Taxicab Confession
A few months ago there was a taxi strike in New York because the New York Taxi Workers Alliance was angered by a plan to install GPS and pay-by-credit-card machines in their cabs. To pay for the advanced technology cab fares were hiked 26% in 2004. The cabbies’ main complaints were 1) installing GPS was intrusive and 2) they were losing money on the 5% processing fee the credit card machines would charge.
Well, the strike lasted two days and then we returned to business as usual. Cabs were retrofitted with the new technology and we, the customers, were finally able to take advantage of the services they’d been paying for since 2004. Or not.
The past four times I’ve taken a yellow cab from Manhattan to my apartment in Brooklyn I’ve had to fight tooth and nail to pay by credit card. The drivers have either asked me to pay cash, gotten upset and chastised me when I pay by card or, in one instance, re-booted the machine mid-transaction and insisted I go to an ATM to pay him all the while claiming the machine “had a glitch.” It’s ridiculous.
I’m all for the little guy and I understand that cabbies get screwed out of a percentage when using the credit card machine, but the rider has been paying more for that luxury since 2004. When I’m paying upwards of $20 for a cab ride - which any ride from Manhattan to my apartment will cost - I expect to be able to pay and tip how and what I choose. I also don’t like being made to feel guilty for using a service that has been promised to me by the city.
Is anyone else experiencing this problem?
PS. I realize that I sound like a rich prick complaining about some minor inconveinience and if I were rich that would be true. However, I am not rich and taking a cab home is a big expense for me, which is what is so frustrating about the situation. It’s the little guy screwing the little guy and vice versa.
