November 22, 2010 posted by Jay Baraich at
11:01 AM
What if at start of ride someone walks up to you, and tells you that they don't have money for the ride but at the end of fare they will bring up the money from his/her house/apartment, will you pick up that fare?
This past weekend I dropped off someone on West 46th street, street was jam packed with cabs due to Hudson terrace and Pacha as I expected, one girl was talking to the cab driver for about five minutes three cabs ahead of my cab , and then cab left with out picking her up to the next fare, same happened with all three drivers ahead of me, they talked to the girl and then drove off with out picking her up.
On weekends in busy hours, usually drivers tend to avoid fares going outside Manhattan as their business strategy to earn more money, while waiting for my turn I was thinking, she might be going to some outer borough and I was ready to pick her up regardless of the destination. As I approached her she came to driver's side door and told me she is going to West 26th street, but did not have any money or credit card on her and would bring money from her apartment. I picked her up and she was very thankful to me, at the destination which was about 23 blocks, a short ride, she brought me $20.
I have done the same thing numerous times, and I can tell every person who told me at start of ride that he/she don't have money and will bring money at destination had always returned and left good tips, the person who's intention is jumping the fare will never approach driver in this manner, instead all four fare jumpers I had this year, they acted bossy through out the ride.
Does anyone else have observed increasing fare jumping incidents? Last year I had three fare jumpers, but this week alone I had four of them, will write briefly later about all of them. Oh God why me? Two of them were class acts and two old fashioned(open the door and run away).
In taxi business knowing hot spots for potential fares can raise income of driver dramatically, especially night shift driver need to know at slow times where he has more chances for getting fares, such places includes bars, clubs and after economic fall down few financial institutes, who instead of taking designated black cars take yellow cabs instead. But finding a spot which is not popular among other drivers is the real deal, because if lots of drivers know about certain spot you will end up lining up for passengers, which is again is not that bad at 3:00 A.M in the morning, but if you have discovered some spot, best thing is to keep it to yourself.
I start working from The Bronx, which is a borough north of Manhattan, everyday I have to pass through Bronx Zoo while going towards Manhattan, once I got hailed and took passengers to Brooklyn from there. Everyday when crossing Zoo I spot 5P18 sitting in front of Zoo's entrance with his offduty lights on, hassling for the passengers which may go to Manhattan or Queens, he is also from Pakistan.
This Sunday when I was going to Manhattan, I spotted 5P18 and decided to have some words with him, and he asked me why don't I pick up passengers from here and suggested to wait here 10-15 minutes, "you will get fare going to Manhattan" he told me.
Now there are two kinds of drivers, one of them are the ones who you will find sitting in front of hotels, bus terminals waiting for passengers for longer trips, even in busiest time you will see them sitting on those spots, which always make me wonder because if they drive they will get fares in same or maximum next block during rush hours, I call them airport hunters. Then there are drivers who keep driving during there whole shift, stop means, break either to use lavatories or to eat, except these they won't stop and wait anywhere, they are the ones if someone hailed them and tell them hey wait here for 2 minutes I gotta get my belongings/wife/kids etc but they drive off for next Passenger instead of waiting, because they can not wait.
I'm among the latter category, 5 minutes of standing feels like half an hour to me, but anyway I decided to wait in front of Zoo in hope to get some fare, 5P18 got his share to Manhattan and left with in two minutes, I spotted about 20 or so people standing next to my cab waiting for bus BxM11, which eventually will take them to Manhattan. This bus doesn't work like all other MTA buses instead bus comes there, wait for about half an hour for the passengers and then leave. I was unfortunate enough bus came very shortly, and started picking up EVERYONE, leaving none for me. I waited about 30 minutes there and got fed up.
Next day same story, 5P18 got the fare and I have wasted 30 or so minutes, bus doesn't seems to leave until last person comes out of Zoo. Now I decided not to stop there, that spot is not for me.
GPS data as collected by TLC should have been beneficiary for the drivers, especially when they are the ones who actually are paying for GPS devices installed into NYC medallion cabs hence they must gain some benefits from this technology.
