AFTER almost 60 years of driving a cab and collecting fares in New York City, Ray Kottner decided to do something different.
Now he drives a cab and collects no fares.
“People get in and they say ‘Where’s your meter?’ and I say that I don’t have a meter, I give free rides,” Mr. Kottner said. He was driving his 1982 Checker cab down Ninth Avenue at a modest 10 miles an hour.
Free, of course, is a state of mind. Riders are free to tip, and tip they do.
There was a time when hundreds of Checkers like Mr. Kottner’s prowled the streets. Back then, pedestrians waiting to hail a taxi would ignore “newer” cabs in the hope that a roomier Checker would come trundling along.
Because the manufacture of Checkers was discontinued and it became illegal to pick up fares in old cabs, they went the way of smoke-filled bars and affordable housing. Still, as Mr. Kottner knows, the allure remains. And tipping for a trip is quite different than paying a fare.
Those who have experienced the oceanic interior speak wistfully of a paradise on wheels. Eyes light up at the words “jump seat,” and descriptions of nearly unlimited legroom are savored like a porterhouse at Peter Luger’s.
It’s that appeal Mr. Kottner is counting on as he cruises the city. Because he’s been doing this long enough to know what you’re thinking, he will shoot you a puckish look in the rearview mirror and answer the question you haven’t quite formulated: “It’s a free ride, and if you want you can give me free money.”
Most of the time, people do — often more than the fare would have been. (And it’s legal.)
“Young people give me $20 when it’s an $8 ride,” he says, smiling.
Something about the feel of the seats, the sound of the engine and all that legroom transports the passenger back in time. Trump Tower and Columbus Circle morph into the auto dealership areas they once were. Elevated trains clatter overhead in some parts of Manhattan. Dwight D. Eisenhower roams the halls of Columbia University. Lincoln Center reverts to the dangerous slums of Lincoln Square. And a young soldier fresh from the horrors of the Battle of the Bulge stumbles across a piece of history in the making:
“I watched a sailor and a nurse, they were kissing down there on 43rd and Broadway,” Mr. Kottner said. “They were having a lot of fun kissing and then along comes this nosy parker with a camera.”
“I was born in Manhattan 80 years ago,” he added, “and I’ve been driving a cab for 59 years. There’s a lot that I can point out.” Outside, the traffic flew by.
{ 18 comments… read them below or add one }
Markku Koro 12.12.08 at 4:43 pm
We were in Big Apple in last April. We had heard all the horror stories about N.Y. cabs. As Finns who aren’t afraid of even russians, we took a chance and had a ride in one of your cabs. THE DRIVER WAS A HUMAN BEING. And a very friendly one. There goes another myth in a drain… We lost a camera in his cab (sober all the time). Luckily he made a deal with us to take us to JFK the next day. Next morning: There he was as with our camera (with all the photos) punctually, like a German.
He also told us that your next president would be Obama (he’s explanation was that republicans lose intentionally to put the blame on democrats for a recession to come). You employ people with very broad insight. We have visited London and Paris both twice and N.Y. once. We (sorry) think that London is No 1, But New York tails very close behind. People in N.Y. are wonderful. Everything works, I mean everything. We love N.Y. very much. Why London is Nr 1, is basicly the history, and the old buildings. The hotels we can afford in London are older than U.S.
The population in our country is 5 mil, while N.Y. populates 8 mil or so. It’s overwhelming to see a place like N.Y.
God bless ya all, you’re wonderful people there over the pond.
Markku Koro
Anthony Tanner 01.23.09 at 4:30 pm
Great site, like reading and browsing. I am looking for a specific movie that had a scene with “Tanner Cab” pulling up in front of a building. I am restoring a ’51 Chevy 4 door now and would like to find the movie and signage. If you can help me please let me know. Thank you, ADTanner
Faruque Ahmed 06.21.09 at 8:01 pm
Another kinds of stilling our fare.
Realworld 12.24.09 at 1:47 pm
Anthony, your movie is, “It’s a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World”. There are 2 “Tanner Yellow Cab” vehicles featured on the film.
Joe Fay 01.24.10 at 12:01 pm
Poor Mr. Kottner died recently sitting behind the wheel of his Checker. At least he passed doing what he loved. RIP.
