Is nothing sacred? Is there no place left where New Yorkers may briefly sequester themselves from our stressful urban landscape?
Apparently not, because in an ironic example of “love me, love my dog,” let us present our candidate for worst of breed - those obnoxious new screens in the backseats of cabs. This invasive, abrasive “technology enhancement” was piggy-backed on to the much-vaunted credit card swiper/GPS tracking systems when they debuted together this past fall.
Well, the public has spoken and the verdict is in: Taxi TV is just awful, representing the latest in a series of flea-bag marketing platforms the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission has attempted to foist upon paying customers over the years under the guise of “interactive information and entertainment.”
Information? That’s reading a book or newspaper. Entertainment? That’s choosing to turn on the TV or go to a concert. No, this is captive, cacophonous commercialism that robs drivers and passengers alike of one of our last remaining sanctuaries of peace and quiet in this city.
Believe me, as a cabbie I’m way cool with credit cards. And I’m okay with GPS tracking too, if it’s done right. But this technology is an affront to the dignity of every carbon-based life form who dares to sit inside a yellow cab. It poses a dangerous distraction to drivers while violating the sanctity of a passenger’s downtime and silence - quite a precious commodity in this bustling metropolis.
Which helps explain the hostility New Yorkers routinely express for this steaming pile of treacle. As an elderly upper East Side matron so elegantly put it upon getting into my cab: “I can entertain myself, thank you very much. When I get into a taxi cab I relish those few minutes of quiet so I can just let my mind sort of float.”
How exactly did New Yorkers - promised a state-of-the-art navigation system and credit card swiping machines in every taxi - end up with Ron Popeil hawking a Pocket Fisherman in the backseat, let alone that goofy, low-resolution computer map, visible only to the passenger?
No, it won’t tell you how to get where you’re going, but it purports to show you where you are - which you could pretty readily ascertain by looking out the damn window.
Nor do the on-screen “mute” or “on/off” buttons always work. And why should someone paying good money for a cab ride have to affirmatively opt for a few minutes of silence, anyway?
Such is the TLC’s bizarre interpretation of “enhanced service” for cab riders. We’ve gone from the abbreviated agita of those public service celebrity lap dances that once assaulted the senses to a nonstop audiovisual barrage from oh-so-cute news anchors doing the Al Roker Two-Step, while shameless advertisers drone on and on in a continuous loop of dreary filler that is akin to a sneak preview of hell.
It’s no surprise that this dreary gibberish was initially rejected by New Yorkers and the TLC itself during a 500-cab trial run that began in January of 2003. By August 28, 2003, as then-TLC Commission Chairman Matthew Daus told The New York Times, he felt obliged to put this mutt to sleep. “New Yorkers didn’t embrace these units like they could have,” the chairman sighed. “Our surveys indicated that those who experienced the units showed either indifference or negativity. We saw no compelling need to keep them around.”
Time for New Yorkers to speak up and be heard before Congestion Mike’s next innovation: Public Rest Room TV. Why dither away those precious minutes sitting on the toilet when you could be entertained and informed? The only drawback is that it might interfere with one’s ability to communicate with the U.S. senator in the next stall.
Somewhere near City Hall, the ghost of P.T. Barnum is chuckling, because folks, you’ve been had. The mayor teased the riding public with visions of a technologically advanced taxi cab. But all we got was humbug, in the form of this crass, invasive dog of a marketing platform.
by Chip Stern
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
327 04.09.08 at 3:37 pm
meh, whatev, so where are these public restrooms. and perhaps the homeless might get current events than?
Howard E. 11.15.08 at 11:49 pm
Bloomberg treats everyone else like idiots, as if he were the only one with brains in New York. Quiet time in a cab is important to many riders, but more than that, the visual of the flickering screen with the mute on is distracting, while every view of New York from a cab window can be entertaining, even informative, and more of a tour.
Raus mit Daus, the Hitlerian dictator over the Cab industry. This joker has penalized the hard-working cab drivers enough. I have always enjoyed talking with the cabbies more, while riding through town. They don’t need a TV between them and their passengers. They don’t need tripe and garbage a la Daus. Next thing we’ll hear is how wonderful TV is in the toilet. Geeeezzz.
Someone is putting money in certain pockets to gain such a stranglehold on the industry.
Mani 05.01.09 at 10:28 am
Yeah, they’re annoying. So? Just turn it mute/off.
The map, weather, and restaurant guides - along with the time - are useful things, sometimes.
It’s really not that big a deal, nor that huge an annoyance.
