Dispatcher payoffs
The spirit of Louie De Palma lives on.
Thousands of cabbies are dealing with the real-life version of Danny DeVito’s infamous dispatcher from the 1980s sitcom “Taxi,” an amoral boss who would demand cash from his drivers to score a yellow cab for a hard day’s work.
Clearly flouting Taxi and Limousine Commission rules, it’s still an unspoken mandate that drivers handsomely tip garage dispatchers to get cars that aren’t total jalopies — and, in some instances, to get a car at all.
Taxi officials say they’re on the case.
“In light of TLC regulations prohibiting such behavior, reports of tips being tacitly solicited by fleet employees are disturbing and will be investigated,” said spokesman Allan Fromberg.
The Post observed cabbies tipping the dispatchers at two locations — Midtown Operating Corp. in Queens and Gotham Yellow LLC in The Bronx — and industry insiders say it happens at nearly all 67 garages in the city.
Undercover taxi agents issued a summons to Gotham Yellow last Tuesday after investigating reports of “required” tipping, sources said.
The owner of the garage will go to a hearing and could be hit with a $500 fine, which jumps to $1,000 if a staffer is caught in the act again. The administrative-law judge may also make the owner pay restitution to the driver, TLC rules say.
Scores of drivers line up during shift changes to nab a cab for the day, greasing the palms of dispatchers behind plexiglass screens with sums ranging from $3 to $15.
TLC rules state, “No owner, including any employee or agent of an owner, may charge to or accept from a driver a . . . tip or fee of any kind, for the lease of a medallion or of a medallion and a vehicle.”
But many drivers say not tipping means waiting hours for a car and ultimately getting the most rickety rides in the fleet.
“You shouldn’t have to tip, but when you’re a new driver, it’s hard to get a car. So you give more tips to dispatcher,” said driver Moustapha Kouanda, who said he used to give $5 a day and is now down to about $3.
In one egregious case, The Post observed dispatcher David Budd at Midtown Operating accepting cash from drivers. When asked about the exchange, he said he wasn’t ripping off the hacks.
“We just make change for them. That’s all,” he said, before driving away.
The garage’s owner, Ron Sherman, is not only president of the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, the group representing fleet owners, but also owns CMT, one of three companies that provide credit-card electronics for yellow cabs.
His spokesman, Michael Woloz, insisted Budd was tipped because he does a good job and not “in association with the leasing of a vehicle or medallion, per Midtown’s policy.”
“Drivers tip. They’re tipping the gas man, the mechanic. It’s in the culture. There’s no special consideration given to anyone because there’s a tip,” Woloz said.
Earlier this month, The Post exposed how greedy hotel doormen routinely make drivers tip them for everyday airport fares.
tom.namako@nypost.com
Yes, Mel, for a small garage, but larger garages? How many dispatchers a shift? Now they’re getting $365,000 a year, and you know they have to “share” as someone wrote. Maybe I wrote it.
Dollar Cabbie, are you saying tips & bribes at the TLC were stopped by posting a SIGN? More likely, the tips & bribes were rife before the whole world, and now they are under the table!! You think a sign stopped someone?
It’s all about money, nothing else. Money & who is getting it. That was a cute song, We’ll spit in the Fuhrer’s face, I wanted to show it to my neighbor, but I can’t find it. The reverse fuhrer song!
Anyone know who owns the Jackson Ave, the 49th St, and 31st St garages? Is it the Greenbaum, Pearland, Hereford conglomerate?
Please, 45,000 cabbies, make constant hue & cry about low frequency electromagnetic radiation on our heads & driver seat. Keep it up, don’t stop.
Any other worker, & now cameras, who else has that level of police surveillance, and getting tickets while doing your work, just doing your best, they are coming at you with orders in all directions. Big fines if you make a mistake They are COMPULSIVELY focused on a cabbie doing his job. It is like they are at a huge window looking out with a laser pointer, day and night, surveillance to see if something went wrong from point a to point b in a taxi. Why all this? Because the cabbie is making them all billions and Yassky himself wouldn’t be making $200 large if he didn’t spend day and night watching to see if a cabbie screwed up on one of the 6,000 regulations, and 200 different meter scenarious, or riding around looking for a live spot to process a cootie or dootie card. The two Pinnochio noses finding out if the cabbie had time to fart between jobs. Can you imagine, driving a person 10 blocks watched like a hawk! A school bus carries 40 kids all hopping around, while drivers are screened like cabbies are screened, they are not constantly surveiled or fined, or ticketed by police as if they are criminals. And, funny thing, often they are. But cabbies have been very thoroughly screened, yet THERE IS MONEY IN WATCHING THE CABBIE, REGULATING THE CABBIE, FINING THE BAD CABBIE — it has gone too far. There is MONEY IN IT. The cabbies’ backs are raw from being flogged by regulators and their big money cohorts.
