Dalbir Singh did not know where to go on Wednesday when he arrived at the corner of East 72nd Street and Third Avenue, seeking one of the Taxi and Limousine Commission’s new share-a-cab stands.
“I asked the T.L.C. officer, ‘Where is the taxi stand here?’ ” Mr. Singh said later, crossing Central Park in a yellow cab. “He said, ‘I don’t know, I’m looking for it too.’ ”
Grand social experiments are not easy to pull off. So when the commission decided to test whether New Yorkers — a fairly cranky bunch — would be willing to share a taxi ride, a hitch or two was to be expected.
The program allows up to four passengers to share cabs, car pool style, from designated stands along three set routes in Manhattan, for $4 each.
But the problem on this cold, wet Wednesday morning, the first day of the experiment, was that virtually no riders showed up. The stands, marked by small yellow signs, were without cabbies and passengers alike. According to the authorities, only six shared trips took place.
Gloria Park, from the Upper East Side, rode in one of them. “People are hesitant, and don’t want to share,” Ms. Park said as her taxi zipped down Lexington Avenue. (She had arrived at the Third Avenue stand seeking a ride; a reporter offered to join her.)
New York, she said, is not like Seoul, where her family lives and where sharing cabs is common. Still, she added, “some people may take them just to meet other people.”
Some said the rides might yet catch on, given time and word of mouth. Matthew W. Daus, the taxi commissioner, said he expected interest to grow.
“Some people are into it, and some people are not into it, and that’s fine,” Mr. Daus said. “This is New York.”
Seems to me Charles is that U are one driver, cab driver, being old in the job acts like a new one accepting all the crab that the NYPD,TLC and this administration give us. Regetebly, is the actitud of a lot of cabbies outthere.
We all experiencing problems, and many drivers getting stressed! Not everyone knows how to deal with the ever increasing rules and with the income shrinking living standards. Using the website drivers able to get more help and support from each other and learn how much better we can live and make a decent living standard to support our family. Happy cabdriver can do a much better job! The TLC should know that, are they?
Salary for a rookie NYPD cop, which is a measly $25,100 a year.
Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/regional/item_6Xw65aNSTgkGe1R0w9e1OL
Cabbies think IF ONLY we could get thru to TLC and NYPD, explain to them, show them, make them understand how hard it is, how thankless it is, if only they would know, they would make it different. THAT IS THE GAME. Long ago before you became a cabbie, the equations were decided, who would make the money, who would do the work. Cabbies would do the work, fleet garages and regulators (working ever closer together) would reap the power and profits. All the game parts, the equations are there, and they just keep switching them around to their own satisfaction. Cabs, Hack licenses, medallions, meter rates, riders, manipulation of safety, vehicles, hybrids, fleet garages, lease caps, regulators, dispatchers, airports, trains, subways, and cabbies who do the WORK supporting their extended family. The game has already been decided, cabbies will work 12 hours, and an 8 hour day is never going to be possible at meter rates established. And because the cabbie is the sole PROVIDER of funds for the whole business, when all the other game parts think they have waiting long enough for another GRAB at the cabbies’ pay, out come the edicts, the stricter rules. There are so many new words in the game, that simply carrying riders from A to B has been lost; every other part of the game is more important than that. If the cabbie whining and clamor gets too loud, they point and say dirty cabbie dirty cab, overcharging – that is the extended family’s mantra if daddy seems to be getting to tired to provide for them at their desired standard of living. Even a union is a new player in the game, and it will become stronger and stronger, richer and richer, long before a cabbie will actually get any more pay. More pay, more deductions, more rules, more fines, more stealing of cabbies’ work. Eventually the game is going to be: we’re taking everything, we’ll make the money, the advertising money, we’ll hire employees for shuttles! Poor worker bee cabbie a thing of the past. How are the black car cab stands at malls coming along?
To Jose. Hey, Amigo. Que to me platiques, hoy que regresas de donde yo naci.
La viejacita y la vida me vio segura esta llorando por mi, espera que quizas vuelva ya, y yo no quieres poderme abrazar. Stop criticizing your fellow commenters, criticize ideas and not people.
I criticize the idea of a lot of drivers and I am afraid to say including U that all what the City dies is well done even if is against your fallow drivers and workers in general. That’s all. Nothing personal. I saw drivers that at the moment of receiving a moving violation from a police officer are smaling and saying thanks officer. It is that actitud what boddens me of those drivers that feel that They are less than anybodyelse Bacause They come from abrooad. No!!!! Once U have your legal pappers, your lisences and are working U are the same than everybodyelse, come on!!!!! Defend your rights and stand up, please!!!! Nobody is giving us nothing in this City. We have to work hard and We deserve the same respect thant anybody else. Learn, Charlie!!!!! Jose
Jose, we know you have been criticizing us and Bloomberg. We have already looked up for files and see that you are in retirement and driving at Tunnel Garage in LIC. We will have TLC Officers waiting every morning to inspect and ticket you. Let this be your warning before we pull your license..
jose write in english please!
