The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) is today releasing a Request for Proposals (RFP) for a smartphone application that will allow passengers to pay their cab fare with their smart phone. 
Paying via smart phone could enable passengers to receive receipts by email (helpful for locating lost property or filing compliments/complaints) and potentially allow them to accumulate “points” or “rewards” through a frequent riders program, among other benefits. While fare payment is the primary focus, the TLC is also interested in other functions such as locating lost property, alerting passengers to available taxis, allowing passengers to find other passengers for ridesharing, and providing customer service to passengers. The app would be developed and implemented at no cost to the City, and would be free of charge to passengers. However, there is potential for financial returns for the developer through the collection of credit card processing fees and advertising. Instructions for accessing the RFP are contained in the Notice of Solicitation.
Click here for the Notice of Solicitation
Click here for Industry Notice
TOLL FREE: +1-800-609-8731
> I’ve been informing to you all this time about apps like Cabulous n TaxiMagic n CabCorner. It’s about time or I would say it’s never too late to implement newer tricks to improve system. Ok, it’s easy to criticize but difficult to act. Credit to TLC.
> But it’s not clear yellowcabs are included for ‘alerting passengers for available TAXIS’, because that’s the highlight for pie share for us, yellowcab drivers, along with cab share apps, assuming lease fees are frozen. If so, this deserves hurray by drivers for celebration. But it’s a little too early for party yet. At least the first step towards the right direction.
No more cash for the drivers, only transferred money with the 5 % interest! Conversely, it would be a transfer fee to the driver’s accounts.
The Bloomberg administration’s plan to introduce a new class of outer-borough taxis into circulation hit yet another obstacle today, as Comptroller John Liu rejected a city contract with Metro Taxi to run a dispatch system for wheelchair users.
Last month, the Taxi and Limousine Commission submitted a contract with a company called Metro Taxi for the comptroller’s approval. The contract was to run a taxi dispatch system that would connect wheelchair users with wheelchair-accessible taxis. The system is a key component of a taxi-accessibility plan that the city is required to submit to both a judge and to Governor Andrew Cuomo’s Department of Transportation. Only after both of those parties approve the proposal will the city be able to move forward with its plan to create a new class of “borough taxis” that will pick up street hails in the neighborhoods where yellows are scarce: Upper Manhattan and the outer boroughs.
Multiplicand attachment is where it’s at with the rich movers and shakers. Why NYC taxis are parasited and squeezed by the industry parasites is that the 13,300 NYC taxis are a relatively large and lucrative multiplicand (multiplicand is a number multiplied by another number). If a rich parasite can find a way to attach himself by buying his way in or getting a regulator to require his WAY, even to take $1 a day from each cab. Someone can take from the NYC taxi multiplicand (13,300) $13,300 daily from the NYC taxi industry — what that means is that it will be taken from the drivers. There are so many variables in the NYC taxi industry. The card-swipe systems installed in every NYC taxi were made possible by technology, and advances in technology will take them away. Now a driver can get a cell phone with the capability to swipe his customers ‘card’ over it and process it through his own merchant account for something like 2% instead of 4, 5 or 6 percent and NO ONE GETTING A CUT OR ROYALTY from it. The card-swipe and advertising parasites know this, so now they are going to try to re-attach themselves to the NYC taxi multiplicand with some APP (which they will control) that will also give them an advertising revenue multiplicand into the cabs. They are stuck like glue to their money and are not letting their own lovely multiplicand get away from them. But it is going to be hard for them to enforce, 46,000 cab drivers all with their own merchant accounts through their cell phones. Let them make their own advertising revenue some other way. Let the cabbie get ALL advertising revenue he can generate from his OWN account. Do not be a multiplicand victim. For example take a bank with 5 million account holders — that is a very large multiplicand to operate on — if they can cheat even $1 from each accountholder per year that is $5 million dollars. The American people, the working poor and working middle class is an enormously large multiplicand, of millions and millions. Rich people (like Mitt Romney find ways to operate on large multiplicands to achieve their desired results — usually getting richer and richer by draining the American people multiplicand. Capish? Look forward to the NYC taxi multiplicand squeezing cab drivers for as much as they are now, just trying to install a new technology. Don’t let them do it, all drivers get their own merchant accounts and sell advertising on their own merchant account apps. {and who gave these card-swipe billionaires the god-given right to attach their straws to the NYC cabbies’ paychecks?
I have Square. It is good and only 2.75% (2.5%? forgot) fee for each charge and no monthly charge. You need a smart phone. Square is what is in the photo. However it is a pain to use and now it is good for back up only. Passengers go for the machine right away. If the card comes back declined just put the cc# in your phone and if the numbers turn red the card is no good. So it is good for catching scammers. It takes too much explanation. I have used it 3 times. Once when a passenger left her wallet at the office. She called and they gave her the cc# over the phone. Would have been a nice fare to do a round trip but I gave her a break. It costs more to enter the # by hand so I lost $ on the deal. Twice my screen froze so I was lucky to have a back up. A meter receipt can be given and sent by text and e mail. Three ways to give a receipt. A good idea but passing a phone around and explanation isnt worth the effort. I like the TLCs proposal on this one.
