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Letter to the editor

Calling Prius a limo is a stretch for some

Hillsborough won't license it as a hired car.

By Steve Huettel, Times Staff Writer
Published August 9, 2007

Moshe Leib of TB Limo Black Car Service poses for a portrait with his Toyota Prius near the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. He is using the rather unusual choice for a limousine in Pinellas County and went before the Hillsborough County Public Transportation Commission for permission to pickup people in Hillsborough. It would have been the first Toyota Prius used as limo in the county, but his application was denied.

[Thomas M. Goethe | Times]

Moshe Leib's little Toyota Prius won't compete with the stretch Hummers and black Lincoln Town Cars picking up customers in Hillsborough County. At least for now.

Without discussion, the county's Public Transportation Commission rejected his request Wednesday to license the trendy fuel-sipping car as a limousine. It would have been the first hybrid vehicle licensed for public hire in Hillsborough.

The owner of TB Limo Black Car Service in North Redington Beach, Leib groused that commissioners didn't talk over his proposal. Chairman Kevin White posed the only question: Did you bring a picture of the car?

Leib bought the $26,000 black Prius with black leather seats two months ago. Eight customers have paid $54 for a ride from Pinellas County to Tampa International Airport.

In a salute to the hybrid's gas economy, he waives the $4.50 fuel fee charged to riders in his five Lincoln Town Cars.

"People feel good about using this kind of car," said Leib, a former computer systems analyst and onetime cab driver in Pinellas. "To the airport and back, I need one gallon of gas instead of three."

Without the county license, TB Limo can drop off customers at the airport or elsewhere in Hillsborough but can't pick them up.

Staff members opposed Leib's application because the commission's rules require limo companies to use "luxury" vehicles as listed in the Kelley Blue Book.

Executive director Gregory Cox said giving Leib a waiver would let other companies ask to operate inappropriate vehicles for a high-end service. "I'm concerned about opening that door," he said.

The issue isn't hybrids, said George Vallee, owner of Airport Limo of Tampa Bay in Seminole. Commission rules allow companies to operate top-of-the-line SUVs - such as the hybrid Lexus RX 400 - as limos, he said. But the big vehicles cost more and get much lower gas mileage.

A small car like a Prius "lowers the standards of the industry," Vallee said. "By no stretch of the imagination is a Toyota Prius a luxury car," he said. Leib pledged to fight the commission's decision in court.

Hybrid vehicles are beginning to show up in limo fleets nationwide, said Camella Lobo, assistant editor of Limousine & Chauffeured Transportation magazine, a monthly trade publication.

About 100 of the 8,500 limo and car service companies in the United States have at least one vehicle running on hybrid engines or biodiesel fuel, she said.

Steve Huettel can be reached at huettel@sptimes.com or (813) 226-3384.

[Last modified August 8, 2007, 22:35:42]