying not more than four persons shall never, for the whole, exceed more than four dollars, unless more than an hour be employed, and shall then be only five dollars for the first hour, and at the rate of three dollars per hour for each succeeding hour, and no charge is permitted for hitching up. In case of funeral processions, no charge shall exceed seven dollars. No charge shall be made for infants under three years of age, in charge of another person. For carrying a person between then o’clock at night and daybreak there may be charged double the above rates, and no more. For baggage the charge shal not be more than twenty-five cents for each trunk carried outside, and nothing for any article carried inside, or for any carpet-bag or basket.

“A copy of a plan of the city, with a copy of the rates for hacks and other wheeled carriages, shall be kept by the driver of every such hack or carriage, and he shall exhibit the same whenever called for by any person employing or using said hack or carriage. And if he shall fail to exhibit the same when so required, or if for carrying a person or baggage there be charged more than is allowed by this ordinance, the owner of keeper of the vehicle, for every day of such failure, or for every time for such charge, shall be fined not less than ten nor more than fifty dollars.”

An additional clause of this ordinance makes it obligatory upon every hackman to transport passengers at the above rates, and upon a refusal to accept the amount, fine or corporeal punishment may be imposed, according to the status of the offender.

• Prev
• Next