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WP Taxi Drivers Request $1.25 Fare Hike Over All Zones
Posted on Wednesday, November 21 @ 02:35:05 EST by jfbailey
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Approximately seventy city cab drivers met with the Taxi Commission Tuesday afternoon requesting a $1.25 hike in every fare zone across the city. Many complained that long waits at the train station reduced them to making less than the minimum wage ($5) per hour.
The drivers spoke of reduced business and competition from alleged run-in-the-red county loop buses that have taken away their Westchester Avenue and corporate park business.
The drivers said the buses, though full in the morning and evening rush hour have very little traffic during the day, and undersell the cab fares. The loop buses according to the cabbies charge $1.25 for the trips to and from the Westchester Avenue corporate park areas of the city.
They presented their case to the head of the Taxi Commission, Deputy Public Safety Commissioner Daniel Hickey. Hickey hoped to work out a fare plan to present to the Common Council in January.
Driver after driver cited rising insurance costs and dwindling ridership due to the cumbersome taxi rules at the White Plains Railroad Station.
Most of the drivers, who own their own cabs, said they were barely clearing $50 and $60 a day in wages. They said the low fares in White Plains (which start at $3.10) often made them less money per hour than the minimum wage ($5). Out of that they said they have to pay their own insurance, medical insurance, gas and car maintenance.
Their lawyer, Jeffrey Klein, requested that the Commission consider raising the wage a total of $1.25 in each zone across White Plains. However, Klein said that a combination of remedies might be considered.
He suggested for example charging fares who wanted exclusive use of a cab an extra dollar. Another suggestion was to enact a $1.00 surcharge for radio-dispatched calls.
The last fare increase was 5 years ago and that was only 40 cents, and the last fare increase before that was in 1993, when the increase was 30 cents, according to Klein.
Commissioner Hickey, who used to drive a taxicab in White Plains in the 1970s, when he said the base fare was 70 cents, said he would consider the options presented, get back to Klein and hoped to distribute the plan to the Common Council for review in time for the January 2002 Common Council meeting.
Klein, who speaks both Spanish and French, has been working with the cab drivers for about six months. He approached Commissioner Hickey for a review of the wages about two months ago and Commissioner Hickey scheduled the hearing as a result of the research Klein presented.
Hickey conducted independent reviews of cab driver wage claims, verified and checked the data, and scheduled the hearing.
Klein said he did not have figures on what fleet owners income levels were from year to year in White Plains and was unable to verify directly claims that the ridership was down over the last year among his clients.
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