Have you ever been denied a ride by a New York City taxi driver because of where you’re going? Or overcharged for your trip? Beginning Monday, PIX11 News at Ten will air “Hack Job” a three-part series detailing reporter Arthur Chi’en’s year-long undercover investigation into the illegal practices of cabbies.
The series will air Monday, February 18 through Wednesday, February 20 on PIX11 News at Ten. Over the course of his year-long investigation, Chi’en found drivers who flatly refused to take passengers from Manhattan to outer boroughs or cross-town, drivers who requested cash only, drivers who charged flat rates rather than abide by the meter and drivers with their “off duty” signs continually lit, all clear violations of the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s regulations.
When presented with Chi’en’s findings, TLC Commissioner David Yassky agreed to go undercover as part of a TLC sting operation. The shocking results? Even Commissioner Yassky was denied rides from Manhattan to an outer-borough destination.
Don’t be left on the curb or fall victim to a “Hack Job,” find out how to protect your rights as a passenger with PIX11 News at Ten’s three-part series airing Monday, February 18 through Wednesday, February 20.
Up your nose with a rubber hose. NYC HackMeister, Safe, Sane, and most importantly, HONEST. Love to work outer boroughs, don’t like driving Boll
Don’t like working Manhattan cause people don’t have respect for the driver. People forget the old NYC when 30+ cab drivers a year got shot in the head. Pay me like a NYC transit bus driver which is $30 dollars an hour plus benefits and I assure you that destination will never be an issue.
Great, more top-notch journalism from the tool that got fired from CBS for cursing on air. He must be angling for a gig at the Post with this “exposé”. Or that drunk passenger that got his ass whipped in K-Town by his cabby is a cousin of Chi’en’s. That being said, there are too many drivers that do the dumb stuff this turd is going to highlight on tv for three days. You stupid f@*ks make this job that much harder for the rest of us. Learn how to operate a GPS unit and get your asses back into money-making areas ASAP when you get a crap fare instead of refusing them in broken English. Quit working with the Off-Duty light on, jamming up traffic while you waste time trying to pick and choose your fares. You’re no better than the thieving a-holes in Lincolns hustling illegally.
Every breath you take, every step you make, I
am watching you. Who cares about other problems? Cab driver is your biggest enemy!
Oh, come off it, riders know when they cannot get a cab to the boroughs, shift changes. This is life and there are many options to include public transportation and car services. A few little prancy dancies couldn’t get a cab. You tell a prancy dancy they can’t get through because of water main break, or some other calamity, they don’t believe you, and then when they get there, they jump out of the cab!
Funny people in nyc they beat you hard, then cry and first to go complain against you.
Some people really don’t deserve our hard work and energy, they think we make lot of money or we own medallions. I have been driving yellow cab for ten years and I cant make a living with it, I am struggling like a homeless, broken and dizzy all the time. These people must thank god for having yellow cabs running night and day, because these drivers just came into usa thinking about the American dream chasing money, then endup driving a cab but they make no money, only health and brain destruction!
These people are complaining about 20.000 drivers, but what drivers would say about 9 million people of NYC, from my own experience no body has the right to complain about cabbies, if you think YOU can complain I would recomand you to drive a cab not one week nor one month but one shift! Then you know the answer to all your questions. We are providing services and is not worth it to go out of boroughs even the tlc rules stated so. Cabbies loose money and time, NYC cabs are made to collect tourist money not local money if you never heard this it’s time to get it. We drivers don’t use illegal aged oil to cooke food and sell it to people, we drivers don’t sell fals or fake beer, perfume, or bad closeths that cause cancer, we driver don’t sell regular gas as super or premum gas, we drivers don’t sell fish from dirty rivers to people as fresh fish, we drivers working hard 24/7 and we never collect unemployment, we drivers don’t drink and drive, we drivers serve the wold, we drivers are the heroes of the city, we drivers don’t sell fake jewelry, we don’t sell expired items, we don’t sell stolen jewelry, we drivers don’t collect illegal insurance money, we drivers don’t charge high tuition for poor programs, we drivers don’t ripoff people by taking away their houses and charge high medical bills, we drivers we don’t crush your life insurance. We driver don’t write multi-policies in one policy. We drivers serve you when you need us. Taxi drivers are the mirror of your city, so if you are denied a service, is because driver gonna loose time with you, but not money. If the driver doesn’t want to take you, then pay him/her in advance, plus 25% TIP so he/she can recover his gas money and time, and keep this in your mind, never and ever take it personally and if you do, then you have no right to complain because you got another 40.000 drivers out there ready to take you, but don’t be lasy to stay strong ’till you find one…..
Hell Yeah!
I wish we had our own paper. Hot writers, burning issues.
PIX11 news should cancel the show about the taxi drivers breaking the law. they are going to affect the safety of the driver, and confuse the mentality of the public as they trust anything they see on tv, the real issues are not gonna be solved
and will never be changed soon or later because of the job nature, this problem is not in drivers hand nor in city hand. The pix11 news can discuss other issues related to improving the service by suggesting other policies or technologies. Cabdrivers are underpaid and unable to meet the public needs. If you cant find a yellow cab, then is your problem, not drivers problem. People cant see the inside of the job and what they see is the driver. People cant understand the reality of the job
and its impossible for them to get it, so cancel your show and go see garages owners and city officials not Yassky or tlc to fix the problem, period.
And keep this in your head, if you provide a full insurance trip for drivers and 25% extra as time lost and traffic headack, plus a black box and camera inside all cabs, then the problem should be solved 90 percent. I said 90 percent because of shift change within the last hour that can not be changed, so is up to the tlc to teach the public think twice within the last hour of each shift.
