December 15, 2007
Street Justice/Injustice -- Cab Drivers Exact Their Own
The New York Times recently dispatched no fewer than five reporters to the streets of the city in order to uncover the latest piece of breaking news: cab drivers can be rude and will attempt to take financial advantage of you if given the opportunity. The investigation uncovered a citywide fleet of yellow taxis in which just over half are compliant in installing credit card readers, and many that did have them falsely told passengers that using a credit card would result in additional charges.
Many cabbies, it seems, will use the card swipers only sullenly, and only after a resistance that can be as ingenious as it is misleading. Excuses range from, “There is a minimum cab fare for credit card use” to “The device doesn’t have to be activated until the new year” to “It’s too short a ride.” (Not true, not true, and not true, say city officials.)Many cab drivers went on strike in September, in objection to the installation of credit card swipers, GPS tracking systems, and noisy video displays that can cost thousands of dollars. When the first strike proved unpersuasive, drivers went on strike for a second time in October. Neither effort proved successful and all cabs must be outfitted with the mandated equipment by the end of January. Still, the Taxi & Limousine Commission says that it has received hundreds of complaints from riders about drivers who refuse to let fares use credit cards or insist on a bounty for doing so.
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Cab drivers have bad attitudes. Force them down and swipe your cards through their butt cracks.
of course the habibs don't want you to use Credit cards. How can they funnel their cash to Al Qaeda with a paper trail?
makes me want to go out and take a ride around the block. just to see what happens.
My cab driver the other morning was urging me to use my credit card. He was so excited about the GPS and credit card option. It was sort of adorable.
So, you get to your destination. You say "I have no cash, only a card." What the heck is the driver going to do? Say the ride is free since you took only a short hop or it's not 1/1/8?
Cabbies are such a mixed bag, and are just a smaller microcosm of how humanity breaks down in general. Half are sh**s, half are Johnsons. I've had cabbies knock on my door at 4 am with the wallet I dropped in the cab hours earlier. I've had guys front me a ride home when I realized I'd lost my wallet somewhere else (I made sure he got his cash the next morning), and I have also had fantastic conversations, learned so many great spots to eat at (Famous Pita anyone?), and been brought home safely in horrid states of disrepair hundreds of time.
The other half are just pirates. My favorite is the fake stall, where they shut the motor off after hearing you want to go to Brooklyn and say the cab won't start. At least half the time I try to get a cab back to BK from Manhattan the guy drives off. I've had them try to add all kinds of surcharges,like charge me a toll for the Brooklyn Bridge. You name it, one of them will scam you. Recently I paid by cc (tipped in cash), and had no issue. The next time I tried the guy said it was broken. It wasn't, it was clearly on line. The main reason they hate the credit card machine is two fold. They get dinged 5% (like every other place that accepts cc's), but more importantly, they can't cheat on their taxes as much because there is a paper trail. I know being a cabbie is a hard row to hoe, but so is working at Duane Reade, and they don't make up bs charges or say the register is broken.
I could not agree with you more Emily Dickinson. I don't take cabs very often, but for all of my time in the city, I'd say the good experiences definitely outnumber the bad. I've had so many interesting conversations about drivers' home countries and just plain hilarious talks there are too many to count. Few people know New Yorkers better than its cab drivers. I even had one guy force his mix tape of Egyptian music on me after I expressed an interest and he told me all about it. Cab drivers are NYC--a mixed bag that you can either handle in its entirety or not.
The last time i wanted to pay with credit card, the guy made me go to an ATM (LGA to water street ride) and pay him in cash... his machine was broken. As a matter of fact, I have yet to see a cab with cc machine that isn't broken...
emilydickinson: you lose your wallet a lot dude
emilydickinson: you lose your wallet a lot dude
if they won't take your credit card, pay with cash and get a receipt. then dial 311 and file a complaint.
if they won't take your credit card, pay with cash and get a receipt. then dial 311 and file a complaint.
Cab drivers have bad attitudes. Force them down and swipe your cards through their butt cracks.
Of course you'd then have to soak the card in Clorox for a few days.
You people just want to bitch and moan about everything. The cab drivers lose 5% from the credit card transactions, and if the card is declined, what is he going to do? Imagine losing 5% of your income, and randomly having chucks of money taken out of your check because a deal fell through.
Don't get me wrong, I think the CC machines in the cabs are a great idea, I rarely carry cash and have used them a few times. But there should be an additional 5% charge to use it. Most people aren't going to tip them any better, and even if they do, they are losing 5% of that as well.
they also need to setup a system to check the credit card before the ride even begins, a quick swipe and a yes or no. this way, if the card is bad, the driver doesn't get screwed.
And if you don't like it, go spend an extra $5 for your new monthly metrocard.
patnugent: retailers lose 5% on every credit card transaction too. Should we feel sorry for them and only pay cash at a store? last time I checked Cabbies are just like any other business. They raised fare prices last year a lot more than 5%.
Retailers choose to accept credit cards. there are plenty of businesses which do not accept them. The most notable one that comes to mind is Lombardi's. Sure, they raised the prices last year, correct. How expensive has gas gotten? They aren't getting a break or any special treatment from anyone. They're just getting shafted in every direction.
Yeah I would just tell them I have no cash. If they dont like driving a cab they can find another fucking job.
EmilyDickenson: You eat at Famous Pita too? On C.I. Ave?
@alexand: I enjoy getting loaded and roaming NYC, so, yeah, losing wallets, cellphones, etc. is par for the course.
@AvenueHebrew: I am a huge fan of Famous Pita on C.I. The food is great, the folks who run it are great and it's all you can eat. What could be better than that? Years ago a cabbie bringing me home one night asked if I was hungry, I was and he brought me to Famous. That is seriously one of the best spots anywhere in the city.
I rode in one of the new cabs with the GPS units about a week ago and the thing that struck me was how low the refresh rate on the GPS map was. A GPS unit that comes in the dashboard of a new car updates several times a second; the one in the cab updated once every seven or eight seconds. That's poor.