For Immediate Release:  December 13, 2009
For More Information, please call:  Bhairavi Desai at 917-945-7286

TLC Proposes Revocation for 3 Cell Phone Tickets in 15 Months & Says Engine Must be Off for Call to be Legal

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance is urging taxi drivers to pack the hearing room at this Thursday’s TLC Public Hearing when the TLC could vote to revoke a driver’s TLC license  for three cell phone summonses in just 15 months.  The TLC is also proposing to change the rule to make the only legal use of a cell phone (or any other electronic device) be when the engine is turned off.  So even if the car is pulled over and you the driver has no passenger or is off-duty, they would get a ticket.  Even if the call is to an emergency operator, the driver would have to prove why it was impossible to pull over, turn the engine off and then call 911.  Emergency calls to or from home are not allowed at all.  “These rules are outrageous.  They are cruel and inhumane, completely ignoring the fact that the driver is a professional, values their life and the life of the safety above anyone else, and works long hours in isolation and danger,” said NYTWA Executive Director Bhairavi Desai.  The NYTWA is demanding unrestricted hands-free cell phone use.

“We have to come out for the hearing and speak up,” said an angry Osman Chowdhury.  Beresford Simmons, a 35-year veteran said these are the strictest rules he has ever seen.  “Imagine the abuse by dispatchers outside airport terminals or if you need to answer a call from home but can’t find parking.  How can they just take away our jobs, especially in this economy, and leave us vulnerable and alone like this?”

Driver Victor Salazar urged drivers to bring their families to the hearing.  “Let TLC board hear from our wife or children what it feels like to call us at 1am and not have us answer.  They don’t understand how hard our job is already.”  The hearing will take place this Thursday, December 17^th at 1:30pm at 40 Rector Street on the 5^th Floor.