Whoever wrote this comment about me driving at Tunnel is a coward. I do not have any thing to hide. I am not in retirement. I have still at least 20 years ahead of driving. Give your name, coward!!!!!
That’s my english. If U like it OK!! If U do not, F. U.!!!!!!!
Jose, you are finished. You will not work in this city again. I will make sure to hit you with so many fines and tickets that you will be living off of your daughter in queens.
To all. Who was it who said take rider from point A to point B, run meter, WAS NOT ENOUGH? The vain-glorius charlatans who decided they could get CUTS off of a special meter, credit cards and so forth, the greedy equipment guys, the MTA tax that these meter advertising people sold the TLC on. They had to make the cab a circus performance, a song and dance man, with the Mayor like Al Jolson dancing and singing a welcome. More control, more money out of the driver’s hand. Daddy, who supports the whole taxi business, couldn’t make it, and finally was driven to do something that was not right.
The Department of Investigation is looking into these $8.3 million overcharging incidents. Would the Dept of Investigation look into who is getting cuts of the cootie card and dootie card take off the gross? With the extra tax, tips are coming down.
They have flogged and flogged daddy, the driver, who supports the whole NYC cab business. Now he has been presented with the equipment to cheat, and has been tempted beyond his endurance. Poor daddy.
Will he be able to buy his way out of this with fines?
Isn’t there a federal law that says law enforcement cannot hide and watch to see if someone commits a crime?
With the $40,000 guy; I had to hold my eyebrows down when they said a woman in July complained the meter was going too fast. And so they looked into it. That was the justification for looking at all the records of that cab. I found this a little too pat with no naming or outing of the complaint and complainer.
Frankly, I thought they were computer surveying everyone’s daily cash register (in the cab) to see if they could find something wrong.
Last time I booted on, someone said they are going to check every NYC cab’s cash register to see if it is right. I found that to cross the spirit of you don’t start investigating and fishing for crimes, without a probably cause to find one. That one guy did it, is not probably cause to check 56,000 drivers cash registers.
It is too bad that with military science and computers these days, the top guys are all taken. It is the second wave guys who are running things. And no longer do lawyers and judges really know the law anymore, they just do what they want.
However, the bribes and tips, the cootie and dootie cuts, and the surveilling of people’s cash registers, the taking of cabbies’ pay in an underhanded way, the surveilling and watching to see if someone commits a crime, all of these are matters NOT FOR TALKING WITH the people who are doing it, but for the Manhattan District Attorney’s office. These things are crimes, some of them, and others are just plain against the law. That’s my opinion.
Jose you drastically improved your english today! If it’s too hard please write in spanish.
David Yassky the new TLC commissioner? Nominated, but not yet confirmed? Lashing the whip over 56,000 poor cabbie slaves, the reward for a city councilor who lost his elected position by helping Bloomberg hypocritically run for a third term, after Bloomberg had helped institute a two-term limit, to get rid of Rudy Giuliani.
If poor cabbies thought they were going to improve their lot with a new TLC Commissioner, think again. The new hypocritical mindset in CHARGE.
Mr. Yassky’s education?
This guy Jose is a unintelligent clown. Does he not know that every one of his passengers has access to his name and hack license number? All of his comments are just cursed rants at Bloomberg and Daus …. no real thought or issues to discuss with others.
No he’s just STUPID!!!!!!
U have to be kind to the TLC or they will give U tickets Jose. I am friends with the TLC.
Charles T
Any institution or goverment oficial meaning anyone who is doing public service from the president to the governor to the mayor have to take the heat when in public office and if They do the wrong things and deserve to be critizice so be it. What’s wrong with the free speach, Charlie? where U come from? if U are afraid of the TLC that is your problem. I do work an avarage of 290 days ayear, 9300 fares, 60 hours a week. Nobody gives me nothing. I am an american by birth although I grew up somewhere else. I live in NYC almost 26 years and I am driving a taxi in a full time basis since June of 1987 when Ronald Reagan was president, Cuomo our governor and the corrupt son a a f-k-ng bitch of Koch our mayor. Nobody is going to shut up my mouth and even less U Charlie, neither your beloved TLC. If I miss spell is because I write fast. Yes, I should take a look before sumiting my writing. Jose
Ha ha ha ha I never said anything bad about you.
