Mass Development & MAPC Award $2.5 Million To Expand Taxi Services in 47 Communities

In full transparency, the following is a press release submitted to SOURCE media.

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BOSTON – MassDevelopment, in partnership with the Metropolitan Area Planning Council (MAPC), has awarded $2,543,883 in funding to 47 cities and towns, municipal agencies, regional transit authorities, nonprofits, and health and human service providers through the Taxi, Livery, and Hackney Transportation Partnerships Grant Program, an operational subsidy program aimed at expanding transportation service capacity through contracts with licensed taxi or livery businesses.

Administered by MAPC, these grants will help communities supplement existing transportation options, create new programs to transport individuals to work, grocery stores, non-emergency medical appointments, and other destinations, and facilitate delivery of essential supplies such as food and medicine to residents in need. The Taxi, Livery, and Hackney Transportation Partnerships Grant Program is funded by MassDevelopment’s allocation from the Commonwealth’s Transportation Infrastructure Enhancement Trust Fund.

“The Baker-Polito Administration commends MassDevelopment and the Metropolitan Area Planning Council for utilizing the state’s Transportation Infrastructure Enhancement Trust Fund to help communities augment local transit with taxi and livery services to get residents where they need to go,” said Housing and Economic Development Secretary Mike Kennealy. “These awards will provide a boost to an industry in need while filling gaps in the state’s transportation network.”

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“Getting the most fragile Massachusetts residents to work, grocery stores, medical appointments, shelters, and other critical destinations and creating new business for taxi and livery companies makes these grants special in the time of COVID-19,” said MassDevelopment President and CEO Dan Rivera. “MassDevelopment is proud to put resources from our allocation of the Transportation Infrastructure Enhancement Trust Fund to work to benefit both the taxi and livery industry and our communities, and we thank the Metropolitan Area Planning Council for partnering with us to administer the program.”

“The pandemic has stressed many transit systems, senior shuttles and other shared rides,” said MAPC Executive Director Marc Draisen. “These grants will provide a critical resource to help municipalities and human service organizations to fill the gaps and ensure that people can get to work, shop for food and attend medical appointments. We are so pleased to have the folks who drive cabs and livery vehicles step up to provide these critical services, especially in these difficult times.”

The Commonwealth’s Transportation Infrastructure Enhancement Trust Fund was created by An Act Regulating Transportation Network Companies, which Governor Baker signed into law in August 2016 and is supported by a 20-cent assessment on every transportation network company ride in Massachusetts. One-quarter of the Fund is being designated to MassDevelopment to provide financial assistance to small businesses operating in the taxicab, livery, or hackney industries.

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MassDevelopment is using one-third of its allotment from the Transportation Infrastructure Enhancement Trust Fund to support the Taxi, Livery, and Hackney Transportation Partnerships Grant Program. In response to COVID-19, in April 2020 MAPC launched an early version of this program, the Urgent COVID-19 Taxicab, Livery, and Hackney Transportation Partnerships Grant Program, to facilitate urgent transportation and delivery needs for vulnerable populations during the pandemic; in November 2020, MassDevelopment and MAPC awarded $1,003,978 through the program to 25 cities and towns, municipal agencies, regional transit authorities, and health and human services transportation providers.

MassDevelopment is using the remaining two-thirds of its allotment from the Transportation Infrastructure Enhancement Trust Fund to support the Taxi & Livery Business Support Grant Program, which offers taxi and livery operators financial assistance to secure products or services that will aid in improving their competitiveness and enhancing safety capabilities in the rapidly evolving market of for-hire transportation. In December 2020, the agency awarded 85 grants totaling $4,465,619 through the first round of the program to support 104 small businesses operating in the taxi and livery industries and two taxi and livery industry associations.

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The following MetroWest communities & organizations organizations received funding from Taxi, Livery, and Hackney Transportation Partnerships Grant Program:

• City of Framingham – $43,500 – The city is using this award to contract with Tommy’s Taxi to facilitate deliveries of emergency food and toiletries to residents in isolation and quarantine as well as homebound and disabled individuals.
• Holliston Council on Aging – $34,470 – The organization is using this award to contract with Tommy’s Taxi and JFK Transportation to facilitate non-emergency medical transportation and other essential transportation for seniors, supplementing Council on Aging van service.
• Hopkinton Council on Aging – $40,000 – The organization is using this award to contract with Tommy’s Taxi, JFK Transportation, and JK Services Inc. to facilitate non-emergency medical transportation into Boston, as well as essential shopping trips for seniors, veterans, and individuals with medical issues or disabilities.
  
  
  

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• Sherborn Council on Aging – $3,600 – The organization is using this award to contract with JFK Transportation to facilitate transportation for older adults to grocery stores, medical and personal hygiene appointments, and other destinations.
• Town of Sudbury, in coordination with the towns of Stow, Maynard, and Concord – $100,000 — The town is using this award to contract with Tommy’s Taxi and JFK Transportation to facilitate transportation for seniors, individuals with disabilities, essential workers, and financially and food-insecure residents.
• Wayland Council on Aging – $26,760 — The organization is using this award to contract with Tommy’s Taxi and JFK Transportation to facilitate meal deliveries and to transport older adults to medical appointments, food pantries, pharmacies, medical facilities for visits with family members, the Council on Aging, and other destinations.
• Town of Weston – $25,000 — The town is using this award to contract with JFK Transportation to facilitate non-emergency medical transportation for residents ages 60 and older and individuals with disabilities to appointments in Chestnut Hill, Framingham, Natick, Newton, Roslindale, Waltham, Wayland, Wellesley, and Weston, and, if funding is available, transportation to grocery stores, pharmacies, and other destinations.