Update: Sunday morning, Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Yassky announced that 80 percent of the city’s taxi fleet was working on Saturday night, and that the number of taxi rides citywide has continued to rise.
New York taxi and car service companies started pulling vehicles off the road as service stations are now out of gasoline or power to run pumps.
New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo and Connecticut Gov. Dannel P. Malloy authorized the Metropolitan Transit Authority to waive fares Thursday and Friday as an inducement to get people to take mass transit instead of driving.
In another move to reduce congestion, New York City’s Taxi and Limousine Commission announced Thursday that HOV restrictions on bridges have been lifted for liveries, “black cars” and taxis.
Taxi drivers are accepting normal metered fares but are also permitted to accept additional passengers during a trip, according to The Wall Street Journal. The Taxi and Limousine Commission suggests $10 per additional passenger, but it’s up to drivers and passengers to negotiate the final amount, the Journal reported.
At the heart of the fuel supply crunch is the fact that Sandy has devastated the energy industry’s ability to move fuel into and around the New York City region, particularly the harbor, by any of the three means that normally supply the area: tanker imports from abroad; pipeline shipments from the U.S. Gulf Coast; or refinery production from the mid-New Jersey area.
The good news is none of these issues appears to be long-lasting. Power is gradually being restored in New Jersey, where much of the key infrastructure is located and New York Harbor barge traffic is expected to resume later Thursday. A key pipeline should resume limited deliveries on Friday. Even flooded refineries should eventually resume production.
The bad news is that the supply crunch may get worse before it gets better. Supplies at gas stations that remained open are running out, and it may be several more days before wholesale fuel supplies get where they need to go. Public Service Enterprise Group Inc, the biggest utility in New Jersey, said it may be up to 10 days to fully restore power. Oil tank trucks are driving three hours to Delaware City to get fuel, but they can only carry up to 9,000 gallons each.
Reuters and The Associated Press contributed to this story.
Uninformed people think these days are the cabdrivers fortunes to make good money. Ask any cab driver and they’ll tell you that last year in November, they did better than now. That time we didn’t worry about gas shortage and solar storm, or hurricanes.
RT @YellowCabNYC: NYC taxis running out of fuel as gasoline lines grow post-Sandy: http://t.co/o9fLEFok
I have not heard anybody criticising Moron Bloomberg why he decided to spend 6 to 8 billion dollars tax payers money on second avenue subway when this money should have been spended on repairing and maintaining the existing infrastructure, like raods, bridges and bringing all these 2-6 inches deep manholes up to the surfase. Has anybody ever calculated how much money NYC motorists (in millions perhaps) are spending each year to fix the: shocks, springs, ballberings and motor mounts on their cars because of these deep fucking manholes?
I have come to the conclusion that the white race (blond and blue eye) the only thing they know to do best is reading books. We, the cab drivers out there are a group of unlucky street smart people with full of life experience.
this additional $10 buck is only worth it if the additional passenger is getting off between the final drop off,
Mayor BB is doing good job over all but no right help for handling transpiration problem. Gas shortage couldn’t be anticipated? Only reliable public transportation is taxi service now. Taxi n emergency vehicles should get full tank prioritized in seperate designated pumps n private cars should have limited gas like 5gallons at a time. HOV to reduce traffic when cars can’t get gas sounds like saying “no bread? Then eat some cakes!”. Drivers r burning gas for absolute necessity. Car pool with instant anybody not car owners doesn’t reduce traffic. N now recognizing empty taxi could be in HOV.
Deep manholes = pot holes created by nobody’s request.
Some blessing in disguise? At least Half full (ESB n TS with lights) n ConEd plant exploded wasn’t nuclear plant. Crain is still dangling for marathoners’ photo opportunity. Keyna West sings that what didn’t kill u will make u stronger. Hang in there. We discover more resilience n strength built inside.
Those bikers in blackout area r finally getting some lights!
is not worth! the fare waiting for 6hrs to gas up
Again, he is turning his cheek away from the major gas issue problem in NYC. on one hand he allow taxi to pick up additional passenger, which is good, and on the other hand , he did not solve the gas issue for yellow cab, so, what is there to pick up when you are running out of gas? and yassky has been very quiet about this major issue . I think you drivers should tell the garage to keep the car untill this issue is reslove, you spend tooo many hours waiting on line, and the worst part is , but the time you spend 3 hour on line and end up sold out. the other solution is all gas station should have a yellow cab only priority line. don’t forget all you cab driver driver for a living and paying the lease.