Rat, you are a born romantic. Too few teets for all the puppies. Ineed. And yes, cards are stacked against us, huh. We’re not talking about shift changes, though, and much as I feel you, much as I have lived it, one has to wonder why less petulant parts of the riding public are expected to care. “I got problems of my own.” Not a compelling argument. Just being IN THE RIGHT, doesn’t necessarily make us right. Yes, everyone should try cab driving for a month or so, and try and live on the proceeds pulling them Mon-Tues-Wed fleet shifts on the night side. Alas, they don’t and we do. Quite a conundrum.
They should do a story on the elimination of the off duty light. Day drivers desperately need it at the end of the day. Without it, your choices are either cutting your day short and losing a lot of money, or risking being late which is not allowed. I can understand reforming it if it’s being abused (is it?) but there has to be an exception from 3 or 3:30pm – 5pm. Without it they’re wiping out whatever benefit the fare increase provided for day drivers.
All drivers will go on strike if PIX11 news aired the show.
Due to insufficient and unrealistic evident and unprofessionalism in the public psychological disorders .
Jim, you maker a good point about the the elimination of the OFF-DUTY light during the afternoon shift change. The city could also try and do something to facilitate movment specifically by taxi cabs between 3:300PM-6:30PM every day to address the reality of the shift change.
There are any number of things that could and should be on the table as part of a discussion, however, speaking only of the night side, I was shocked to witness how many drivers were doing the OFF-DUTY/Locked Doors/Pick&Choose Routine with passengers. Not at a shift change, but as a part of the regular cruising paradigm.
If the Channel 11 report does nothing else but initiate a dialog and bring some of the more egregious scams to light, then it does some good. Cabbies protesting the clear and present disparities in the system has little impact if the dickish behavior of some colors public perceptions negatively. There are so many issues which should be addressed, and the shift change factor is little understood; having drivers abusing the OFF-DUTY lights helps no one, and especially hurts their fellow cab drivers.
What point reporter tries to make? That taxi drivers are crooks? But it’s a general perception of all taxi drivers. We are noIt going to change it, no matter how honest you are. Will it stop people from taking taxis. Absolutely. Not. On the contrary, people be more exited to meet a real crooked cabby, someone with guts to stand against the system.
Here, get it. I am a real crooked cabby, your mama warned you about. My day starts by Calling high end hookers. I have a website where johns call, I make $200 on top of each call and at night I deliver marijuana and I mAke $50 bucks on top at the end of the dAy I have $3 grand clean. Report that.
I have sex with older wOmen $200 right there report, report find unfit the ones out of herd moooo!!!!
Ch 5 should start reporting on living conditions of NY cabbies. Drivers who can not afford to buy a car, they should show their mouth with missing teeth, the old clothes they wear, the all money they saved gambling them out in hope of a big win etc.and it should show super rich who use cabs and a dollar tip they give. That’s real reporting to me.
If i were one of them I would ask my self the following question:
why would 13000 taxi cabs cänt täke me home?
Taxi Sultan , I agree. America customary tipping is 15%, check out the nyc tipping guide on like, I don’t make this up. I don’t where these under educated A$$hole get the idea on $1 tip. they do not belong here. I am sure many drivers know what nationality I am talking about ,anyone giving $1 tip to a taxi driver is an insult to the driver and in the same time is embarasing them self in front of the taxi driver, how? they are telling the driver they can barely afford the ride. so please take the mass transit, in a rainy day, I just skip you.
Dear Taxi Sultan when you write, I love reading it! You drivers should know that the passenger is not obligated to tip. But, to fix this problem, the answer should have been 30% fare increase not 17%. Those people from 5th, Madison, Park and the rest of the city pay minimum $2000 per month apartment maintenance. Their apartments worth millions. They pay $15 per hour to the baby siter (nany). And you are telling me that they could not aford another 13% increase? The taxi driver goes home with average $10 per hour!. I have said it for the last 20 years that i am driving a yellow, and that is: we need a strong taxi drivers union!
Lion, you are right, passenger are not obligated to tip. it is america’s customary. these immigrant is trying change america’s customary to where ever they come from. tipping is a way to show respect and appreciation to the driver who take you to the designation safely and quickly. it is also a representation of the passengers self esteem. imagine you take some one to the outer boro during the peek hours, the fare cost $29 and passenger give you $1 tip, how would you feel? I would give it back and tell them you need this more than I do. are they going to file a complaint to TLC tell them the driver refuse the $1 tip on a $29 fare, I like to see that and see who is more embarassing.
Disappointed. America made every country poor. Nobody would come here if it was otherwise. Here is nothing to do. Only give rides to greedy people, well, you can have it.
Disappointed. Many Americans and europeans are immigrating to Russia. Nobody arrests you there, nobody writes you tickets, you can drink in public and you can have sex and you don’t have to pay for it. America is a police state, you only work to pay cop’s salaries, doctor’s fees, support a huge army. Here is no life.
Really? You don’t get tickets in Russia? Russian police, especially the traffic police, are well known for being corrupt. It’s one of the reasons dashboard cams are such a case over their right now. And for immigrants and visitors who complain about tipping, it is a way for the employer to keep costs down. In your own country, where tipping is not allowed, the employer pays comparatively more.
When Russia’s rich gets drunk he gives a cabby $300 tip, when American CEO gets drunk he calls the cops, (whom else?) and he complains, (what’s new?) and what he wants? A free ride to the other end of the earth!