I’d heard that the credit card companies take a commission out of credit payments to the cabbie, so that people tipping the same amount end up giving the cabbie less than if they paid cash. Don’t know how true that is right now, but wouldn’t that sort of thing be a bigger concern?
Anne 09.14.09 at 11:18 am
I find the TV obnoxious indeed…but they are everywhere, even the grocery line! Luckily the ones in the cabs have an off button. I was delightfully surprised I was given that option. What is passing by the cabs windows, NYC, is so much more interresting that the programing, it’s not funny
Fernando 11.09.09 at 10:12 pm
Now you can´t turn the thing off. You are only able to turn off the “programing”. You can´t turn off the ads. !!!
MOHAMMED 11.10.09 at 12:52 pm
creditcard cabbie,,,,u need a life
CreditCardCabbie 11.10.09 at 6:54 pm
I think the cab-TV makes cabbies angrier and then they got into accidents like this!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9855fNajOUI
Charles T 02.06.10 at 1:21 am
Howard E said:
Someone has put money in certain pockets to get such a stranglehold on the industry. You certainly said a mouthful. But you have to think: no one devotes their life to taxi regulation and no one wakes up in the morning dreaming up new taxi rules unless there is something in it for them. Whatever percent is taken off the fares for credit card use (and that is what the advertising screen is all about - to call it a passenger information screen is a deceiver) goes to the bank, but what percent are they passing on and to who, who gave the okay for the biggest rip-off of cab drivers in history. There are those rich who have learned how to PREY upon the taxi business, and all money that supports all the rich billionaires who are running fleet garages comes out of the cab drivers’ hands. The cab drivers are the ones who risk the traffic accidents, they are the ones with 12 hours where they can’t make anything if they dare take their hands off the wheels or they won’t make anything. And the rich fleet garages spend day and night figuring how to get even more money out of the cab drivers’ hands, the ones who do the work.
And then they have a picayune little rule (who dreamed that one up at night? Bloomberg?) that if you make eye contact with a pedestrian and it is understood between you that you are going to pick them up, you cannot pick up any other passenger. Now, that would be one heck of a court case, wouldn’t it? What kind of hearing would that be? It let’s you know that there are plenty of people who don’t drive a cab, never drove a cab, but want money and power to be made from cab drivers. What kind of intellect does someone have who devotes his life to taxi regulation and and grabbing cash out of the hands of cab drivers who work hard and are fooled if they think they will ever get ahead; there are predators in the cab business who are watching them through a spyglass to see the next opportunity to separate them from the cash in their hands.
The credit card ADVERTISING system was a winner for them, grabbing a 4% gross out of credit card use, and 25% take after the shift cost is paid. After apartment and utilities it is about 40% of their money earned; and no one even mentioned taxes, dental, co-pays, and other costs of life. The fact is, they cannot stand to lose any percent of what they work very hard for, despite the high risks of the job. They cannot be a cab driver unless they have a working wife who pays the health insurance. A Muslim family whose wife does not work is stolen from every day by those preying on the cab drivers cash in hand he makes every day. A loser for the cab driver. So you might say, why do you stay in it if it is draining and you are stolen from every day? Working outside is addictive, and its is very hard for a cab driver to go to or return to a job in a Dilbert’s box.
The scam loss of the credit card advertising system is apalling. There is no room for it, but no cab driver can afford the time loss to go after advertising credit card scam loss. There is no doubt that someone did put money into certain pockets.
Like I say, no brilliant person of character goes into taxi regulation, and thus we should expect it when the “greed factor” takes over the regulators who are comprised of those best poised to make decisions.
And now the MTA wants a tax of 50 cents a fare!!! What else will they think of to separate a cabbie from the money he tries to take home from 12 hours of cab driving?
What is going to happen is that eventually all cabbies will be part timers working a night or two, students, transient workers. And that is when the numbers of deaths and accidents involving taxis will skyrocket even more than what it is.
I’d like to know exactly how many taxi medallions are running in NYC yellow cabs, and I’d like to know exactly how many are run by fleet garages, and exactly how many are run by owner operators. The last auction of medallions, some were reserved in pairs for a cabbie to get in the ownership business; but he had to buy two and drive at least a shift, 5 days a week. Are these guys being put out of business and having to sell to taxi fleets? How many medallions were auctioned, and how many were for owner operators and how many for fleet garages?
Cash cab says 13,000 but that was before the auctions, and some cabbies are saying 17,000, what is the real number of running medallions? Recently, a news publication said half of the NYC yellow cabs are owned by fleet garages. I would be surprised to find that 8,500 medallions are run by owner operators or owners of a very small number of taxis. Anyone know the real statistics?
