City Going After Cabbies Who Refuse Fares
Yesterday the mayor held a press conference about the city’s plans to crack down on cab drivers who refuse fares based on where a passenger wants to go, and they released the video above of what Gothamist calls a ‘secret shopper’ looking out for violations.” (The first fare refused in it is to 3rd Avenue…
Yesterday the mayor held a press conference about the city’s plans to crack down on cab drivers who refuse fares based on where a passenger wants to go, and they released the video above of what Gothamist calls a ‘secret shopper’ looking out for violations.” (The first fare refused in it is to 3rd Avenue and Union Street.) According to City Room, “complaints of illegal refusals by cabbies are up 36 percent during the eight-month span ending in February, compared with the same period in 2009 and 2010.” Taxi commissioner David Yassky said at the press conference that “his sister had recently failed three times to hail a cab in the rain while walking with her 7-month-old in Park Slope, Brooklyn.” The city is proposing harsher penalties against cabbies for fare refusals: $500 for a first offense and $750 and a 30-day suspension for a second offense.
City Starts To Take Fare-Refusing Cabbies Seriously [Gothamist]
Cabbies Say No as the Camera Is Rolling [City Room]
Steps to hailing a cab to brooklyn. Note: this assumes that the cabbie is not psycho and will stab you as a result of you following these steps. but even if he did, and you could find a way to survive, not only will you own every one of his worldly possessions, but also the medallion to the cab and possibly the medallion owners other medallions as well as you may get a nice chuck of dough from the city via a PI lawsuit.
1) hail the cab
2) after they stop and amid them asking you where you are going BEFORE you get in, ignore them.
3) attempt to open door while they are still asking you where you are going.
4) if it’s locked then lie and say you are going to union square or some BS, wait for them to unlock and get into the cab.
4a) if it’s unlocked then while still ignoring them get into the cab
5) close door
6) if proceeding from 4 above, proceed to tell cabbie you lied, that instead of U square you are going to brooklyn
7) if proceeding from 4a above then, like 6 above, tell the cabbie you are going to BROOKLYN
8) wait for cabbie to try to pull some BS about how he can’t go.
9) tell him that he can do this easy way (take you home) or the hard way (below) as you have all ‘muh-fughen night’
10) cabbie will inevtiably try to call your bluff by putting his car in park and pretending that he won’t drive you anywhere
11) pull out your cell phone, put it on speaker and dial 311. be sure to tell cabbie that’s what you are doing and that again, you have all night.
12) cabbie will then try to say he’s driving back to his station.
13) tell cabbie that if he does that, then he will be in effect either kidnapping you (criminal) or falsely imprisoning you (civil) or both and that you will then call 911.
14) as 311 picks up and you start talking about an unruly cabbie, he [cabbie] will squirm a bit.
15) muting the phone, you remind cabbie there is an easier way whereby he drives you home an gets his full fare
16) cabbie squirms some more
17) on speaker, 311 asks for cabbies medallion
18) cabbie says ‘ok, i’ll take you.’See More
I drove a NYC taxi way back in 1969. The first advice I got from the more senior drivers was to stay in Manhattan. The reason for this was simple. The first drop on the meter made you the most money. Short rides and frequent turnover is a money maker. Manhattan is the place to do this. This was true years ago when drivers split the fare with taxi company and never had to lay out upfront lease money, as drivers to do now. They have enormous pressure to pay their expenses before they make any money. Driving a hack is hard. Try getting your kidneys massaged by the lovely potholed of this city for 11 hours a day, while dealing with the traffic day in and out. The cab drivers I have encountered are mostly hard working honest people. Think of all the times you’ve hailed a cab and had a seamless transaction. Those fade from your memory quickly. The bad cab experiences linger. It can bounce around one’s brain for a much longer time. Mayor Blumberg and Mr Yassky want to allow regulated street hails by car service limos, for better or worse, in the outer boroughs. So, the PR campaign begins.
Ditto…meet us at monteros tomorrow and we can compare who is pastier. I think etson the brit will be there too.
Everyone looks like they’ve got color compared to my pasty ass.
different color, ditto.
people from the asian subcontinent are not people of color?
Just received this….
Hello!
Thank you for participating in our survey about the Taxi of Tomorrow. We received over 22,000 responses, and they have been very helpful as we consider the proposals for New York’s next taxicab.
Our partner, the Design Trust for Public Space, offered a year of free taxi trips to one randomly selected survey respondent. Last month, the award was given to Adbul Mohammed, a Bronx resident.
We are very much interested in continued feedback from the riding public about policy matters. In addition to the Taxi of Tomorrow project, we are working on the next generation of “Taxi TV,†and we are developing rules for “borough taxis†that would serve Brooklyn, the Bronx, Queens, and Staten Island, where yellow taxi service is virtually absent. To stay up-to-date on these and other initiatives and learn more about feedback opportunities, please visit the registration page to sign up for our mailing list. Your opinion matters to us!
Thank you again for your participation.
Sincerely,
David Yassky, Commissioner
New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission
I was refused once–the guy first said he didn’t know how to get to Park Slope. When I told him I would direct him, he claimed the meter was broken. I took down his ID number and hailed a second cab.
Once I reported it, I had to call into a hearing. The ALJ decided against me, saying I couldn’t prove this guy was the guy who refused me. WTF? Maybe I should I have gotten a DNA sample in addition to the ID number.
Whatever.
when they say minority are refused they mean people of color…not minorities from the middle east or Asia subcontinent.
PS I drove a cab and my father owned one of them.