Shelly Martin 02.17.10 at 1:31 pm
I am said to hear about Mr. Kottner. I was actually trying to see how he could be reached. I was interested in using his cab for a video.
I condolences go out to his family.
ViDrive.com 02.24.10 at 11:58 pm
What an IDEA.
something to give and enjoy it at the end
frederick dsouza 03.31.10 at 7:07 pm
Any one want to join free world. please google THE FREECONOMY COMMUNITY and join the website JUST FOR THE LOVE OF IT
Charles T 04.01.10 at 5:38 am
To Jose. The National Conference on Weights and Measures, a function of the Department of Commerce, sets standards for meters. Apparently it does not pass their criteria for a passenger to input anything into a cab meter. I believe it is San Francisco which is having trouble approving Verifone and CMT like systems, which like New York State, must adopt the State of California’s mandates regarding cab meters, and the State of California (like New York) has a law mandating the National Conference on Weights and Measures standards, and these standards do NOT include input by a passenger or any outside entity into a cab meter, and THUS, like many things the parasites in the cab business do, the whole backseat computer screen interaction into the meter is ILLEGAL. The cab business parasites, including regulators, have been illegal for a long time, and apparently the road is too circuitous to confront these criminal acts.
I mean, despite the weights and measures standards, NYC TLC does just what it wants in cahoots with the credit card ADVERTISING vendors whose meter perks for regulators such as roaming through people’s cash registers and bypassing the self-employed cabbie and using a backseat screen interactive with the meter to run the cab themselves!!!. Euphemistically called the “passenger information screen,” PIM.
Charles T 04.01.10 at 5:40 am
Are there “comments” archives on this website? I’d like to read some comments which might be older, from not only 2009, but earlier? There are not a lot of comments I see. Am I missing the path to read all those old comments?
Charles T 04.01.10 at 5:54 am
An attorney as TLC commissioner is not good for the cabbies, private drivers, and riders (customers). Remember, law schools train attorneys to promote legally the needs of the client. Client PAYS, attorney uses legal system to try to get what client wants. There is an opposing attorney, with client that also uses the legal system to try to oppose the other client. Depending on the MONEY paid, one week an attorney can be on one side, next week he is on the other side; no morality there. Thus, by choosing an attorney as TLC commissioner, THOSE (Bloomberg) calling the shots, whether fair or not, whether serving the cabbies and customers (THE prime participants in the NYC cab business), the TLC Commissioner attorney will use his legal skills to promote and translate to law, fact, and regulations the ORDERS of (Bloomberg). It is not about what is moral, what is right, what is comfortable for passenger and cabbie. It is not about that. It is about the TLC commissioner attorney CRAFTING A LEGAL CASE (whether viable or not, whether it is filled with logical holes, whether it is morel) to see if it will “FLY.” And there is no one to confront the case. There is no opposing attorney. Why? Because the taxpayers fund the arbitrary and capricious TLC Commissioner attorney who sets out his legal recipe, who can delay, misrepresent, illogically link, and do whatever he wants in setting out his case, and no entity representing the cabbies (and customers) has ever been able to confront legally the corruption because the long and winding path goes on for years, and while the clever TLC commissioner attorney darts and weaves into non-logic, the COST of HIRING AN ATTORNEY “COMPETENT” enough to follow and foil, DEFEAT, this practice cannot be borne by cabbies and no competent lawyer wants to spend his life legally catching a whirling dervish attorney commissioner who can create a legal path a day, in a different direction.
This is why it is not good for the TLC commissioner to be an attorney, or to act daily upon the advice of a staff of attorneys.
And older, more experienced regulator, looking out for passengers and cabbies, needs to be installed for the good of those two participants in the cab business. That is what it is.
Billionaire car rental garages and mechanics are not the PRIME participants in the cab business. Welcoming from the mayor and advertisements are not prime participants in the cab business. Credit card parasites are not the prime partipants in the cab business.
To confront the ongoing regulator tactics, it may be better to EXPOSE to the public, rather than confront legally. I’d like to hear other opinions on this.
Charles T 04.01.10 at 5:58 am
To Driver 7. Yes, I wonder why more cabbies do not comment with their opinions. If the comments are only transitory, meaning they are shown for a month or so and then disappear, interest can be limited. I would be good to be able to see all the comments for the last few years (or more) or so. I don’t know how the website would do this. Archives maybe? I don’t know how it would work. Also, I’d like to be able to search for comments about the credit cards and other focused topics, rental garages perhaps.
