Local shuttle blames “raiteros” for going out of business

The owner of Calexico’s L&A Shuttle, Abelardo Perez, said thousands of people they normally take to El Centro for doctor’s appointments or other errands are now scrambling to find rides because they had to close for the past week.

” Seventeen thousand to 22,000 thousand people that we move a month that’s an average. I’m thinking about it. I’m not sure if we’re going to suspend the service completely – we shut it down, ” Perez said.

He blames it on a group of people – the raiteros – who he said use their own cars as taxis illegally picking up fares downtown.

” We noticed a decrease in our income of about thirty percent. And that’s why are not able to pay our worker’s comp because these people are taking our customers without the right permits to operate, ” Perez said.

He’s losing thousands of dollars a month making it difficult to continue the service.

” They’re taking from six hundred to eight hundred dollars a day. You’re talking about twenty to twenty-four thousand dollars a month that our company needs to keep growing and keep investing in our business, ” Perez said.

Mayor Bill Hodge said the city is looking at several options, including an ordinance with fines and more police presence.

“It will take about a month until you’re going to see within that month, you’re going to see a mitigation,” Hodge said.

Hodge said it’s a serious situation.

” We need to move fast. Because any time you have a business like L&A Shuttle and it goes under, that has a negative economic ripple effect, ” Hodge said.

The fines for illegal taxi activity or raitero activity could go up to as high as $5,000.