Jose. I suggest that the Alliance spokeswoman who was on CNN to ask CNN to go back on CNN to give the real statistics that show what a low incidence the overcharging was. Give the driver incidence 5% and the overcharging incidence .0025. She didn’t do enough with her chance on CNN.
Acting kooky, several times I recommended your Alliance report the criminal activities of the TLC to the Manhattan District attorney.
If U are so individualist and want to go by yourself in live it is up to U, body!!! I fill represented and happy belonging to the Taxi Workers Alliance of NY. Let’s see when the cops stop U and give U 3 or 4 tickets….who will represent U? Who will help U?, the TLC, the mayor, the NYPD? What does not happen in years could happen in one day. I want U to know that this mayor is NOT friend of cabbies and for the next 4 years and hopefully the last He will make live impossible to all of us including U, big guy!!!! Jose
Jose. Once you and the Alliance find out from TLC precisely how the gross credit card percentage is allocated and to whom, if anyone in the NYC cab business got any precentage (like fleet garages, or the TLC), the Alliance should DEMAND to get a fractional percentage of that rich economic pie.
This is a great idea. I;d never heard of it before. I would absolutely prefer to do this over taking the subway to work if i new it existed. Are there stands like this in Brooklyn?
Dr. So & So the guy who complained his fare was $7 when usually $4. Everyone knows Medical Doctors are soooo cheap. I wouldn’t fault the guy to do this once, just to get a tip out of the doctor. When it is doctor commuting time I stay away; no one wants to be ordered around as if they are under arrest by the passenger who also wants his 50 cents!!!!! Let him be the way he is, and let the cabbies be somewhere else. Only the indoctrinated go to pick them up, ONCE. Then they find somewhere else to be. Everyone knows medical doctors and pilots do not tip!!!!
No, I would not cheat a medical doctor, I would have a heart attack on the spot and not let him in the cab. He would run to another cab despite my heart attack! ha ha ha ha
You know they said it was SOME WOMAN who called in. Well it is a manly name for the medical doctor that sounds like a man. Was the TLC lying to disguise who it was who complained? Or did they have no complaint, but then fished through the drawer and found one from some medical doctor?
To Jose. What is the address of the Taxi Workers Alliance? I asked and was told before but I forgot and cannot find it. Good for them they are holding an info fest outside the Rector Street HQ of Matthew Daus, ex-commissioner, and who is the new Hitler and when starting?
Someone said Taxi Workers Alliance used to be near Curry in a Hurry, but it had moved near 21st and 5th avenue.
Never mind, Jose. I stumbled upon the Taxi Workers’ Alliance Website and found out everything. Ms. Desai, in my opinion, is a very talented writer and thinker. She has done a good job. Hope the protest and demand for apology went well.
TLC is a form of legal authority, and like police are interesting in carrying out their duties, taking orders from who they are supposed to do so, and issue their edicts. The law is behind them. If you start talking about something bad they did, begging them to admit anything is unfair, their first thought is, what is your authority under law. It is nothing. Thus, they listen, know that you are wasting your time, until suddenly you have a law behind you. Then they will LISTEN-UP, I mean their lawyers will listen up. But if you are not litigating, that is all they will do is LISTEN UP and they will not deviate from their course 1 iota.
You can scream to the whole world that what they are doing is criminal, but until they get the summons to court and receive a law suit, they will not act. And even when they get the summons to court and the suit, they will not change anything, they will submit their defensive briefs, and delay things, and if it takes 10 years, they will drag it out, MEANWHILE they will not change anything one whit, and will continue to oppress cabbies with their edicts.
What cabbies must get through their heads is, the TLC is not a good-faith regulator, they are bad faith regulators who look to loopholes and a justification of blindly following the orders of those above them, who are empowered by law. The moment they enacted oppressive rules and regulations, THEY KNEW IT. They knew they were not fair, but they just follow orders, and those who gave the orders knew it was not fair. However, they know they are scot free to pass out edict after edict, and only when a judge issues an order will they change anything, THAT IS AFTER they are in contempt of court and continue their actions, and then you have to take them to court again to say they didn’t follow the judgement order.
And then they drag it out ever further, they didn’t understand the order, and more and more time, and litigation and MONEY. After all, the taxpayers are paying their bills, poor cabbies are paying the Alliance bills.
Thus, cabbies must no have it in their heads if only the TLC knew how unfair it was. They did know how unfair it was, and their edicts are in bad faith.
Each commissioner arrives having been handed a set of goals by his higher up supervisor, and that is what he has to do. Having been appointed by his higher-up, he is not going to say no to his higher-up.
The whole system is an endless loop. You hope for good faith regulation, but you are not going to get it. You will be worn to a frazzle by legal action you must pay for before you succeed.