Charles T 04.01.10 at 6:01 am
The mayor orders it, the TLC commissioner attorney lays out the one-sided legal claim, which they call the basis for the orders, regulations, and edicts. This is not a basis, but merely one attorney’s claim on either side of a court litigation. That is what I was trying to say before. If the TLC commissioner attorney lays out such a one-sided legal claim as a basis, don’t take it as carved in stone.
Remember the GOLDEN RULE, it is HE WHO HAS THE GOLD WHO MAKES THE RULES!!!!
Charles T 04.01.10 at 6:03 am
NYC cabbies are still waiting for a news release from the TLC to CNN, NYPost and other involved newspapers CORRECTING their destruction of the NYC cabbies honesty. Wherever the false, bad news about cabbies went, it needs to be corrected at the same GRAND SCALE.
Charles T 04.01.10 at 6:04 am
There are 5 sides to every lawsuit: his side, her side, the two lawyers’ sides, and what really happened. Remember that!
Charles T 04.04.10 at 5:05 am
Multiple medallion owners’ sole objective: (1) raise lease rates (2) create/support excuses to do so.
Multiple medallion owners buy them as an investment, to lease the medallion out to a driver who places his own cab on it. [It is a lot of work for a MMO to maintain cabs and rent them out without a garage operation.] Generally, in the beginning these (small or large) investors’ costs are greater than the amount of money the lease (paid weekly) brings in.
The MM owners’ objective then is to do everthing to turn this effort into a PROFIT. How to REDUCE mortgage and costs, how to RAISE lease rates. We all know how lease rates rise. Every time there is a meter fare increase, the MM owners create a lot of noise to raise the medallion lease rates. Anything that even TOUCHES medallion lease rates, the MM owners create or jump on the BANDWAGON. Most MM owners are not drivers, but some do still drive a shift.
Hybrids, mandatory advertising electronic credit card acceptance, a new quintessential mandatory cab vehicle, all these and other ideas that pop up will touch lease rates. MMO only care about their profit and increasing lease rates, and they do not care if cabbies are transformed into trapeze artists and circus performers to do it.
Why does the TLC regulation seem to support MMO rather than those who do the work, the cabbies?
Passengers were not demanding a tv screen in the cab, they were not demanding all these circus attractions. Cabbies were not demanding them. Who was demanding them? Obviously those who were going to PROFIT MONETARILY.
This type of cab regulation must stop.
As Chip Stern said, as the meter rates increase too fast and too high, the cabbie business can shrink instead of staying the same and generating more money for the cabbies. Then you have cabbies paying higher lease rental rates, and cabbies leasing medallions with own vehicle at higher lease rates, but the business coming in has not remained the same.
It seems no matter what happens in the cab business, it is the cabbie, the driver, the one who does the work, who is squeezed. It is the parasites upon the cabbies who get richer and richer.
It makes you wonder who the regulators represent? The parasites who are getting rich, as opposed to the comfort of both cabbie and passenger, which is their No. 1 mission?
Anything ongoing in the cab business must be analyzed as to WHO is going to benefit financially.
Who should be on the TLC? Riders and cabbies. Going safely from Point A to Point B.
CreditCardCabbie 04.04.10 at 6:54 pm
To Chales T, and Mr. Chip. – It is good to know, there are drivers who really care about this industry and do something about it. The rest is just bystanders! They are good to cut off other cabbies, or stealing your fare. I talk to them at the red light, but nothing empowering them, they are saying the TLC never going to support the cabbies. They wanted to squeeze more money from the drivers. Cabbies adjust to the problem and working more hours than ever before. After a long hard working day, they completely exhausted! This is the reason why they aren’t active here, or at home. No time for their kids or family, just to serve others. I hope the new commissioner will talk with cabdrivers and helping all of us to have a better living standard and livable wages to support our family! The taxi industry generates so much money for the stakeholders, but not for the hardworking cabbies! We need our fair shares!!!
Charles T 04.06.10 at 1:47 am
Jose I will think of U in and tlc will trouble U for all your corruption thoughts. U have a union that does nothing takes u money