I was pretty sure or at least I was assuming we the drivers have few benefits with this technology, for example number of times when passenger complained about the fare price, I handed them their receipts and told to call 3-1-1 in order to place a complaint, by doing so I was assuming that GPS should have recorded the pick up time and address, route taken to destination and drop off timing and address and in case of him/her calling to file a complaint, TLC will look into that data.
Once I had an incident, I picked up a guy and girl from E 97th street, it was my first trip on Sunday evening and he told me to go to 116th street and St. Nicholas avenue. I took right onto E 97th street then followed by another right onto third avenue, upon reaching at E 116th street and 3rd avenue intersection he told me to stop there, I stopped the meter he paid by credit card, and ride was over fine, nothing happened. Next day my day partner started calling me about 11 a.m, I was asleep and I sleep like semi dead person kind of way, after many tries he called my home and have someone to wake me up. Finally when I spoke to him, he told me our meter has been locked and I have to call our management in order to unlock the meter, when I called the management I was told that I dropped off one passenger at 116th street and St.Nicholas ave on Sunday evening at 5:28 P.M and when the passenger was taking his stuff out from the trunk I drove off with his luggage inside and with open trunk, first I told her that I have Ford Escape, I really can't drive with my trunk open knowingly then I asked her time and day again, upon realizing incident happened just day before, I recalled the jobs and told her it never did happen and she asked me then why did the passenger call? "I don't know, what I know is I did not go to St. Nicholas Avenue yesterday, did you check my record from the GPS?" I asked her, when she checked the record I was right, our meter got unlocked. What I guess is happened the guy I dropped off on third avenue, after shopping took another cab to his destination, this incident might have happened but with another cab, not with me, but when that passenger pulled up the receipt he pulled the one I gave him earlier that day. This incident increased my faith in GPS and made me less worried of backseat bitting.
But this is not the case, GPS apparently records only pickup time/drop off time and relative addresses only, it means passenger can take you to the court and tell the judge that you have taken him to Manhattan, took two bridges from JFK to drop the passenger in Brooklyn, and you have to prove that it did not happen that way. Good luck fellow drivers.
Although study suggests [PDF] lowest salary and excessive regulations are direct cause of bad drivers, but I always find more taxi cabs involved in accidents on busiest day, perhaps drivers might trying to beat the slow week in those nights.
These two drivers were trying to make their week in one night and crashed at central park south and 7th avenue intersection, on busy Friday night.
I wanted to write about this yesterday but as usual overslept. I'm sitting at JFK taxi hold lot right now and writing this post using IPhone, it makes more sense as I'm going to tell news about mobile technology.
Taxi and limousine commission alongside with Sense networks has launched a new
App called CabSense yesterday, this new App will get your position from GPS on your mobile device and then show cabs using GPS data from yellow cabs GPS system, it will tell you how many cabs are available in the area using 5 stars for maximum chances to 1 star or no cab for lesser chances of available cabs.
App will also guide where to go nearby to hail cab, and upon shaking your iPhone it will also whistle for the cab -- hmm just hail me please -- anyway good App, technology on its best.
Only concern is when drivers went on strike for installing GPS into their cabs, they told TLC will monitor them and it is against constitution, TLC said it will only record pick up or drop off addresses, from this App it is clear that was not true.
Good thing for drivers is they can also browse the map to look for better chance of getting jobs, it might help us not to cruise empty for half hour or even an hour, if driver is not having good luck finding fares, Open the App and look for less competitive location instead of
trying on 6th Avenue.
How about TLC does its work before getting it published? What about the financial punch drivers have taken in less tips or even no tips, as many commenters were saying it on forums? What about the bad mouthed passengers who put drivers in situations like my fare always use to be $5.00 and how is it $7.00, ignoring the fucked up traffic driver had to go through?
Most agnostic thing was the reporting done on this matter by media, no news paper or channel had nerves to come and investigate this matter, come on there are 50,000 licenses taxi drivers in the town, how far did you guys had to go? one block? media was biased and failed miserably in this whole matter, not one of them have mentioned drivers view point on this and kept accusing them of cheating. This is how much respect hard working, tax paying driver have in this town of ourselves. TLC says something and everyone believes with out giving chance to the other side. Sure there were few actual riders, who do take cabs every day and appreciated the job done by city cab drivers, you can see the ironic people still smelling rat in the comments section of the latest news.
