Lawrence taxi cab drivers soon may have to get a new type of license, and, no, it isn’t one to take your taxi cab confession. City Hall officials are contemplating a new ordinance that would require criminal background checks for drivers.

City commissioners at their meeting tonight will consider a new taxi cab licensing ordinance that will allow the city to deny a taxi cab license to any person who has any of the following convictions within the last five years: a felony; crime of dishonesty; crime against a person; driving under the influence; or driving with a suspended license. Anyone who has an outstanding warrant also will be denied a license.

The proposed changes haven’t come about because the city has heard of dangerous situations occurring with taxi cab drivers. (Well, there have been some trips back from the 24-hour burrito stand that have been a bit troubling, but that’s probably unavoidable.) Instead, the changes are proposed because a pair of taxi cab companies asked the city to look at its antiquated taxi cab ordinance.

It is unclear, though, whether these proposed changes are going to address the concerns those two taxi cab companies have. Jayhawk Taxi and Ground Transportation Services — two of the larger taxi cab companies in the city — have expressed concern about the number of independent taxi cab companies that are receiving licenses from the city.

Representatives from Jayhawk and GTS have told City Hall officials that the most lucrative part of the Lawrence taxi cab market is the late-night bar crowd. Both companies say the service they provide in those late-night/early-morning hours subsidizes the service they provide during the daytime weekday hours. But they contend that small, single operator companies are getting city licenses and are only operating during the lucrative late-night bar scene. As that market becomes split, it is becoming more difficult to keep the daytime, weekday service operating.

Both Jayhawk and GTS have proposed that the city create a requirement that tax cab companies only be allowed to operate in Lawrence if they have a certain number of cabs and agree to operate a certain number of hours per week. Both Wichita and Topeka have such requirements in their taxi cab ordinances, but several other cities do not. As proposed, the Lawrence ordinance would not create those requirements.

But the city is proposing several changes to the code, as the review found the language was pretty antiquated. Among the changes is an increased requirement for insurance. The current code requires a company to have only $25,000 worth of insurance to protect against the death or injury of a single person and just $50,000 for deaths or injuries to multiple people. The new code would raise those levels to $300,000 and $500,000.

The city also is proposing an increase in the fees charged to taxi cab operators. The city is proposing a $100 taxicab business permit license and then additional $50 per vehicle fee. Currently the city does not charge for a business permit license but rather has a fee structure that charges $100 for the first vehicle, $50 for the second and third, and $25 for each additional vehicle.

In case you are wondering, there currently are 32 licensed taxi cabs in the city, which are owned by eight different companies.