Taxi drivers disrupt TMRB hearing, plead with MTA for Exemption for Yellow Cabs
Our Bureau
New York, NY
During a public hearing of the Traffic Mobility Review Board recently, MTA staff presented four possible tolling scenarios for the board to consider in its final recommendations on the cost of the surcharge, credits, and exemptions.
As per the release, there was no scenario considering an exemption for yellow taxis, despite the same MTA staff noting that taxis have only half of the ridership compared to before COVID and that a surcharge will lead to a further decline in trips leaving already “suffering” drivers at greater loss.
New York Taxi Workers Alliance, NYTWA yellow cab members packed the hearing room, standing in defiance with signs, “Third MTA Tax Equals Taxi Collapse” and “No More AtTAX on Drivers’ Backs!” as per the release.
‘A third surcharge on taxi fares, and the loss of trips it would cause, will devastate an industry and workforce that is barely surviving. It would be a slap in the face of a workforce that has been collecting taxes for the MTA since 2009 and has paid heavily to purchase medallions, raising hundreds of millions in revenue for the city while the drivers were sunk into deep poverty and debt. Hundreds of owner-drivers are still carrying debts as high as $450,000; some even as high as $800,000. Loss of trips and income will crush drivers,’ said Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director of NYTWA.
Desai added further that, ‘Passing a cost onto the rider is not a solution when that cost will lead to less fares and leave drivers jobless and medallion owner-drivers with life-long debt. There needs to be a full exemption for taxi cab service. Nothing else is sustainable.’
‘We have unprecedented, broad support for taxis to be exempt: the congestion pricing coalition, over 25 elected officials, and the economists who originally crafted congestion pricing for the state. The MTA cowardly backtracking on a possible taxi exemption can be attributed only to pandering to Uber and Lyft’s lobbying to tax yellow cab trips – despite Uber and Lyft being principally responsible for congestion, having 55,000 active vehicles compared to 7,000 active taxis, and having both elasticity to maintain trip volumes and dynamic pricing to recover revenue. Yellow cabs have none of those advantages. Taxis have paid their fair share, and simply won’t survive more loss of trips. Drivers will be handcuffed to poverty, unable to call on fare raises for their own survival. Given the low number of vehicles and the likelihood that a tax would lead to bankruptcies, foreclosures, and disappearing taxis off the streets, the MTA knows it would make little money from a taxi tax. Denying taxis an exemption would not be about the revenue, it would simply be cowardly politics that consciously, eyes-wide-open sells out a beleaguered workforce,’ Desai continued.
In a letter written to the Governor of New York state in June 2023, NYTWA has requested for the Yellow Cab service to be exempted entirely.
Founded in 1998, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) is an over 25,000-member strong union of NYC taxicab drivers, representing yellow cab drivers, green car, and black car drivers, including drivers for Uber and Lyft.
