Summer 2010 is shaping up to be a busy time. 
We’ve got several group ride locations queued up and ready to go in the coming weeks, and our year-plus long efforts to reform the for-hire industry is about to reach another milestone with the introduction of new “permanent” decals to replace the temporary “poker chip” stickers you see now. We’re also in a crucial period for the Taxi of Tomorrow project, with the deadline for proposals having passed at the end of May. We’re in the process of reviewing the proposals we’ve received for a number of basic criteria, such as completeness, at this stage, and will hopefully be ready to engage the riding public in the process in the near future. I will keep you all informed on our progress as updates become available.
These are all critical linchpins to our long-term plans, and I am particularly excited about the prospect of expanding our group riding portfolio. We want to pursue all methods of protecting our environment, and while hybrid and clean fuel vehicles are certainly examples of this, so too are methods of “re-purposing” existing resources to yield greater efficiencies. Group riding is a really stellar example of this.
It is also a good example of the taxicab’s role in the comprehensive transportation network of our city. In one example, the MTA recently announced that it would be discontinuing the X90 express bus that currently provides service between the Upper East Side and the Financial District. While the MTA has reported that the line is underutilized, making the line non-viable in terms of their business plan, the number of people who rely on its service – and we’ve physically counted them – is a perfectly good number from a taxicab driver’s vantage point at $6 a head! Sounds like a natural. We’ll be proposing the project to our Board of Commissioners for their consideration and approval in the near future, and I will report back to you on their actions.
Now, with regard to the new decals, it’s really all about two things — accountability on the for-hire vehicle (FHV) industry’s part, while protecting the legitimate FHV industry from illegal, unsafe poachers, and empowering the riding public to be able to better distinguish the “good guys” from the “bad guys.” Let’s be frank…..people continue to hail and hop into illegal livery cars and vans regardless of the danger they present – dangers that include under- (or un!) insured vehicles, driven by drivers whose background may be questionable to say the least; drivers who have not been drug-tested; drivers whose licenses may or may not even be valid. The question is, wouldn’t it be that much more difficult for our transportation-hungry city to patronize illegal FHVs when they know for sure that this is precisely what they are? When they know precisely what this means? The demand will remain the same, so the challenge for the legitimate industry is – how will we effectively fill that vacuum? But I believe this will be a challenge that is happily undertaken once we’ve dealt a solid and decisive blow to the illegal opportunists out there. The TLC will start distributing the new decals at the Woodside Safety and Emissions facility in the very near future, so they will become increasingly more visible over the next few months.
Blue decals are for Livery cars, while “Black Cars” will get gray stickers. Luxury Limousines will be sporting purple decals and Commuter Vans will have bright red stickers. Lastly, yellow medallion taxicab decals will be, well, yellow.
We’ll be talking lots more about this transition in the weeks and months ahead, so stay tuned!
Until we speak again, enjoy the summer-like weather……it will be cold and snowy again before you know it!
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
This scumbag is hot shit, i bet our favorite taxi conglomerate of Greenbaum, Sherman and that fat slob on the cover of Taxi Insider every issue own the company that’s going to be printing these stickers.
Can liverys pickup now if they have these stickers?
The only vehicles that can pick up street hails legally in the City of New York (all five boroughs) are Yellow Medallion Taxis. We should demand at every opportunity that this rule be enforced. This is one big reason that Medallion Taxi Drivers aren’t making the money they should be and are entitled to.
If they let gypsy cabs pickup legally it will devalue the price of the medallions and the big fleet owners will cry.
They can’t let them pick up legally. The purpose of the medallion is the exclusive right to the street hails. There is a very long history to how things got to be where they are. The problem is they have failed to protect our rights.We need to insist on this more.
One Ruchita comment about liking share-a-cab & Yassky flew off like a chicken with his head cut off. Stop the bus route, share a cab, run a bunch of cards. If cabbies don’t find it profitable, IN will come the DECAL vehicles. Jeepers! Decals first, not clean toilets! Same shape decals will confuse the riding public who will think it OKAY to hail a vehicle as long as the decals have the same official-looking shape – meaning these are the cars to hail. This IS a boost for the liveries, car services, black limos, grey limos, luxury limos, and dollar vans. Soon as they have the official shape decals, they are in the ”hail’ business. Riders ALREADY know WHAT yellow cabs are [they are YELLOW], do riders need to notice an official yellow decal? No. Riders will think they can hail any vehicle with the same shape decal. More money out of the cabbies’ hands into the old cabbies’ hands who are now wearing suits, and driving liveries. [It doesn't matter if it is a PENCIL, the MACHINE can find a way to profit, thru taking more money out of a cabbies' hands.] To give those vehicles not allowed to pick up street ‘hails’ a similarly shaped but different color DECAL, is to say GO TO IT and give these vehicles new permissions! Remember, never compliment anything the MACHINE does, otherwise it will be used the next day in a way you never thought of, to take more money out of cabbies’ hands and more control of the cab. Winky, nothing gets past you, does it!! Nothing embarrasses the machine, the cartel, the conglomerate. Greenie, Shermie, and Wormy (who is the DDS guy?, until we know, we’ll call him Wormy, because it rhymes).