I already have made video to explain the matter, it was supposed to be public today but I couldn't finish few parts ,tomorrow I'll finish it up and post it, I just hope that who are still smelling rat can take their nose out of rat hole and see the reality.
Wow spring has already sprung and whole week was blessed with sun, I discovered weather does have effect on attitude, great weather translates to great attitude by drivers and riders alike, I also discovered accusation by TLC has played major role in my earnings this week, I've been doing (playing) survey with almost all of my passengers that if they have ever felt that driver has overcharged them and on end of every ride scored more in tips, even guy from Boston tipped $5 on $7 fare to a Yankees fan, isn't that great? I just told him about what he needs to look for when he is in taxi. This is how I start conversation, may I ask you few questions? when they affirm the request, my course is like
1) Do you live in New York? if yes
2) How often do you take cabs?
3) Does the fare from point A to point B is always similar?
I'm telling you it is fun to do this and later explain it to the passengers about TLC's accusations, until now only one passenger complained he has a receipt which says Nassau-West.
In this short audio cut from The Brian Lehrer Show Cabbies talked about the fare scam, which has given very bad reputation to NYC cab drivers.
I'm going to make a video and post it on my blog to explain that it is not temptation for making more money but most of the time this is just a mistake.
So this news is all over the place and TLC once again did a wonderful job for blaming almost every working cab driver in NYC for ripping money out of passenger's pockets, In this whole process TLC once again did not forget to remind productivity of GPS system installed in city medallion cabs, over which drivers went on strike, in every incident TLC's main objective seems to keep telling New Yorkers that drivers were wrong and GPS is big benefit to the public, whether it be lost and found items or overcharging matters.
So here is how this new story started, a cabbie was ripping passengers by running meter on out of town rate, one passenger complained and upon pulling his record TLC found that he was doing this for past six months and probably made $40,000 extras than he should have made in this period.
TLC took a further step and pulled out records for past two years for every cab driver and found that about 36,000 out of 48,422 drivers did the same thing and ripped $8.3 millions out of passengers pockets dishonestly. Question is as a cab driver do I believe this?
Not at all and here is my argument, there are 13,357 medallion taxis in NYC and most of them work on two 12 hours shifts accommodating two drivers per day, In Ideal condition there are 26,714 drivers working full time as cab drivers, now some drivers work 6 days or some may work 5 days, on their day offs part time drivers take the seat, lets assume industry accommodates 10,000 part timers and total number of working drivers sums up to around 36,000 drivers. Matter of fact is huge number of license holders do not work as cab drivers but keeping their licenses for some bad times as an opportunity plus there are fleet owners who have to keep their license but are not working drivers, in this situation TLC just told the new yorkers that every single driver is ripping them off, best message that could have been sent to all visitors, well done TLC.
Now lets come to the meter and GPS, first thing is why the meter not automated as it is when drivers take toll bridges and tunnels? What is purpose of GPS connected to the meter if process can't be automated? Taxi meter itself acts weired on times, for example when driver tries to put meter on hire some times it gives you "Con" and in this situation when drivers try to put meter on hire too quick it can jump to rate 2 or rate 3 depending upon how fast driver tried to hire it. But it is not done willfully or on purpose to cheat, it just happens sometimes and then drivers stop the meter and put it on hire again, but in future if TLC decides to come up with statistics it can again tell new yorkers and send message to tourists visiting new yorker and this is how new yorkers treat them, because cab drivers are new yorkers too.
Now after telling all drivers have done it, will TLC take time to actually look into the situation and tell how many of them did it just by mistake and then followed the standard procedure of stopping the meter and putting it on hire again? Basically TLC blamed meter fault onto drivers, even if TLC as it claims have found almost all drivers have done it and made it sound like they did it on purpose, why not now fine them to make big bucks for the city in this hard economic times? TLC wont do that because only purpose I think was to give drivers bad name. In the same article TLC after accusing 36,000 drivers, gave some what real number of cheats to about 3,000 drivers, which is still a huge number almost 5% of total drivers but 36,000 and 3,000 have a huge difference.
