Fair Taxi Tax Collection The meter went up by fifty cents on November 1, 2009 but not one penny goes to the driver. In fact, on fares paid by credit card, and disputed or voided fares or fare beatings, drivers will lose money. Who will profit? First, the MTA – who is expected to rake in over $70 million in revenue. Second, The Garages and Brokers – who will accumulate up to three-months of interest on the money collected from the drivers; for a 250-car fleet, over $37,000 within a year. Click here for details.

Traffic Rights for Taxi Drivers! During a meeting with Department of Transportation officials and transit experts on Tuesday, March 3rd, a New York Taxi Workers Alliance delegation comprised of Osman Chowdhury, Bhairavi Desai, William Lindauer and Javaid Tariq, presented a list of proposals to ensure traffic rights for the city’s busiest and only 24-hour motorists.  “Right now, both the driver and the passenger suffer when taxis are stuck in traffic.  Sometimes, the rider leaves us mid-way so we lose the fare and are stuck in gridlocks we would have avoided if we were just empty,” said Javaid Tariq.  NYTWA proposed the right of occupied taxis to use bus lanes, exemption from turn restrictions, more turning space in smaller lanes and taxi drop-off/pick-up stands, especially near Penn Station.  “People take taxis to get to the destination safely and quickly.  We are asking for traffic rights for when the taxi is occupied with a passenger so we can serve our customers better and not take an economic beating ourselves,” said William Lindauer.  NYTWA also asked for all “taxi stands” which are not near transportation hubs to be converted to relief stands, stop the towing of parked taxis at various gas stations and prevent ticketing of drivers for pick-ups or drop-offs at bus lanes.  Click here to download NYTWA traffic demands.

Demand Money for Health Care, not Useless Technology! NYTWA slams ads blitzes, the use of GPS surveillance for tracking and enforcement, and the unjust 5% credit card heist in our response to the TLC’s Request for Information regarding changes to the current technology as well as new technologies.  The TLC is reviewing the technology in taxis as its contracts with the GPS vendors come to an end in August 2010.  Drivers’ interests are up against the financial interests and political capital of over 150 others, mostly technology companies looking for an exclusive market for their nonsense products.  TLC is currently reviewing the responses.  Get ready for GPS Fight Part 2.  Click here to download NYTWA’s response.  

Stop the 5% Credit Card Heist!

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