Yes, yellow cab drivers are particularly EXCITED to be part of the VFH PORTFOLIO. Thank you, thank you, thank you, you nut. What does it mean? ” I am particularly excited about the prospect of expanding our group riding portfolio,” says this Kazootie who is excited about everything – he writes like a Huckabee preacher, only Huckabee is much better and more sincere. Unfortunately, NYC cabbies already know ‘nothing good happening in their portfolio.’ Amazing. Funny, Kazootie is not excited about cleaning up JFK hold bathrooms. Maybe the riding public is a little sick of urine smell soaked into cabbies sneakers from using JFK bathrooms. Did you all notice that LaGuardia hold bathrooms are very clean, with an attendant that cleans 2 times daily & cabbies give tips. Would it still be clean if cabbies did not give tips? Isn’t it interesting of all those passengers and employees of LaGuardia, the cabbie has to pay to use a clean toilet [meaning would these toilets look like JFK if cabbies weren't giving 'required' tips to use it]?
Print up precisely 13,400 yellow cab decals, give out only 13,400 yellow decals. Keep the 30 TLC Escape-inators busy seeing whether any yellow cabs still have no decals. Any fleet garage doubles running? Let Mr. Kazootie be busy policing the machine, and let cabbies go to the bathroom without a ticket.
To Winky. Be sure our favorite conglomerate Greenbaum, Sherman, if they do own the printing company, only print up 13,400 yellow cab decals. TLC wouldn’t want any fleet garage running doubles!
Credo of American Medical Society, “First, do no harm.” Which doctor was it who complained to TLC when his usual trip went $1.50 more, and brought on the largest-scoped, WORLD-resounding, false demonization of NYC cabbies in decades. The other day I was hailed near hospital by surgeon in scrubs. Short of the destination, this slob said better shut the meter off so I can give you a tip, and handed me a $10 bill. Who did this con man think he was fooling? There was no tip – his destination was going a little more than that on the meter in a quick, fair and just trip. Since destination seemed his residence, certainly surgeon turd knew it. Why at 4-5 in afternoon no cabbies found near hospitals. Patients and visitors, yes! Slobs, no! Of course, he could have honestly just held out the $10 bill at the window and asked can you get me to ——- for $10. Cabbie probably would say yes & surgeon didn’t need to be insulting – but then, wasn’t that the purpose and fun of it – to insult the cabbie and let him figure out, no tip & beating a small part of the fare! I bet you can’t wait for this turd to take out your appendix – obviously he will rush to save time & money on your operation, maybe leave the stapler in your stomach! Lucky, though, he didn’t use “card” like rest of 4-5 pm hospital crowd who care less about loss of 20% by cabbie, after shift lease paid.
To Country Hill Flyer Cabbie. No, he flew off like a you know what out of you know where – not like a chicken with his head cut off. Well, maybe, a little of both. But you knew it was more regulation & control, not bathroom clean-up. How do airport cabbies hide the squish noise the urine makes in their sneakers?
It doesn’t matter who iruns it & what dispatch system it is, radio or computerized, or GPS or wireless, it is corrupt, corrupt, corrupt. & I have talked to cabbies in other cities who had radio dispatch & it was SO corrupt, then the dispatch system went computerized Verifone, CMT, only to find it was MORE corrupt & cabbies had no knowledge of other more lucrative work going out, only their own trip record!!! The computer dispatch was supposed to force the dispatch GANG to be honest. No one can beat their slick jive, right before converting to computer dispatch, all they had to do is tell all their regular ‘good’ customers WHICH numbers to call, those streamlined numbers!!! All the scut work suddenly had takers, like RACE [and risk] to job to be sure no one else gets it, get there in 3-4 minutes, wait 10 minutes before declaring no show, then start over waiting for another ‘great job.’ Turns out to be a $6 job. These are riders who will not get picked up on the street because they are known bad cab riders. So after all the loss of time, two $6 jobs in an hour. Soon 1/2 the cabbies on the dispatch system pretend it’s not there and only take hail rides. The ‘preferred cabbies’ will NOT DO THOSE JOBS, so then the GANG cannot get anyone to do those jobs, and the loser $6 riders are left calling 311 to complain to Herr Yassky. Same old. Same old.
Commissioner Yassky really could help cabbies get to those card jobs faster if only Yassky would ask riders to flash their cards in their hands while hailing, cabbies could get to them FIRST before the limos, vans and car services. Then cabbies wouldn’t just be stuck with those old cash jobs. He he he he he he he This is the way to FEED the machine.
