If you’re going to ask the city to permit you to raise your rates, as the city’s cab companies did last month, you should be expected to meet some basic service requirements.

When a fare-paying customer has a complaint, there should be a simple way for them to reach the owner of the cab company. There’s nothing more frustrating than having a bad experience with a company and not being able to easily report the situation.

All drivers should have identification tags posted in their cabs, as is required in all larger cities.

There is no excuse.

Drivers should not be permitted to begin their shift without an inspection of their cab, which includes an ID check. Residents should feel safe when they enter a city cab that the person driving is authorized and approved to be operating the taxi.

And for goodness sake, cabbies should take momma to the store after their shift. There had been complaints that city taxi drivers are running personal errands while their customers are in the back seat.

Are you kidding?

When The Citizen staff writer Anne Gleason did a random check of taxi service, she picked up a cab at Wal-Mart and asked to be taken to South Street. But the cab driver also had two fellow cabbies in the car when she was picked up. Instead of dropping her off first, the cab driver stopped at a gas station so one of the other drivers could purchase something. Then the driver dropped off his two co-workers first. On another occasion, when Anne picked up a cab on South Street, the driver had his aunt in the car. He stopped at his aunt’s house first, dropped her off and went inside to pick something up, and then finally took Anne to her destination.

We’ll repeat our incredulity. Are you kidding?

Cab drivers need to stow the private runs until after shifts. And if an emergency presents itself and a relative or co-worker are in the cab when the driver picks up an additional passenger, at least drop off the fare-paying customer first.

While The Citizen found the cabs to be relatively clean and the drivers to be reasonably pleasant — which were the complaints lodged at last month’s city council meeting — it’s pretty clear that Chandrika Patel, owner of the city’s cab companies, still has some significant issues to resolve.

But given that the company has no competition in the city, and that the council has already approved the fare increase, Patel could ignore the complaints.

Which would leave residents of this city with no choice ... except perhaps to take the bus.