March 12, 2008
Credit Cards Boost Some Cab Drivers' Income
It seems that after months of threatening, chasing and punching passengers who insist on paying with plastic, some city cab drivers have come to love the new credit card devices, which will be in all taxis by the end of August. Their original objections were to the 5% transaction fee, but now drivers are reporting higher tips because of the way the machines display the tipping options.
One cabbie tells the Sun he’s earning $100 more a week since his machine was installed, bumping his weekly earnings into the princely $600 range. The new machines give riders the option of paying tips of 15%, 20% and 25%. And because business travelers prefer paying with plastic, taxi ridership has reportedly increased, especially since out-of-town trips don’t require riders to bring a wad of cash. Still, some drivers have yet to warm up to the changes; the Sun talks to another cabbie who hasn’t seen any increased revenue and grumbles that he has less cash at the end of the day because of all the plastic payments.
And the Post's Jeremy Olshan reported his cab driver to the Taxi and Limousine Commision after he wouldn’t let Olshan pay by credit card. After a six week wait, Olshan testified against him at TLC hearing, where a fine of $500 was levied against the driver. Olshan says he felt so guilty for taking bread from the mouth of poor Surjit Singh that “if I had had the $500 in my wallet, I might have handed it to him… If only he took plastic.”
Photo: Gary Visco.
|
It took three tries Saturday night to find a cab that would take our credit card. The first two swore their machines were broken. Cab #3 got the money and a decent tip, especially because the machine did all the math for us, just like you said.
I guess I could have reported the other two but it was nearly 3:30 a.m. (thanks DST!) and I just wanted to go home.
Only some of the machines (the ones with NBC programming) display options for 15, 20 and 25% tips.
Other machines (the ones with ABC programming) display tip option in dollar increments ($2, $3, etc.), which I find annoying.
I'm not sure what the tip options are on the third brand of machines. I've only ever seen one of those, though, and I don't think the credit card payment system was working on it.
@cherrycoke - next time, just tell them where you're going and hop in the back. by law they are not allowed to refuse you nor are they allowed to ask for your destination before getting in the cab. once you are at your destination and they refuse your credit card fare, you have every right to file complaint.
good luck next time.
@noneck - I did say, "But you're required to accept them and I don't believe you that the system is broken," at which point they both showed me something on their screen that said "No Charge" to prove it to me. I don't know the name of the device - it was in the front seat with a greenish hue, but wasn't the meter. We had zero cash, having gone to an (unexpectedly) cash-only place for dinner and didn't want to risk whatever would happen if we couldn't pay at the end of the trip. I think I've read too many of the horror stories on here!
I'd guess that the reason some drivers report bigger tips while others say that they're making less has to do with the drivers' attitudes themselves. Those who grumble and groan and try to talk passengers out of charging probably get tipped small amounts -- because they've irritated the passenger. I know that'd be my response (that or nothing at all) if I were a passenger put in that situation.
On the other hand, for a driver who is helpful and willing to simply take the credit card as he should, I'd probably tip at least 20% (I tend to do that paying with cash anyway, but while I haven't yet used a credit card in a yellow cab I have found it easy to tip more on car service rides to the airport for which I've used a company AmEx card).
Almost all cabs are now required to have credit card machines installed, and if they have them installed, they should not be broken.
According to Section 2-32(a) of the TLC's driver rules, if a taxi is equipped with a credit card machine:
"...the driver may not pick up or transport a passenger when the system is incapable of accepting or processing credit or debit card transactions, unless: (i) in the event of any malfunction or failure to operate of the credit or debit card acceptance equipment, the driver promptly files an incident report with the authorized taxicab technology service provider, as set forth in section 2-26 of this chapter, and obtains an incident report number, and not more than forty-eight (48) hours have passed following the filing of such incident report, and (ii) the driver advises the passenger of the malfunction or failure to operate of the credit or debit card acceptance equipment prior to engaging the meter." (emphasis mine)
In other words, if you get in a cab and they turn on the meter without first telling you the credit card machine doesn't work but won't let you pay with a credit card, they are in violation of the rules whether or not they're telling the truth.
And if you ask before they engage the meter and they tell you the credit card machine doesn't work, you should ask for the incident report number. If they don't have an incident report number, they are either lying about the machine being broken or have failed to properly report it. Regardless, they are in violation of the rules and you should call 311 to file a complaint.
Note the correct link for the TLC driver rules:
http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/drivrules.pdf
@linkman - you rock! thanks for laying it out.
No one saw this coming? Let's face it, how many times have you been out at 3am after spending all your cash on beer, but all you really want to do is hop in a cab and head home? Whip out that plastic, and you're home in no time.