Other possible reason can be to stop drivers demanding their rights and raise in wages and not to get people support in this regard because now majority will think they make their money anyway, when in America average income has risen to almost 100% in past twenty years,there was decline in drivers income, current fare rate is cheapest in the nation and car leases are highest in the world. When is TLC going to look into that so even those 3,000 who have done cheating wont do it.
You might want to read about this matter on Taxicab Almanac written by fellow cab driver, and you should because he writes 1000 times better than I do and have full command on English language.
Last Friday I went to all five boroughs, I did eight trips to Brooklyn, three to queens and when I got frustrated enough by not getting any trips within Manhattan limits in busy Friday night I got fare going to Staten Island after long time, upon returning from Staten Island, finally I picked up this young guy in front of Pianos on Ludlow street going to upper west side.
he told me to go to West 68th street and Broadway, it was around 3:30 in the morning and after getting out of east village traffic, trip was smooth and quick to the destination with nice fare on the meter.
I asked the guy where did he wanted to stop after turning on Broadway from West 66th street, "are we at 68th and Broadway?" he asked me, I pulled up in front of AMC theater between west 68th and west 69th streets and told him that we are at the destination.
"Ok, listen I got to go to the building to bring you the money" he told me, I had done this in the past and would have done this again, as taxi driver one has to run into this kind of situation sometimes. But problem was there is no residential building in this block, which raised a red flag and I told him he can pay by credit card.
"What happened is my friend took my jacket and my violet was in it" he said, and I asked him that he did know this situation from the beginning which he denied by saying he realized it upon arriving at the destination. Keeping myself calm I asked him "Where do you live?" and his answer frustrated me more, "I live in Chelsea" and continued saying "I came here to see my friend and she will pay for the ride" OKAY.
"Can you call your friend to come and pay, I will wait here" I told him and he replied that she was not picking up the phone and he promised me to come back with the money. To be on secure side I told him to leave something behind and bring me money upon which he said he did not have anything and I reminded him about his phone. "I can't leave my phone" he told me and continued "can you write me down your address and I'll mail you checque for $200" yeah right, "Sir, I don't need $200, all I need is metered fare which is $19 and some change" I told him. "I think you pretty much don't have any other option" he told me and I reminded him all the options I had given him and warned him about hidden option of taking him to the police. "You can't take me to the police" he said, at this point I called 911, told them the situation and my location.
Now all above conversation took place in very calm way without getting angry, just like conversation between friends. After 911 call things started working out, his friend picked up the phone and miraculously remembered the address which was 155 west 68th street, and more amazingly I got call from the police with in two minutes after the 911 call asking my location as I had moved to the given address from prior location that I gave to 911 operator, they told me to stay there and don't move.
Officers came and asked me about what happened then asked his side of story and told him same thing that he knew all of this before hailing the cab, almost two more minutes had passed when officers after waiting for the friend, asked him about the friend.
"What is your friend's name and apartment?" officers asked him.
"Puja and apartment 40 something (I don't remember exact number)" he told them, he even spelled the name for them, to me sounded like Indian name.
One of the officer went inside and came back with a white girl in her pajamas and bear footed, who was asking officer why would driver call you guys up for? Now I was waiting her to pay and she is standing by the curb and finally complained that it was too cold, officer told her to get inside of the cab and told me to hurry up she is bear footed. WHAT DO I HAVE TO DO WITH THIS? I'm fucking waiting for getting paid and had lost almost 20 minutes in this shit, meter was stopped 20 minutes ago. She got into the car and asked "what do I do with this?" holding credit card in her hand, I looked at officer told him meter was stopped and can not be reversed, she might have to pay with cash for this ride.
"I can pay you $10 or by credit card, hurry up decide" she bitched, I was calm during this whole process but started loosing it now with her attitude. Officer asked me if I can take the credit card, I put the last payment in refusal and started the meter on flat rate so she can use her credit card. She paid, got out of the cab and said "I don't understand why he called the police for?, hey driver, you know you are stupid" I lost it now and called her fucking bitch , before situation get worst, officer instructed me to move my car, which I did but frowned with anger.
