Undercover Taxi Fare Investigation Unit

You never know who will take a taxi! Two cab drivers were arrested when they overcharged two undercover investigators for a ride from JFK to Brooklyn. The Post reports that the undercover investigators pretended not to speak English and gave their destination address on a handwritten note, only for two different drivers to charge them 2.5 times more than what the meter said. We wonder if fares from JFK to different parts of Queens and Brooklyn will soon become zoned to avoid situations like this.

Eleven other taxi drivers were arrested as part of a Department of Investigations crackdown on violations of Taxi and Limousine Commission driving practices (like not showing a TLC license).

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By Jen Chung in News on June 9, 2006 4:50 PM

Comments [rss]

huh

What a minute... I just took a closer look at that picture.

Is that Jen and Jake in that cab?

yikes

Exactly, except the dickheads always end up at JFK! They either don\'t know how to get to my neighborhood - which is crazy to begin with - or try to convince me their out-of-the-way route is best. Laguardia cabs don\'t try to get away with this shit (at least in my experience). If I can\'t avoid flying into JFK and don\'t have much luggage, I just take the train!

My one good JFK driver told me why cabs in general were pretty scare here as opposed to other airports, and I can\'t remember why. It may have had something to do with distance, but if they\'re dropping people off, wouldn\'t they naturally pick up another fare?

ryan

GOOD!

I had a driver actually try to tell me that the route he was taking from JFK to Park Slope was correct (we ended up on the FDR because the BQE was \"too busy\"...at 10 pm on a Sunday). He was under the impression, I think, that I didn\'t live in NYC.

Long story short, I reported his ass.

I think cabbies are hard-working, generally good people -- but there\'s some dickheads who truly tarnish the reputation, unfortunately.