Russian communists called themselves builders of the bright futures . It all went up in smoke after the collapse of the Soviet Unions . The same dreamers live in NYC . Billions upon billions , grandiose schemes , 20000 cabs ,thousands immigrants .it all halted after mother nature delivered hurricane to NY shores . Gods on earth turned out to be mere mortals ready to smash each other heads in fight for gasoline .
Russian bureaucrats told people that too much bread r expected to be produced, so please take not one loaf( normal ration), but take two or three n we will allow out of town people come to this town to take extra. But when towner went to the factory shop, clerks told us that u can do that only if u deliver us bags of flour which require hours of waiting in line. Shop shelves were half empty but out of towner r allowed to take anyway, since they were there.
Shelves were half empty because shops had flour but no water supply no other ingredients like butter were not available. N some shop had power outage n flooded. Meanwhile seagulls, pigeons n sparrows near dumpsters were struggling with less garbage. Unusual scenes were reported. Aggressive sparrows were attacking the feet of pigeons. N a few pigeons were pulling the tails of seagulls.
Better late than never! Please Mr Yassky, make pumps designated to yellow cabs, car service, black cars just as emergency cars, police cars, fire engines n other.
Monday city will resume normal business n business can’t function without cabs. For many New Yorkers especially in M, MTA is not options.
why moving so many gas stations out of manhattan. where can cabbies get gas. all tunnels were closed, we got no gas in manhatan. and you cant go anywhere because of the bad roads. now is the time for all yellow cab companies to have their own gas stations, and all city departments also must have their own gas, all airports like jfk and LaGuardia mus thave their own gas station. drivers paid lease and lost because no roads and no gas. we need a gas station in every zone in manhattan. period, and more hybrid cars for taxies.
are we getting some help as drivers from disaster relieve?
the storm was what it was ….. but worse was the BB short term thinking about not imposing hov3+ res. on tuesday instead of wed. and not authorising priority fill-up for gas on yellow cabs. i haven’t worked since friday and still have no gas for monday. why can’t the taxi drivers get discount on the gasoline cuz we buy gas everyday instead of once a week. …….
For night business, cabs service is essential because night time most don’t take subways n buses. It’s getting cold. Airport will have long waiting line. If cabs can’t function without gas, cabs suffer then New York suffers. Less sales tax to NYC but this time nobody else to blame.
Laboratory mice droped dead after driving taxi for 1 week!
A little disturbance at the ocean brings a lot of trouble to everyone inland . They are not seas, rivers or lakes, living next to one is dangerous . You might enjoy beaches when the things are OK,but when things turn toward the worth beware . Waterfront property has been considered a great benefit . Really? What belongs to nature-belongs to nature, Sandy is a reminder of that . It’s exactly the reason why people live in big cities away from oceans in solid highrises.
Who can promise that next Sandy won’t come ashore next week? Another effort to rebuild? Spend billions again?Many communities in the world live in chabby dwelings ,why bother if tsunami can arrive any moment . City should buldoze old damaged structures and leave the land for state parks , uninhabited by human population .
All the tickets drivers paid for city workers to build their waterfront properties, and now its under water . The question is why not let drivers keep their money and let them enjoy simple things and maybe its time to stop creating giant budgets which end up under water anyway?
Fat Italians can’t do shit .Only eat spagetty and ask for more money !
Replace Americans with Pakistanis and Indians get the things done ten times cheaper and hundred times faster !
I’m a citizen interested in buying a totaled, Sandy-flooded Ford Transit cab-cheap! Can anyone point me in the right direction to a cab company, salvage yard or insurance company that is looking to unload this type of vehicle in the wake of Sandy. I have no problem signing a waiver or buying a vehicle with a salvage title.
Please contact me directly at bford AT coastside DOT net
Abundance of food turned people into brain dead chewing cows .
Half of American farms should be closed .People should eat much, much less.It would help to overcome deseases like diabetes and heart desease , which in turn will reduce the health care costs. Hungry people think about food,not having sex . Women will acheive puberty in later years,mature people will be responcible parients, marriages won’t brake as often as they do now .
Cuomo wants 30 billion dollars to rebuild .Have not we paid enough already? Well,sir, let me remind you, this money don’t come from the sky, it’s taxpayers money, hard earned. Are you planning to increase taxes and tolls once again?How about stop rebuilding and start relocating to Detroit, for example,where houses cost $1.
These crazy salaries, huge pensions, bonuses-what the result country in debt, everything brakes down like in third world countries. Did all these people made major scientific discovery, found the cure for canser? this is nonsence. You get paid for the work you do, that is it.