Why NYC Taxi Drivers Are Drowning In Debt - NYC Revealed
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- Опубліковано 16 бер 2022
- The yellow taxi cab is the quintessential New York City ride. What started as a small fleet of cars nearly 100 years ago, has turned into a bustling system of thousands of yellow taxi cabs. But now the threat of ride-share apps and city scandal has left cab drivers in thousands of dollars of debt.
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One major thing not really mentioned is - this medallion system was implemented to limit the number of yellow cabs on the streets. It kept competition down, but it also made the licenses worth a lot (some people would have one license and rotate 3-4 drivers so that their car/license was on the streets 24/7). Yellow cabs were the only cabs you could hail (ie on the street you could just decide you wanted a cab and stick up your hand and say "yo taxi!"- for other car services you had to call and pre-arrange so that was why there is a premium for a yellow cab license. Then ride share apps appeared - and were for the most part unregulated. They, via the app, could effectively be street hails and created a huge supply of 'hail-able' cabs. You didn't need a medallion, just your own car and the app. That is why the value of those licenses plummeted so much, so quickly. It wasn't exclusively due to covid.
Paying nearly a half a million dollars just to drive a cab where you can retire with that much money in other places in the same country is insane to me
One time while in New York, I tried to hail a taxi to JFK from downtown Manhattan in the early afternoon. One taxi driver after another refused to take me there. After an hour of getting rejected by numerous taxi cab drivers, I was nearly in tears. Luckily an Uber driver agreed to take me to JFK. Next time I will not assume that taking a taxi is a reliable method of transportation in NYC.
Imagine being an immigrant and having the possibility to have +500.000$ to start a business... why on earth would you go for taxi driver ?
Somewhat partly, taxis brought this onto themselves. They refuse to drive to outer boroughs (although it's illegal to refuse) and Uber was god-send for people living out there. And Uber made a compelling and valid argument that they need to serve these people who need a ride to outer boroughs. And how often do these taxi drivers tell customers that the credit card machine is broken and they need to pay cash? Uber simply solved all that.
Making a license to drive a cab $400k is criminal. I'm a mortgage broker, I can process transactions of millions of dollars and my licensing fees in florida are about $1.5k
I went to NYC for the 1st time in 2010. I hailed a cab but the driver was impatient with me when I struggled finding the address on a business card. He droved off on me without saying a word for someone else half a block away. I have no remorse for taxi drivers.
Before Uber/Lyft, it was close to impossible to get a yellow cab in the afternoon. Cab drivers would ask you where you were going and most of the time they would deny you a ride. I bet they’re regretting that now. When the writing was on the wall with all the cab competition, cab drivers fought to raise fares instead of being competitive.
So they were ok with the system as long as medallion prices kept going up, and now we're supposed to bail them out? I guess that's the ultimate American dream, to get paid for your mistakes.
Sounds like they had a stupid system to begin with and all it took was competitors to put the business down.
Q: "Why NYC Taxi Drivers Are Drowning In Debt?"
if you still driving a regular cab in this day and age, riding around waiting for someone to throw their hand up then you're a damn fool. and if you invested in that medallion you're insane
I live 15 minutes from the GWB. I'm in NYC often, and before Uber/Lyft, yellow cabs wouldn't stop for me. In the winter, with my face covered, I could maybe get one to pull over, but they would often pull off on me and say crap like "No Brooklyn!" And on the occasion I was able to get a ride, I'd get charged an arm and a leg. Same with car services in NJ. They would charge ppl ridiculous prices to go somewhere local. So now I'm supposed to feel bad for them!? Call me heartless, I guess, but I don't feel bad for them anymore than they felt bad overcharging me or pulling off on me in the rain and cold.
This system sounds broken from beginning to end. Pay an insane amount of money for a glorified business license that will one day be worth even more so someone else can overpay for it? Selling this as a good thing for the exploited workers who will ultimately have little choice to participate? Which organized crime syndicate came up with this?
Similar story here in London - pre Uber, drivers would often refuse fares outside the city or going south of the river, it was unusual to find a cab that would accept card payments, and the rates were high, especially at night.
Would LOVE to ask some of the drivers in this video how many times they ever refused to take a passenger (even though it was illegal to refuse taking them) because they weren't going somewhere else in Manhattan, something that isn't an issue with Uber or Lyft. Also would love to ask some of the drivers about the times I've been out in Queens or Brooklyn, it's late at night and raining, too far to get to a subway station and there's not a cab in sight - what am I supposed to do exactly?
Everyone is quick to blame Uber and Lyft but the system was broken for decades. NYC was the bubble that wouldn't pop and now drivers are paying for it. When the market crashed 2008 the media was saying owning a taxi medallion was a hedge against inflation. Then boom people would buy them up and rent them out to drivers. This made it very expensive for a driver to own his own medallion. Then a few years later boom they were a million per. Then the rug got pulled. Loan officers just like in 2006 real estate bubbble lied to new owners. Said they can buy a medallion for 800k make their 40k or whatever a year then when they retired 20 years later make their money back by selling to the next young driver. Meanwhile TLC license fees, plates, insurance, repairs, need to keep your permits and car always updated. So nobody wants to get in this business anymore and therefore medallion prices under 80k . Only in NYC can you overcharge people for a ride and still not even make money yourself. $60+ to get to the airport only a few miles drive. If you are smart enough to move out of nyc and make it, then you can make it anywhere! I do feel bad for this guy....but let us not forget back in 2006 if you wanted a cab to Brooklyn most would kick you out and not take the fare. Why alot of us ran to uber when it first launched!
This video totally ignored a MAJOR factor in this problem: the drivers themselves. For years They refused to drop people outside of Manhattan, they didn’t want to drive in the rain, or too late at night. All it took was a wind of competition with Uber/Lyft and the house of cards fell.
We had a similar thing in Dublin, Ireland. There was a strictly limited number of licences issued, under 1,000 for a city. The plates traded for huge money even though they originally cost nothing. Then one day, a case was taken in court based on competition law. Suddenly anyone could get a taxi plate and the value dropped to nothing again. Not good if you had invested, but now you can get a taxi any time. By the way, Uber is not legal here.