But day had not finished yet, while I was stopped at light, I saw one black guy, who got refused by two other cabs, on green I pulled over to him and he asked me if I can take him to the Bronx, Only borough I haven't been during night and I told him yes, he was coming from gentle-men's club, nothing gentle happens in there though. On his destination he selected cash and did not wanted receipt, waiting for him to pay I looked at him and he asked me how did he do do this?, holding a credit card in his hand and I told him that he selected cash from there and has to be cash now, "I'm sorry I have only $13.00" he told me, fare was was $17 and some change. I told him to give me $13.00 and told him It was not my day.
I first read about Wasim Khalid Cheema here then followed up the news on Daily News. Apparently Cheema made $40,000 extra than he deserved by tricking the meter, which is also biggest fraud in TLC history.
For those who don't know a taxi meter in NYC has four different modes and rates, rate 1 is regular which is used in five boroughs of NYC, rate 2 starts the meter from $15.00 instead of $2.50 regular and used only for Newark Liberty Airport, rate 3 is flat rate negotiated between driver and the rider and usually is used when you are going out of state, upstate New York or Suffolk county in Long Island, rate 4 is called "double the meter" and used for Nassau and Westchester Counties, rate 4 get in effect after crossing the city limit and meter start charging double price.
What this crook was doing is to use rate 4 instead of rate 1, with in the five boroughs. Which means if your regular fare is $5.00, you will end up paying him $10.00 fare. What surprised me is he got reported after six months of doing this act, no body ever complained? But thank to the passenger who actually took the right step to complaint to TLC, and making this industry get rid of him.
He gave bad name to all other hard working cabbies out there, but punch was thrice hard for me and cabbies like me out there, as his name suggests he is Muslim,Pakistani origin and a cab driver, and I happen to have all these titles too.Bad news always spread faster than good news, also bad news stuck in mind for long period than good news do.
Update : going again through this post I have noticed the mistake I made regarding different rate modes, below is the right discription of rates in NYC yellow cab's meter and there are five different rates not four.
1) Regaular rate which starts the meter at $2.50 and charges $0.40 per 1/5th of the miles, used in all five boroughs.
2) Flat rate from JFK to Manhattan and vis-a-versa starts meter at flat rate of $45.00
3) from any of five boroughs to Newark Liberty Airport and starts the meter at $15.00, after that $0.40 standrad per 1/5th of mile.
4) Rate for Naussau and Westchester counties, meter will start at $2.50 and drops $0.40 per 1/5th of the mile within NYC limits and after city limit it will charge $0.80 per 1/5th of mile.
5) Negotitiad rate between driver and passanger and exclusively used for upstate New York, Suffolk county and out of state rides.
* meter also drops if cab is moving slower than 8 MPH and it is $0.40 per one minute and $0.80 per minute on rate 4.
It was a rainy Tuesday,work was fine in the evening but during rush hours i went back and forth to brooklyn, so could not avail the good chance in city. Later in night it turns into ghost town, no cars no fares either.
Even on cold freezing and rainy day, construction workers were still working on Madison Avenue, I have seen NYPD traffic wardens in rain coats before, but this was first experience to see some one covered in full yellow suit.
This how New York is, rain, snow, day or night we have to work, and work hard too.
These kind of scenes always sadden me, we live in a city where sixty amongst top hundred richest people of world reside, still some one have to sleep in freezing weather and rain in the street.It saddens you more when you know majority of these homeless people are war veterans.
Photo was taken in Korea Way A.K.A K-Town, W 32nd street between 5th and 6th Avenues.
As a cab driver one learns and masters many things, one important thing is to keep calm when passengers act foolishly or even sometimes try to bully you, just don't loose your mind and finish the job.
Today, upon accessing my inbox, I found an e-mail which can be categorized as bullying . I have been accused of breaking the copyright laws and threatened a lawsuit apparently by a fellow cab driver, e-mail is quoted below.