Forgot: The $ get wired right to your bank account. Fast.
Why does the TLC think there must be an intercept between rider paying and cabbie receiving the fare? In other words, right now cabbies can get their own cell-phone merchant accounts and pay a fee for card processing under 3%, so why must the TLC get involved in the cabbie’s paycheck. You have these taxi parasites who demand to regulated into taxicabs. If they can multiply their take on the cabbie’s pay by even $1 a day, that is $13,300 a day, or $26,600 for two shifts. Pretty good revenue! So with the new technology of cabbies’ being able to process their own ‘ cards ‘ the parasite is not needed. But these guys are not about to give up $26,000 a day (at the minimum) it is probably multi-million dollars a day, so they sit next door to the TLC, likely taking them out to dinner every day, to explain why if there is a shift to the cell phone card processing, these guys must conrol it. And advertising too!! Dreaming up ideas like computer dispatching wheelchair accessible vehicles, and still having gps control of every taxi, and wanting to incorporate share-a-ride so that these Parasites leeched onto the cabbie’s pay will not be shut off.
You can see that these parasite leeches want to take over the whole taxi industry with the cabbie nothing more than who does the work, and pays for everything, told what to do, nice work for the leeches if they can keep it. The eventual goal is to have every NYC cab computer dispatched, and when that happens, the leech knows how to program and funnel the more lucrative fares to certain taxis. This is prevalent throughout the taxi industry nationwide, the ‘ feeding ‘ of certain cabs with the lucrative fares. And those cabbies have to pay for the dispatching, more out of their pay too. Talk to any cabbie and he will tell you the gps computer dispatched systems are ‘ cheating ‘. The cheat is always there, but it is harder to track it down, than with voice dispatching. It will be a billionaire’s club, those who will run the new cell phone apps, and they are not letting go of the cabbies’ pay. It is really too bad, but cabbies have learned, no matter how good and solid the court case is, the big money always wins. Apparently the courts, also, are afraid of the big billionaire’s club.
Individual medallion owners had gotten away from the triangle top sign advertising – instead they wanted and installed the smaller ‘ taxi ‘ top light signs. One reason was the taxis swaying in the wind on the highways, black ice also a concern. Well these top sign advertisers were not to take no for an answer, and were not going to lose their advertising take on the taxis – with the taxis getting a midget’s share of the take. Also individual owners did not like these sign lights springing on and off with the ignition, and destruction of alternators. Now the advertising parasites are trying to force their way back in — calling the new advertising sign the ‘ shark ‘ with a thin shark-fin like two sided advertising sign, along with claims that the ‘ shark ‘ would stabilize the vehicle cutting through the wind. Now this is the most ridiculous engineering concept ever – if the air mass through which the vehicle is traveling is moving any other direction that the one the taxi is traveling in, the air mass will tend to move the taxi into that direction, with lower more stable vehicles like the crown vics still the top advertising signs were swaying the vehicles (from the wind or air mass). The triangular design that still swayed the taxi was more deflective against the ‘ wind ‘ than the shark because of the gentle slopes of the triangle. Both designs are a too high thing on top of the vehicle, working against the traction of the tires where rubber meets road, and we know no taxi is going to drive in the same direction of the air mass all day. Thus the idea that the top sign is skinny and straight instead of triangular is actually going to givea bigger tug at the taxi to go in the air mass direction, while the taxi is trying to keep its tire traction on the road. Slippery, black ice, or high air mass velocity conditions in another direction that the taxi is traveling, is dangerous. Yet, the TLC appears to have no interest in banning this top sign advertising. Poor cabbies, no matter how good a case they have, they will not win. Somehow the courts have the idea that when the police, the TLC, or the billionaire club operators’ point of view, or defense of the case rests on the ‘ good ‘ regulators, the ‘ good ‘ entities, the rich ‘ good ‘ entities – the courts are afraid to side with the cabbies (who are nothing to them) and side with the proscribed ‘ good ‘ and rich entities, cabbies are always the loser. It is surprising that cabbies have any fight left in them, they have been downtrodden virtually every single time they open their mouths.
I wonder why Wonder Why’s long comment is posted but my short comment is awaiting in moderation.
I think we are at the traffic circle of paradigm shift for taxi system as well as global economic n political system (not that I know of it much but in big picture from Google’s satellite view). Zoomed into taxi system narrowly focusing, APPs (software applications) change everything. I heard that about 30 years ago, yellowcabs used to be dispatched with radio(!) and under commission pay. But it changed to splitting into yellows & blacks n self-employed lease pay. Apps n GPS can reverse the system back with improved self-dispatch n commission pay.
Actually by the time outerboro cab bill passed, the concept became outdated with the apps like TaxiMagic. Customers don’t have to choose between street hail or calling cabs, they can see all available cabs, yellow or black or car service on the smartphone map. And In moderation, at least slow Sunday, Monday, Tuesday can be paid by percentage? It shouldn’t be half n half because drivers pay gas n 5% n MTA. Just talking. Just some insights.
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