Charles T 02.06.10 at 1:40 am
Mani wrote about the percent taken and the tips customer’s give actually leave them with a lot less than a cash job.
Here’s a suggestion, say to your customer who is preparing to pay with a credit card: Sir, you have 3 options about tipping, never mind the screen.
1. You can choose not to give any tip.
2. You can choose to give a tip, but not on the credit card.
3. You can choose to give a tip and put it on the credit card.
I don’t think anyone can forbid telling the customer’s this. Despite these advertising credit card predators say that your business will increase by 13%, it is just a number that the credit card advertisers have chosen to try to fool the cabbies that going through this predator advertising credit card system is “revenue neutral.” Well, obviously given variety in number of shifts 34,000 NYC cabbies drive, day or night, a couple a week or 7 a week, their various ages, and how they like to work, no one could ever say that business will increase by 13%, especially to say it happens in every single city the same way. You know that is a crock.
Credit card users are tipping a lot less than any cash payers.
Around 1998 some clever boys showed up in taxi regulation, and spread the word between each other as to how to establish a pipeline to take some more of that money out of cab drivers’ hands, since leases were capped. How to get more money, then the regulators and all the others hopped on the wagon. Since 1998 it has been “how can we get money out the cabbies, and we don’t even drive a cab!!” Well there is no doubt that the skids into advertising credit cards were greased, and we don’t know exactly how much grease was used, and how many points of grease there are. But suddenly, a decision maker wants to hand $ billions over to advertising credit card companies, there has to be something in it for them. I doubt they could delude themselves or distract themselves from their big money, by saying how good it was for every cab rider to have a tv set in it, and lots and lots of riders do not want it. I mean, you go to a gas pump, and there is a picture of a hot dog that would choke you to death, and give you diarrhea if you put the fixings on it! Ha ha ha.
What cabbies might do is switch to car services and then see who signs up to work 12 hours a day, take lots of risks, be treated like a 5th class citizen, and doesn’t notice that the big money is going to the taxi fleets and gifted in the $billions to the advertising credit card companies.
I’m remembering the incident where an immigrant cab driver left his cab for a minute and his father (from the country of origin) was sitting in the front passenger seat, who was just visiting, never drove a car, and never had a driver’s license. A cop came up to the vehicle, obviously didn’t listen, but threatened to arrest the man if he didn’t move the car. He tried to move it but it got away from him and ran over several pedestrians, killing some.
When the cabbies finally are transformed into the most stupid who will operate under these conditions, you can believe that the number of deaths from taxi related incidents will escalate beyond belief. How many NYC taxis now are owned by owner operators, or very small number of taxis, and how many are controlled by the fleet garages, a recent newspaper article said HALF are owned by fleet garages. I’d like to know how many owner operators who bought pairs at the last auctions actually still own their two medallions and are still driving 5 shifts a week? Did some of them have to sell out for financial reasons?
Bob Davis 02.08.10 at 10:29 pm
Yes, I just took yet another ride where I turned off the miserable NBC and then 1 sec later there is Al Roker when i hit the off button again, he is back. This is very intrusive and it sucks that the English instructions do not work!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! This is America I thought.
Charles T 02.20.10 at 7:41 am
Zen, unfortunately it is the professionals, I think, who are using the demagnitized cards, some gift cards that ran out, some old cards they happen to have. Some just not even a bank card but some health club pass in the door card. I find it goes in communities, apparently one tells the other tells the other. Or goes in night clubs, one tells the other, etc. Soon as that happens, I skip that community. But the smart ones know, hey if the fare is only in the $20 range, how can the driver collect it when I say your machine is not working, I have no cash, I cannot pay. And then you suggest driving them to an ATM, as soon as you move the cab to do that, they say I can’t get any money out of an ATM off this card. They know the driver cannot spend the whole night trying to get the $20 or are any busy police going to search an apartment building for “whose card is no good - demagnitized”? One driver say $400 and something, another said $500 and something scam loss in only a month or two. Another group of idiots had a different SCAM - they handed me the phone and said the lady in the house wanted to use her card, and she gave me the number I wrote down. End of story. They got out. No payment. No time to track it down. I forgot to get exp date, but even then NO SIGNATURE. It was $10 and I lost it.
Bud Hazelkorn 03.02.10 at 10:25 am
Brilliant essay on the noise industry’s taxi invasion. We don’t have them in San Francisco and are able to hold extended conversations with our customers, which is 75% of the job for me.