Charlie, the 5% credit card ripoff is shared between the garages 2% and 3% to the banks according to the hearing done last year(January 2009) by the City Council comitee of transportation when They were debating a local law creating accounts to the drivers so every fare paid by credit card would had gone straight to drivers accounts and avoid such a high fee of 5%. It would had been maybe 3%. but because of the oposition of the garages, the silent of Lomto and Taxi Safety and also the oposition of the TLC, the mayor and the City Council speaker Chrystie Quinn(the lesbian) this law did not go anywhere. Only endorsed by the NY Taxi Workers alliance. By the way the Alliance is now at 250, 5th Avenue, at 28th streeet. Want to Join, Charlie?
To Jose. Sorry, but forced driver debit cards (3-day float on your own money, and $1.50 to get your own money back), where YOU could neither add nor withdraw from your own debit card from the BANK TELLER, would NOT have brought down the 5-6% credit card rip-off; neither would having direct deposit to your own account. I did find the website, address, and all good stuff, through the Village Voice link.
I think the TRUTH be known, other fractional percents are going somewhere, and the Alliance ought to demand again the breakdown (because as it stands lots of cash is going to the fleet rental garages). But what about private drivers, where is their 2-3% going as there is no rental garage, or did they CREATE ONE FOR THEM? The credit card scheme and takeover of NYC yellow cabs was going no-where unless the garages agreed: they were bought out. The corrupt were bought out by the corrupt, and pooof: 5-6% out of the cabbies’ daily pay, out of their hands.
To Jose. Just because there was a hearing to discuss linking CC money to bank accounts, and it was discussed there that 2% went to garages and 3% went to banks, does not mean it was true. You would have to have a transcript of the hearing and poor over every single phrase so see if slick lingo conveyed false impressions. These are the type of affairs where you go back to the one who said it when you find out different, and they said, oh, he thought that be he really wasn’t involved. Shifting accountability. In other words there was no signed affidavit at the hearing (by someone authorized to sign such an affidavit) giving absolute testimony that 2% was going to garages, and 3% to banks. Only the point man in the VTS or CMT bank deposit software could testify to that.
When a regulatory body is slippery, oily, and greasy, you could wear yourself out trying to make it honest, but you cannot do it. They can lie and manipulate faster than you can expose and indict.
Think about it: Is the phrase TAXI OF TOMORROW a justified excuse to upheave the whole cabbie business of NYC. Are passengers pounding down Daus or Bloomberg doors demanding THE TAXI OF TOMORROW? Course not. They are trying to justify their jobs with busy work, until the cabbies have become TRAPEZE ARTISTS.
Who and what is bid to the TLC about the TAXI OF TOMORROW? When will someone who knows something be able to look at it?
Can you imagine the whole NYC yellow fleet getting Ford Transit Connects (which seem to be good if you just use the 4 cylinder gas engine) and then being forced to run them with compressed CNG AND LNG (which can be installed aftermarket with Ford kits and complete instructions). When the NYC passengers find out that the TANK is going to be right under their seats, oh, no, buses, or not, they are not going to get in the cabs.
Suddenly Black Cabs and Car Services become the transport of the day in NYC while the yellow cabs line up waiting. Airport demand for cabs decreases and decreases while as I said Black Cabs, shuttles, car services grab the money.
It upsets the TLC that their are how many, 30 or 40 different types of NYC Yellow cabs running. The LOOKS. Well, suppose, the cabbies decide that only good-looking (to cabbies) commissioners can serve on the TLC. Suppose garage owners have to LOOK GOOD, we’ll check nose and chin lengths, and chipped teeth.
This TLC has yellow cabs looking like there is NO MISTAKING A NYC YELLOW CAB. What else do they have to do? Sit passengers on a CNG ROCKET?
It is ridiculous, ludicrous, and discriminates against aesthetic disabilities!!!!!!
This is a far out extrapolation. But as we have seen with the BLAST OF BULL SHIVICKLET about cabbie overcharging around the world which was about 99.95% over stated, nothing is too ridiculous in the cab regulation business!!!
Doctors and pilots are the worst tippers or no tippers.
To All
I’m a student at NYU that’s doing a project on NYC taxi cabs and I’ve been having quite a difficult time in terms of talking to cab drivers. While willing to stop to answer questions, the answers I’ve received have been quite limited. As a more open driver told me, many drivers are uneasy when it comes to answering questions because they don’t want to jeopardize their jobs. Then I came across this website which seems like an open forum for drivers and riders alike. I was wondering if I could ask a few of my questions here. Nothing personal. Mostly general questions about the Cab Culture of New York City. I want to know more about the people that take taxis and the people that drive them. Would I be able to ask my questions here?