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Remember way back in May when the Taxi and Limousine Commission announced plans to add a number of high-tech improvements to the cabs in our fair city? Yeah, well, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance does and they are still nonplussed about the whole deal. The plan, which would mean installing video screens, credit card readers and GPS in all the cities cabs, has been a stickling point for some hacks. Especially the GPS part which they say would cost cab owners $3k to install and $125-175 to maintain. Further the GPS likens them to criminals according to NYTWA executive director Bhairavi Desai, "GPS is used by cops to track common criminals, by companies to track emplyees. But taxi drivers are independent contracctors, and we don't think the city has the authority to do this."
In order to show their displeasure drivers will be protesting on Monday outside of the TLC headquarters at 40 Rector St. For good measure, the drivers will also be calling on the TLC to impose a new surcharge of $1 per ride and an extra 50 cents for every dollar increase in the cost of a gallon of gas. Somehow, Gothamist is fairly confident that the drivers are going to have better luck fighting GPS than they are pushing for a rate increase.
All of this talk of the Taxi Workers Alliance reminds us that we've been meaning to read Biju Mathew's book on the Alliance, "Taxi!: Cabs and Capitalism in New York City."
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The protest is at 2:30 p.m. today. You should go if you can! Personally, I don't really care about the fuel surcharge, mainly because I think it will make people take fewer cabs. I mean, come on, people are still complaining about the rate increase from May 2004, which was the first increase in EIGHT years! But the GPS thing is pure evil. Word at the garage is that, a year or two after they institute GPS, they will be adding bar codes to our hack licenses. Then we get to swipe in to work everyday and the government will be able to track our every move (not to mention our every dollar). Additionally, they've been talking about automatically-issued tickets for moving violations picked up by the system. If that happens, we will all lose our licenses in one single shift. Say no to GPS!
Serious, if confrontational, question for a cab driver: how much if a necessity for the job is it to drive like a maniac?
My first reaction to this was that if it makes cab drivers take it easy on the roads, then great. Of course, a few more traffic cops would also do the trick and probably be a lot cheaper.
jim, the faster they drive, the more fares they pick up. the more fares they pick up, the more money they make.
Do you seriously believe that all cab drivers drive like maniacs? Granted, there are some who indeed do, but certainly not all. Not even half. There are, however, many other drivers on the streets of New York that drive far worse than any cab I've ever seen. Yes, it is true that getting a passenger to their destination as quickly as possible is important for us to make a decent living. But we know the city and we know the streets, and our reflexes are sharpened from spending 12 hours on the road each day. I avoid about five to ten accidents a shift by hitting my brakes or swerving in time to avoid a civilian (not cab) driver that makes an idiot move. And, sure, GPS would punish us if we drove like maniacs. But it would also punish us for making that illegal U-turn that the passenger begs us to make. Or for going 35 in a 30 MPH zone. Or for going 55 on the FDR.