A passenger handed a signed credit card receipt to a cabdriver last week in front of Madison Square Garden.
Detractors have long cast a yellow taxi ride in New York as something of an urban surrender — a necessary expense when the subway is too crowded, the walk is too cumbersome, the burden of car ownership in the city is too much to bear.
Four months after cab fares increased by roughly 17 percent, it is perhaps not surprising to learn how New Yorkers have been greeting the news: They will always ride, it seems, but they do not have to be happy about it.
According to data compiled by the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, overall ridership has remained remarkably stable since the increase, falling just 1.67 percent compared with the same period in 2011.
A review of tips for cabbies, however, introduces a wrinkle. For riders who pay by credit card, tips have fallen, as a percentage of the fare, to 15.5 percent. An earlier review by the commission found that credit card tips exceeded 20 percent in fall 2009. Data from October and November of 2010 and 2011 placed average credit card tips closer to 17 percent. Data is not available for tips made in cash.
“Some people know about the hike, and just don’t like it and just don’t tip,” said Chrishna Sooknanan, 27, a taxi driver from Flatbush, Brooklyn. “People see the 50-cent surcharge from the M.T.A. and figure it’s a tip.” (The surcharge went into effect in 2009 to aid the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which is perennially short on cash.)
David S. Yassky, the city’s taxi commissioner, cautioned that any change in tipping patterns might have more to do with math than rider resentment. In purely monetary terms, average tips are up 8 percent to $2.29, from $2.12, on fares paid by card. It is the tip percentage that has fallen, because fares have increased at a far greater rate.
If passengers are accustomed to tipping, say, $3 on their daily rides, Mr. Yassky reasoned, they might continue to do so even as the fare rises.
“It’s behavior staying the same,” he said. “That drop is just an artifact of the pre-existing behavior.”
But there may be another explanation. Perhaps drivers’ tips have become less tethered to the metered fare itself. (Just as deliverymen might expect the same fistful of $1 bills whether they are carrying $10 worth of food or $50 worth.)
Graham Hodges, a taxi historian and former driver, said the question of how to define cabbies within the service industry had long influenced tips.
“There’s always a tension of whether to perceive the cabdriver as an independent-business man who has costs like you and me, or as a servant,” Mr. Hodges said. “I think people would like to see the cabdriver as a servant” — someone perhaps more entitled to a tip — “but they’re unable to.”
Expanded use of credit cards may have also changed the dynamic. During the period studied this year, 49.9 percent of riders used cards, compared with 38.7 percent for the same dates in 2010 and 44.1 percent in 2011.
“There’s simply less human interaction: you swipe the card and you’re out the door,” said Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance. “If you’re paying in cash, you make eye contact with the driver. You feel more compelled to give them a better tip.”
Mr. Yassky noted that most credit card users ignore the suggested tip amounts on the back-seat monitor, which lists options for tips of 20 percent, 25 percent or 30 percent. He said the amounts that riders put in themselves sometimes exceeded the suggested totals.
“I was shocked when I found this out,” he said. New Yorkers, he concluded, “don’t like to be pushed around.”
Interviews with taxi riders yielded myriad justifications for tipping decisions: Drivers choose the wrong route. The economy is weak. Fares are too high as it is.
Others insisted they would never dream of shortchanging drivers but offered tales of less virtuous friends.
“They’ve started to skimp on tips,” Kira Shalom, from Hell’s Kitchen, said of her clan. “It was a protest — ‘If I have to pay more for this fare, he’s getting less.’ ”
Francesca Mixco, 29, from Astoria, Queens, allowed that she had become “horrible” to cabdrivers, tipping “maybe a dollar” on a typical ride. She should know better, she said. She is a bartender.
Some expected tips to rebound, as a percentage, once the novelty of the new fares had worn off. Emma Hulse, 30, from Washington Heights, said she had begun tipping 20 percent, rather than 25 percent, in a bid to keep her final fare closer to what it was before.
“You kind of set up in your mind what it’s going to be,” she said. “You still want to be around that certain mark.”
But Ms. Hulse said she had taken to using livery cabs more often as a way to get home — a service with fares that are more open to negotiation.
“I guess I do tip less,” she said. “And I get in a lot more arguments.”
By MATT FLEGENHEIMER
The best solution for ever.
1) Credit card users can use their smart phones for e-hail or standard street hail method.
2) taxi cab access card or (T-card) made by the tlc and sold anywhere for anyone who don’t have credit cards .also can use e_hail app too or standard method.
.
