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Here's some more bad news about the city's embattled carriage horse industry. The Post reveals that many carriage drivers are charging customers more than the city-sanctioned rates. This comes amidst a highly public fight over animal rights, the announcement that one of the city's few remaining stables will close, and a new proposal replace horse carriages with antique-looking cars.
A half-hour ride is supposed to cost $34, but an investigation revealed that six carriage drivers charged that much for just 20 minutes — and one driver charged $40 for a 20-minute jaunt while covering the city-mandated rate card with his raincoat. While the set rates for lengthier rides are supposed to increase by $10 for every 15 minutes, meaning a 45-minute trip should cost $44, some drivers quoted prices beginning at $60 for 45-minute jaunts. One website even advertises a half-hour ride for $78 and a 40-minute "lover's loop" trip for $98. Other drivers try to increase the rate by charging per passenger, not per trip.
Stephen Malone, a carriage owner and spokesman for the Horse and Carriage Association of New York, said the real problem is a city rule that forces drivers to follow a designated path in Central Park that they say takes just 20 minutes to complete. "We don't have a half-hour ride to give," said Malone, who noted that his organization has been pushing for the industry's first official rate hike since 1989, which would bring fares up to $50 for a 20-minute ride and $90 for 40 minutes. The city's Department of Consumer Affairs issued 37 violations against carriage drivers this year, most of them for overcharging, the paper reports.
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Thanks Ben for the update. Now we go to our on-site correspondent FelixtheCat who's on location in Central Park. Any comment regarding this late breaking news Felix?
Yes, the Dept of Consumer Affairs has been notified several times by several people of this fraudulent practice yet they DON"T do anything. There is NO oversight of this industry and this industry employs the worst people in the city who don't have driver licenses and they ABUSES the horses. At this moment the are overcharging the tourists and NY parks Dept, NYPD and others ignore this blatant practice while they focus on pedicabs. Dept of Consumer Affairs declined to comment. FTC2, standing in a pile of manure at Central Park, signing off.
Update Being attacked by carriage drivers, I'm crawling for help.
Video of typical Carriage Driver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fbZR4FZZQRM
Update , Injuries aren't life threatening. See video of another typical driver
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=04zcx5b37TY
sign up with http://www.ny-class.org/act.html to help these horses.
IMO overcharging clueless tourists is just the tip of the iceberg. A major problem is that the two city agencies responsible for monitoring the conditions of carriage horses--the Dept. of Health & the Dept. of Consumer Affairs--have made inspection a low priority. In fact, both city agencies seem to prefer relegating their legal responsibilities to the overburdened ASPCA.
An audit done in 2007 by the New York city comptroller stated in part: "horses are not provided with enough water, risk overheating on hot asphalt and are forced to stand in their own waste because of inadequate drainage..." The audit went on to state: "And although licensing is an important tool for tracking horses, the audit found that the paperwork for 57 carriage horses described different animals from year to year, though the license numbers did not change."
So the current carriage horse licenses don't even match the description of the original horse in many cases! That means that the city has no way of knowing how many hours a day each horse has worked or even if it is receiving basic care. This past summer I passed by Central Park after midnight and was amazed to see the horses still lined up waiting for customers. How many hours had these horses been on the street that day? Were they working double shifts? Because of the licensing discrepancies, no one knows for certain.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/06/nyregion/06horses.html