Taxi Driver Online

Taxi Commission Applies Brakes

The Taxi and Limousine Commission is seeking to revoke the licenses of 633 New York City cabbies that it says each charged customers twice the legal rate for in-city trips more than 50 times. It's also seeking to fine 1,671 drivers it says overcharged between 10 and 49 times.

The agency released new data Friday in a probe of overcharging by yellow taxi drivers. By using global-positioning systems in cabs, the TLC said it found that drivers switched their meters to the out-of-town rate on 286,000 trips within city limits, costing riders a total of $1.1 million during a 26-month period that ended in February. Those numbers are significantly lower than data released by the TLC in March, when it said overcharges occurred on 1.87 million trips and cost passengers $8.3 million.

The TLC said it used more conservative methods to produce the new data, including accounting for the possibility that a driver might accidentally hit the button switching the meter to the out-of-town rate instead of the button that stops the meter at the end of a trip. In those cases, the passenger wouldn't have been overcharged, the TLC said.

According to the new data, trips with overcharges made up 0.08% of the 361 million taxi trips during the period examined by the TLC. The commission said 21,819 of the 48,300 licensed cabbies overcharged at least once. But 19,500 of those overcharged on less than 10 occasions.
[TLC]

"I don't want to start the hearing unless I'm confident that the driver deserves to have his or her license revoked," TLC Commissioner David Yassky said in an interview last month.

Bhairavi Desai, the executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said she feels vindicated by the lower numbers. She said her members tell her that the scamming drivers aren't long-time cabbies.

"Any driver who depends on their hack license for a living, to earn a steady living, and plans to be at this job for the foreseeable future, they don't take the risk," said Ms. Desai, whose organization counts 13,000 licenses cabbies as members.

In March, the TLC equipped all yellow taxis with an alert system that displays a warning on the back-seat television screen whenever the driver switches to an out-of-town rate.

Passengers can also see what rate they're being charged by looking at the taxi meter. A red numeral 1 stands for the in-city rate, 40 cents per one-fifth mile. A 4 signifies the out-of-town rate.

Mr. Yassky said the enforcement of rate rules is just the beginning of what he sees as an expanded role for taxi technology. "We've only scratched the surface with using that technology," he said. "That's a major goal here and we're putting real resources into that."

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IDFIMH

Oh, well that's alright then.

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IDFIMH

I'm sure that this was covered a few months back.

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Grandad,

It was.....

A case of deja vu, all over again.

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IDFIMH

Scam artist cabbie gets no-jail deal from Supreme Court justice after guilty plea in skimming plot

A cabbie who was one of nearly 60 nabbed in a widespread scam to overcharge customers was spared a jail sentence after he pleaded guilty Monday.

"Yes, judge," Hassan Chowdhury, 57, said as Supreme Court Justice Jill Konvisier asked if he was guilty of the systematic skimming.

The hacks rounded up last September were accused of snookering more than 77,000 passengers by intentionally switching their meters to an higher out-of-city rate even though they never left the five boroughs.

The scam lasted several years.

"Consumers were being ripped off at a record pace, sometimes dozens of times a day, by unscrupulous drivers whose scam went unnoticed for years," Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance said at a press conference last fall.

The arrests marked the largest takedown of taxi drivers in city history.

Chowdhury, of East Elmhurst, Queens, was labeled the seventh-worst offender by prosecutors, who charged he stole nearly $6,000 from 3,126 rides - nearly $2 a fare - between December 2008 and May 2010.

The man called the worst offender, Santiago Rossi, stands accused of ripping off 5,127 riders of more than $11,000. Rossi told probers he did it "because he was trying to make extra money," prosecutors said.

The prosecutors' office Monday asked the judge to sentence Chowdhury to one to three years behind bars, but Konvisier, who did not state her reason publicly, offered the no-jail deal.

In exchange, Chowdhury pleaded guilty to two felonies.

He faces five years probation and 100 days community service when he is sentenced March 8.

Konvisier told the hack he could not re-apply for a taxi driver's license until he finishes his probation.

Chowdhury, who put a jacket over his head on his way out of court, refused comment, as did his lawyer.

http://www.nydailynews.com/

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

Which is why they there, and IMO, us here, should all have calendar controlled meters.

Sadly we all have too many 'non fit and proper' drivers trying it on.

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IDFIMH

In this case they were employing an out of town rate.
Calendar controlled meters would have made no difference.

Here, of course, they could charge what they like for out of town work, so long as the fare is agreed in advance.

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

BTW doesn't NY have some of the poorest paid drivers in the western world and some of the richest cab owners?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Not according to the Gabby Cabbie on 5 live each sunday morning.

CC

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

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IDFIMH

If I remember correctly N.Y cabbies had not applied for a rise for over 7 years ....................now we know why

P.S Just found this...............

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2010/11/05/ ... -proposed/

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if you cannot be yourself, then who can you be.

Do the cabbies apply for a raise or is it the medallion holders?

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http://wingsoverscotland.com/ http://www.newsnetscotland.com/

Taxi garage drove up charges for hacks: suit



A courageous cabby has blown the whistle on a Queens taxi-garage owner who repeatedly overcharged drivers for leasing their cars, according to a new class-action lawsuit.

Since 2008, Samir Talbi and 124 other drivers say that Mike Mellis, who operates Boulevard Taxi Leasing in Long Island City, forced them to rent a cab for the entire week -- while still paying the rates for individual days, according to court documents.

So instead of charging the drivers the weekly lease rate of $666, which is the Taxi and Limousine Commission mandated maximum, the garage would simply add up the TLC-approved individual day rates: $115 for Sunday, $120 on Monday and Tuesday, $120 for Wednesday, and $129 on Thursday, Friday and Saturday, the suit says.

That's $852 a week.

But it didn't stop there, the Queens Supreme Court suit claims. The garage also tacked on fees for each day, bringing the total to $894 a week.

Steve Gounaris, a principal at the garage, said the hiked-up fees account for "state sales tax" -- even though the TLC rules say no owner "may charge or accept from a driver any payment of any kind, such as a tax."

Gounaris went on to say that the daily lease charges listed in the lawsuit are the rates charged by his garage.

The suit also accuses the garage of forcing the drivers to pay extra on holidays.

Talbi said through his lawyer that he would not comment for fear of losing his job.

Gounaris told The Post it's a moot point, saying, "He ain't gonna come back here and work again."



Read more: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/local/taxi ... z1CiCMbLzf

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Think of how stupid the average person is, and realize half of them are stupider than that.
George Carlin

$666 is about £412 pw. A shade on the high side!