Garage Tip 1 Do not leave garage without all 4 blinkers & both brake lights working. If 1 brake light is out & you keep hitting the brakes, other vehicles think you are signaling a turn toward the 1 working. Blinkers are so important if 1 goes out during your shift & you are near the auto parts, get a bulb & put it in. I keep front & rear blinker bulbs & brake bulbs with me, it is so important. Corollary to that, be sure driver window goes up & down.
Garage Tip 2 Do not leave garage if the driver window does not go up and down. Even with all 4 blinkers working, traffic may be so aggressive you need to PUT YOUR HAND OUT THE WINDOW and point LEFT, or PUT YOUR HAND OUT THE WINDOW and point UP to the sky, this is RIGHT. Or, if during your shift & no auto parts, you may need to continue the shift with HAND SIGNALS & need driver window going up and down. Of course, if any of these bulbs go out on shift & you are near garage, go there and DEMAND QUICK change of bulbs.
Garage Tip 3 Do not leave garage if the remote trunk open does not work. If a passenger sees you leave the cab & open the trunk with a key, the passenger will assume you have to do that upon destination. This means wherever they want to say, the driver has to get out of the cab. No No No If your trunk remote does not open the trunk, tell the passenger the trunk WILL NOT OPEN, and to put the suitcases in the back if they fit. If not, refuse the fare. DO NOT RISK YOUR LIFE for a fare. If during your shift & you are near garage, DEMAND they QUICKLY fix it.
Lies, danged lies, and statistics.
Failure to check the blinkers and the brake lights, means additional tickets with something else too! Excellent advises from Sensei Seagal!
[img]http://www.yellowcabnyc.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/taxispan.jpg[/img]
On the left is owner of the most corrupt, dirty, and uninspected garage in NYC – Mamed Dzhaniyev.<
Broke down cabs and illegal tips are a alive day to day. He may pay TLC under the table so they close there eyes.
Garage Tip 2 Check driver window up-down controls before leaving garage, do not leave if driver window doesn’t work. If any of your blinkers go out, you will need to make hand signals until you can get the blinker fixed. Left – point left. Right – from elbow point up to sky.
Why don’t you tell us all what is wrong with Garage Tip 2?
Garage Tip 2 Is there something wrong with checking to make sure the driver window goes up and down?
No surprise, look what a quick google search has revealed:
BROOKLYN, New York (NY) Political Contributions by Individuals
Mamed Dzhaniyev (Self/Taxi Garage Manager), (Zip code: 11235) $1000 to DAVID YASSKY FOR CONGRESS on 09/11/06
Read more: http://www.city-data.com/elec2/06/elec-BROOKLYN-NY-06-part5.html#ixzz0qWcwO5Rx
Malcolm Susan stole nineteen dollars from me for bogus “gas charge” today on “car 26′.. thirteen other day.. I filled up the cars with gas every end of shift.. then the owner told me I was a liar or that i was callig his lacky mechanic “Pedro” a liar cause i told him the cab was in bad shape.. overheats if you run a/c// trunk malfunctions… etc.. he humiliated me and sent me away saying there are no other cabs when i refused to drive car 26 again.. there were plenty of other cabs on a monday at 374 4th avenue.. he accused me of being a “trouble maker” saying “someone else sent me down to make trouble at this taxi garage::: etc.. why? cause i dont’ tip the dispatchers and i squawk when they reataliate at me with many bogus EZ Pass charge and gas charges… I wasn’t going to say anything.. I put up and shut of for five months, but after the way they robbed me today.. they are going to find out what a trouble maker really is… i can’t eat or pay my rent cause of these cockroach thug capitalists