13,400 permanent yellow cab decals must be printed by bonded company & include identifying HOLOGRAM & MAGNETIC strip so duplicates cannot be printed by fleet garages. The decal can then be read from across the street by hand-held magnetic readers wielded by TLC’s White & Gold Angel Ford Escape-inators so cab can immediately be identified as a double. The same with the identical permanent purple and grey decals for car services & luxury limos; otherwise there’ll be car service & limo doubles running all over the city from New Jersey, Connecticut, and every other state. Did one comment say black cabs R operating in NYC from as far away as Ohio? TLC with magnetic readers will expose limos hiding behind hotels as gypsy frauds.
Cabbies are all waiting to hear the outcome of the 6 airport dispatchers who were indicted. Is this a baloney or is it real? Seems like it is 2 years in the waiting. Cabbies say every day there are still wait-skipping cabbies who fly in and out of the airport. How long are the TLC & Garage Conglomerates Machine going to stall the correction of not only airport dispatch corruption, but the deplorable toilet conditions?
What is this? the Port Authority ‘tyrant’ giving cabbies a reminder of its complete independence? Why haven’t the spy GPS computers identified those cabs & associated drivers who are ‘wait-skipping’ in and out of the airport?
When will TLC & machine ever learn? Trying to foist the same vehicle on 13,400 cabs. 4,000+ yellow cabs privately owned need to choose vehicles to suit their own needs. Fleet rental garages generally like to use the same vehicle, because their mechanics and autobody specialize on the same vehicle. Spare mechanical parts, spare autobody parts. The private owners will never find a salvage engine, salvage transmission, and other salvage autobody parts, all of them having been taken by the fleet garages. A private owner should no be forced to drive a vehicle he despises. Plenty of people do not want to drive compressed natural gas vehicles. HEY, HOW ABOUT BEING SANE. Let the private owners choose a regular 4-cylinder vehicle for their replacement cab. 5 years down the road, there will be other options available and standard. Transit Connect, if you must, without uplifted kits. Regular 2.0 4 cylinder. What is so WRONG ABOUT THAT. Are private owners going to be stuck by Mayor Bloomberg, forced to put a vehicle on and drive that they hate. Cabbies that rent, choose what the fleets have chosen, where they drive. IT IS NOT PRACTICAL ON THE GROUND TO HAVE 1 vehicle that is a NYC yellow cab. This is a SPOTLIGHT MOVE, where for the few seconds Bloomberg stands up and says look at the NYC new cab, and la de da. Cabbies live with it day by day. People I know are looking over the Chevy 4 cylinder HHR van, with windows. Nothing wrong with that as a taxi.
The Monty Python Flying TLC & Machine will not be happy until they have ruined the whole cab business. Multi-tasking NYC cabs, now becoming baby havens. Can’t make it to the hospital to give away your baby? Give it to a NYC cabbie. Leprosy patients cannot get transport to Doctor Appoints, hey why not the NYC cabbie. No car service, no limo, no luxury limo, no dollar vans, the GOOD OLD CABBIE the source of spotlight opportunies for political appointee hacks.
It is good to reward & honor the safest cabbies if you know which ones they are. All Taxi Management (the Greenbaum 1000 medallion fleet) apparently set criteria to confer the ‘safest’ rewards. No accident in 4 yrs, no accident in 3 yrs. But what about drivers who are VERY safe, yet were unfortunate enough to be in an accident caused by some other unsafe vehicle – won’t these drivers be a little disappointed? What about the rest of the NY cabbies? Then a driver got a ‘friendliest’ reward & honor for helping handicapped lady with carriage into cab; wonderful he was helpful. But thousands of cabbies every day are VERY helpful, yet no one reported how friendly & helpful they are. It makes me sad and left out, when I am helpful every single day, and friendly every single day; who is going to ‘select’ me above all cabbies? I certainly upon receiving great thanks from rider am not going to ask them to call the TLC or fleet garage and tell them. Thus, there is frustration, disappointment, and cynicism from those who are ‘safe’ drivers and are ‘friendly & helpful’ drivers, in not being recognized, honored, or rewarded for their daily efforts. Funny heads these conglomerates have. We have forgotten to list in addition to fleet lease garages, medallion brokerage, medallion lending, and medallion insurance – MEDALLION MANAGEMENT, meaning some individuals owning and not wanting to be involved, to keep it under the radar, can have the All Taxi Management Garage manage and rent out medallions for them.
Dershie, U forgot to ask how Greenbaum cabal became JUDGE & JURY too!! U rent cab, Greenbaum JUDGES UR work performance all over the city/state? Well that’s a fine howdy-doo! Stop taking cabbies’ pay thru forced Card fees, advertising & EMR into cabbies’ work station. Is cookout supposed to make cabbies love victimization & loss of pay? Since ALL revenue generated in NYC cab business comes from cabbies’ hands, U might say these cabbies PAID dearly for their own cookout where they could be JUDGED like owned slaves of All Taxi Management. Cabbies need to Act, not just React. Did the cabbies confer any awards or honors to All Taxi Management IF any were due? – that is the real question!!