3)meter ,gps won’t work without credit or Tcard initial swipe by passenger in order to start and guaranty the ride .
2) no cash is allowed to pay the ride.
3) at the destination ,driver pushes end trip button ,then the tip option screen shows up because gps had card information already ,then passenger accept payment
The receipt is printed .
4) Now here is the biggest part,
driver takes 60 percent gross income and be available 9_10 hours and accept all incoming e-hail and for each refusal ,the driver looses 5$ out of his 60 percent
This plan put everybody to work, and if the business is good everybody makes money and if it is bad everybody looses .
If the meter or gps is busy which means the driver has passenger ,in this case the driver won’t receive any e_hail .also e_hail goes cancel if meter and gps is turned on just moment after receiving e_hail.
Driver can go offduty for 45 min per shift .without being charged 5 $ for each refusal.
If the driver doesn’t want to work. Or just made less than nine hours
In this case driver is charged for the shift price like120 $.depends on which shift.
So. Friends this is my best place.what do you think.??
what is Yur plan?????
David, Here is waht I think of your ideas:
You are obviously working for one of the blood sucking App companies. Your out of your mind. This should not and will not ever happen
Examples,
1)100$ total shift, driver takes 60$ for nine ,ten hours _ .20$gas
2)200$. Total shift, driver takes,120$, – 30$ gas
3)300$ total, driver takes 180$, – 35$ gas
4)400$ total, driver takes 240 $,- $42 gas
Driver pays for gas,
Driver must be on duty and accept all e-hails 9 to 10 hours
Each refusal driver looses 5$.
Note:
Medallion prices must be adjusted to this plan.
As a driver when I go to work,i have to be able to buy my own
Sandwich, not work for the medallion, and go home like an animal,
Wen sandy huricain was here,i did two weeks for free,
When people go on vacations or holidays, we work only for the medallion.
Sunday Saturday very slow,
Thursday Friday shift all traffic
At the end of the year, you can see that only you made four weeks the whole year for your self.
We must share the risk,,traffic,holidays,vacations,street fairs, summer time, car repair,…..
Diver ehail application ,will be able to accept receive jobs from any applications out there on the market and which are accepted and approved by the tlc,the driver app is free of charge for drivers.driver doesn’t care which app is used by passenger.so all these app companies must come up with a single driver app.
David,
On second thought I don’t think you are working for an App company. But, I’m sure you are a driver who doesn’t have a clue on how to make money. I would suggest to you that you find a job more suitable for you.
Is time to change ,taxi is not god business that no body can’t change, the old system doesn’t work, drivers when coming to work, the city needs them minimum 9 hours per shift, but also driver must take out his lunch when going home.
Don’t act like the son of a dictatorship,
Common Sence
barking will take you nowhere.
David,
I’m not barking…I have done very well in the taxi industry. But it took a long time. Good things come to those who work hard have patience and a little smarts!
Common Sence,
you made money in the taxi industry?
If you are a garage owner
because you steal money from drivers and you refuse to change the tires and fix the cars and steal money from insurance.
If you are a driver
because you rip off passengers and you don’t eat nor take a breake and don’t pay tax to New York City.
But if you are a broker, yes you can make some dirty money.
If you lucky to sell policies.
And if you become a doctor I can say it took a long time .
I’m an owner driver and I have an excellent reputation. I have never had a passenger complaint made against me. I bought my medallion in the 1970′s and worked my butt of for many years to pay for it.
Now, I’m enjoying my efforts. I’m retired and I’m receiving a check every month for leasing my medallion. If you had any brains you would shut up and do the same. If your not willing to do that then find another business that you are more likely to succeed in!
Common Sence
That was 1970.when you bought your medallion and you had a chance to work 24/7 without any restrictions .you guys made tons of cash.You paid 25 cent per gallon.
But today 2013 no driver will be able to buy his own medallion ,at least you need 150k cash deposit.and work maximum 209 days per year,and gps watches at your nose if you sneez you get a ticket in the mail.human are working harder but backward like brick_maker …….
Do you see we need to change the way we drive taxi? if yes what is it? And if no? why?
My plan will pay you and your broker 35 percent from your medallion gross income and no more steady checks, the medallion belongs to the city and its people and they need drivers minimum 9 hours per shift, is up to the city and people. This plan is underway, coming in 6 month and its called plan D.
David, I understand what you are saying. But you are dreaming. No one is going to let the city take over the medallions. Even if they could they wouldn’t want the headaches that would come with it. Aside from the funds to buy them all. So, unless your father or son is the next mayor, forget about it!