I am the president of NYCabbie.com
The NYCabbie name and logo and photos are protected by international copyright laws.
By using the NYCabbie name on your website you are breaking the law and you are placing yourself at risk for a lawsuit.
I suggest you remove any reference to the NYCabbie name on your website.
Unless, of course, you are in a financial position to go to court and lose your case.
MLK
President
NYCabbie
www.NYCabbie.com
I think MLK needs to learn, what can and can not be copyrighted before making such claims, your works on your website including writing, photos, logos and graphics can be copyrighted but your name, pen name, title and even your domain name can not be copyrighted in the U.S. Copyright office website states these thing as given below.
Can I copyright my website?
The original authorship appearing on a website may be protected by copyright. This includes writings, artwork, photographs, and other forms of authorship protected by copyright. Procedures for registering the contents of a website may be found in Circular 66, Copyright Registration for Online Works.
Can I copyright my domain name?
Copyright law does not protect domain names. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (ICANN), a nonprofit organization that has assumed the responsibility for domain name system management, administers the assignation of domain names through accredited registers.
How do I protect my recipe?
A mere listing of ingredients is not protected under copyright law. However, where a recipe or formula is accompanied by substantial literary expression in the form of an explanation or directions, or when there is a collection of recipes as in a cookbook, there may be a basis for copyright protection. Note that if you have secret ingredients to a recipe that you do not wish to be revealed, you should not submit your recipe for registration, because applications and deposit copies are public records. See FL 122, Recipes.
Can I copyright the name of my band?
No. Names are not protected by copyright law. Some names may be protected under trademark law. Contact the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, 800-786-9199, for further information.
How do I copyright a name, title, slogan or logo?
Copyright does not protect names, titles, slogans, or short phrases. In some cases, these things may be protected as trademarks. Contact the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office, 800-786-9199, for further information. However, copyright protection may be available for logo artwork that contains sufficient authorship. In some circumstances, an artistic logo may also be protected as a trademark.
Hence reading above statements by copyright office, it is clear that NYCabbie can not be copyrighted, but can be a registered trademark or patent and upon checking USPTO site, it is not even registered trademark or patent till date.
Even if it is a registered trademark of your company, still, you can not stop me using this name, only thing you can do is not to let me use your logo, artwork or photos or maybe postings, which I'm not using neither intend to use.
Just to refresh, think of any famous brand or website names like yahoo, msn or even microsoft and add .blogspot.com domain to them, they are there and for a reason that names and website domains can not be copyrighted.
And my thoughts on this whole matter, WOW, with the reader ship of maybe three and half, I'm at the verge of being sued. What are other three thinking about this?
If we consider, there are 13,000 yellow cabs in NYC and every cab is making 60 trips per day, MTA is getting 3,90,000 per day from yellow cab industry, black car industry is not included in this calculation.
How did this surcharge affected a cab driver? Well! after a month, I'm in better position to tell as my November's tips had dropped down by almost 24%, most people tend to think this money is going to driver's pocket, which is false, as at the end of his or her shift, driver pays it to the garage or to the brokerage company from where he or she is leasing his/her car.
Drivers, who have Taxitronic meter installed on their cabs, like myself, are suffering more, because at the end of fare, meter does not adds up the fare price and additional surcharge, unlike pulsar meter which does show the total at destination, there are few passengers, who want to know about extra $0.50 fare hike, which is fine with me and many other drivers but there were couple of passengers, who actually paid me less than fare price and walked away, for first two I just let them go, when same thing happened third time I literary chase the passenger and demanded for the extras, he started arguing that when he was in the cab fare was $7.00, why am I adding up $1.50 to the fare price? he had paid me $8.00 thinking $1.00 as tips, he ended paying me additional $1.00 and said "Thanks for stopping me for $0.50".
But why do a driver has to go through all this? Why the hell TLC price sticker says $3.00 initial fare, when it is not so on the cab meters? Why hadn't they printed a sticker which says clearly additional $0.50 for MTA, to some drivers like this one situation has gone to extent, where they are thinking to put explanatory note at back of the cab, which says $0.50 are for MTA, to avoid explaining every third passenger.
