Name: Solomon Neuschatz
Age: 37
Years behind the wheel: 11
Average shift:1pm–1am
Number of breaks: “A few, but they’re always just five or ten minutes.I multitask while I drive.”
Number of pickups in a 12-hour shift: “Ten to 14 when I’m doing airport runs; about 30 if I don’t go to the airport.”
Miles accrued per shift: 150 to 200
Money made before expenses per day: $250 to $300
Money made after expenses per day: $50 to $75 (“My lease is $150 per day; gas is $45”)
Biggest “tip”:$100. “It was on a long trip out to Jersey—the fare was $80 or something. The guy wanted to give me $100 total, and there were two $50 bills stuck together between his five twenties. I didn’t realize till later.”
Solomon speaks
Why do you drive a cab?
My father drove a cab for 40 years. I was a stockbroker, a dental technician and a salesman before coming to this. I was making other people money and being confined to a cubicle. Now, I’m always on the go. Are there sacrifices? Certainly. I’ll probably be a hunchback by the time I’m 50. [Laughs] But you gotta have fun with it. I consider this a career, not a job.
Do you always talk to your passengers?
I’m a sucker for a good conversation. But I gauge the passenger; if you don’t wanna talk I’m not gonna make you. People from Brooklyn, Queens or out of town are more talkative; old-school Manhattanites never want to talk.
I bet you overhear some good stuff.
Oh my God. I’ve had people get divorced, get engaged, throw up…There have been fights where the wife literally got out while I was driving. I’ve had Uma Thurman, Kevin Bacon, Adam Sandler. I’ve had old ladies ask me out. I’ve heard all kinds of things I don’t want to hear. I’ve had people have sex in the backseat—
And you let it happen?
Sure. Matter fact, I turned my rearview mirror to get a nicer view. [Laughs]
Awesome. Do you tend to remember your passengers?
For about two weeks or so. A couple years ago, I picked [a couple] up from JFK and took ’em to the Hilton on 53rd Street and Sixth Avenue. Two weeks later, I picked the same couple up and took them back to the airport. Total coincidence. In the 11 years I’ve been driving, that’s happened to me three times.
Ever feel unsafe?
All the time. This is a dangerous job. When I was just two weeks in the business, I picked up these four kids from Times Square. They seemed really shady and I could tell I was in danger of getting robbed, but I didn’t want to throw them out of the cab. They wanted to go to the Bronx. I’m running every red light and praying that a police car pulls me over. I make it to the Madison Avenue Bridge and cross over. Suddenly, four paddy wagons pull me over. They frisk the kids; turns out two of them have knives and all of them had a bunch of knickknacks they had robbed.
Yikes. Okay, now tell me a nice story.
I was at the Plaza Hotel and a guy comes up. All I could smell was money. He wants to go to Monticello [New York].Turns out he was going out there for a few races; he owned a horse. As we go, I talk to him about the horse, the race. I had some money on me from the day, so I put like $150 on his horse, and it won. It was a favorite, so I only won like $100. I never told the guy what I’d done, but I knew he was a happy camper because he’d told me he’d had a $2 million purse on that horse. He ended up paying me $700. I wouldn’t have made that in three days of work.
Cabbie stats
Average trip distance: 2.74 miles
Percentage of total fare paid with credit cards per day: 34
Average tip on trips paid with credit card: 18%
Number of trips per hour: 2.69
Average gross driver income per hour (minus tolls paid):$29.52
Average net driver income per hour: $20
Average shifts per driver per month: 23.72
Number of licensed drivers:48,220
Number of shifts per day citywide:23,658
Total trips per day citywide:503,969
Total fare-box yield per day citywide:$5,555,741.00
{ 11 comments… read them below or add one }
mr.cabby 01.26.10 at 11:40 pm
he is a sucker. if this guy makes $75 per shift.he better find another job. or he is just trying to hide his income for tax reason. better work at a dollar store. he is paying $150 per shift. he is not workingfor himself he is filling somebody else pocket. these kind of drivers just spend their whole life in front of a hotel door while smart drivers on the street are filling their wallets.
Obama 01.27.10 at 1:18 am
Keep your partition clean and closed to avoid complications from passengers. It is your right to keep it closed. Just dont talk to your passengers. Never leave it open ,even with four passengers.
Advantage: You can talk on the phone slowly, you can not get bothered by passengers, and no one can invite you to Rector Street. Treat your passenger like a prisoner, never answer their questions except their destinations.
Example: If you pick up passenger from upper east side and going on FDR to Lower east side. If Passanger ask you what is the name of that river on left side, you quesiton is Marine River or Hudson river or Atlantic river, never say east river, If passenger ask you how is the weather for towmorrow ? You say I cannot hear you, let them scream, finally you can say I dont know. If they ask you drive fast just stay in one lane. If they say switch your lane, you know what to do!
Keep it closed all the time, No exceptions. It is good for you.
Anonymous 01.27.10 at 6:31 pm
yeah that sucks $75 for the shift he need another job or he can’t work the shift I get 200- 225 a shift after the lease is paid and gas & I work 3:00 am - 4:30 pm gas is $35 lease is $120….. 4 airports runs at least a shift ..
Shipon 01.29.10 at 12:43 pm
Yeah you must not a cab driver. You are lying because he said it true. Do you know how is the tlc license look like?
Brooklyn Mark 01.29.10 at 1:40 pm
This guy makes less than 5 dollars per hour, what a loser!
mann 02.04.10 at 9:50 pm
no more than 100buck day shift 4 2 4
after expence dont fucking lie
Anonymous 02.07.10 at 10:58 pm
I wonder why he is paying $150 for one shift. When I drive in the daytime, I pay $105 for the shift, about $35 for gas, and I make about $300 for the day so I come home with around $160. This driver needs to get another job and leave the driving to the professionals.
Charles T 02.09.10 at 1:04 pm
How many owned by fleets, how many owner operator owned? I’d really like the answer to this question. One article said there are 13, 150 yellow cab medallions operating in NYC. It makes a difference, the fleets can comply with very expensive rules that the owner operators lease operators cannot comply with or it will send them out of business?
Cabbi 02.11.10 at 1:20 pm
Hi please answer me honestly,how much a cabbi makes for real per day or on the avrage evry week.What I have heard is round about 900 to 850 a week if drive 6 days a week .I do not know who to belive,you guys are sying some people make 75 a day which is not enouhg some are saying 100 which is still too little for taxi cab after all you are a nyc cab driver.What is the truth????????????
LauraBeachnut 02.13.10 at 3:49 pm
I can not believe everyone calling taxi driers “losers”.
That looser is responsible for children and familes and fahers and mothers and everyone else getting where they need to go safely.
You A-holes that are calling driers losers should band together and get after the leasing companies that rape the taxi drivers income and this city for being so disgustingly hard on them. They have a right to earn a living too just like you snot nose bastards that call the “losers”.
I know taxi drivers and they do not have to like about their income to avoid taxes. Just because you got a leg up from your minority group of people does not give you a right to put down others because they do not subscribe to the same dogma as you.
You people and your “parents” should be ashamed of yourselves.
You sound like bastards anyway
Cabbi 02.22.10 at 4:40 pm
Hi How is 2010 treating you guys.So what is the avrege income so far this year per day I have heart 70 to 80 bx a day is it true?