Forget about cabbie dress codes, let's talk about cabbie fines! The News reports that beyond worrying about the clothes on your hack's back, the TLC is now getting ready to raise the fines it levies on drivers who don't follow the rules. The problem is that although the TLC has many a rule governing driver behavior (they can't talk on cellphones, must display their license, etc.) the fines associated with breaking them, most falling between $25 and $350, are too low to be reasonable deterrents. Especially since most drivers never seem to get busted for them in the first place. The proposal for the new fines isn't done yet, but should go before public review in the coming months. We can't wait. more ›

Yesterday, police arrested over 50 of the taxi drivers who are accused of massively overcharging passengers in an out-of-town rate fraud scheme. But it turns out that four of the top ten worst perpetrators are still on the loose! more ›

Fifty-nine taxi drivers who were implicated in a massive passenger fraud scheme earlier this year were arrested by police today. These drivers were considered the "worst of the worst" offenders, charging passengers out-of-town rates while still within city limits. Altogether, taxi drivers ripped passengers off approximately $1.1 million during the course of 286,000 trips in a 20-month period. "Although these drivers stole from their customers a few dollars at a time, these scams amounted to a massive fraud that cast suspicion on an industry that is a vital part of our life and economy," said Manhattan DA Cy Vance. more ›

A 6-7 month old baby girl, strapped in a car seat, was left in the backseat of a livery cab this morning. Tel-A-Car driver Klever Sailema picked up a man and the baby around 9:45AM this morning at 106th Street and Northern Boulevard in Queens. When the cab got to 83rd and Northern, the man said he needed to make a call and left the car. Only he crossed "the street to a pay phone and fled." more ›

The police are still looking for the driver who drove a Nissan Altima into 44-year-old taxi driver Mohamed Elwaleed yesterday. Elwaleed was pinned under the car and died, and the driver and his female passenger fled the intersection at Madison Avenue and East 65th Street on the Upper East Side. A witness who was walking his dog at the time told the Post that the cab and Nissan got into an accident near Central Park,... more ›

Mayor Bloomberg announced that the city was prepared for the possible two-day taxi strike that some taxi driver groups have threatened for tomorrow morning, starting at 5AM. About 7,000 of the city's 44,000 taxi drivers (there are about 13,000 cabs in total) have reportedly promised to strike over new technology that the Taxi and Limousine Commission wants to install in all cabs. Some drivers' issues with the technology, which includes GPS tracking systems and credit card payment systems, are that (a) the GPS has no navigational capabilities and (b) when the technology breaks down, the taxi fare meter breaks down, too, costing them money. The city,though, views these measures as necessary customer service initiatives. more ›

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance said that it definitely will strike on Wednesday and Thursday to protest the city's plans to put new technology, including GPS systems, in all taxi cabs. NYTWA spokeswoman Bhairavi Desai said, "Leave the car parked at home or at the garage. No yellow cabs for hire." more ›

If you rely on taxis, you may want to adjust your transportation plans: The Taxi Workers Alliance says that drivers it represents will strike on September 5 and 6 to protest the Taxi and Limousine Commission's decision to add GPS systems to all yellow cabs. But then the New York State Federation of Taxi Drivers, another advocacy group, said that there would be no strike (with spokesman Fernando Mateo saying, "Read my lips: There will be no strike."). Our thoughts: Pray there's no unusual weather event and take mass transit or your bike. more ›

Most anyone has wished their cab drivers to go a little faster, but how many actually tell the drivers they are undercover police officers just so they go speed through red lights? Rapper The Game (real name: Jayceon Taylor) was arrested for impersonating a police officer on Thursday night after trying to pull such a stunt. more ›

The City Council has proposed a bill that would direct half the new taxi medallions for this year (about 300) to go towards wheelchair accessible cabs and the other half to hybrid vehicles. However, the Taxi and Limousine Commission chairman is against the plan. And he may have reason to be: The wheelchair accessible cabs already being used have "a series of component failures" and the hybrid vehicles don't tend to have those partitions. Now, "a series of component failures" sounds bad, though we don't know how that stacks up against failures in regular cabs. And "safety partitions," though bad sometimes for the riders who don't buckle their seatbelts, do seem like something cabbies might want just in case. more ›

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