Today at 1:00 pm a press conference will take place at 30th Street Station announcing a taxi cab driver strike for Wednesday, September 5th. The drivers are striking over their dissatisfaction of the GPS units that are installed in all Philadelphia taxi cabs.

Press release after the jump.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE : August 25, 2007

Taxi Workers Alliance to announce date of citywide taxi strike

Press Conference
Tuesday, August 28th,2007
1 pm
30th Street Station

The 1,250 members of the Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania will be announcing the date for a citywide shutdown of all 1,600 medallion taxicabs. “As many of you know, the Parking Authority has installed GPS and Credit Card machines in Philadelphia taxis for about a year now and still has been unable to fix the system” declares Ron Blount, president of the Alliance. “Many of the residents in the neighborhoods are without taxi service because of this problem.” According to David Arbel, manager of Victory dispatch-company, eighty-eight percent of all calls dispatched through the GPS system results in no shows because of the unusual wait time. The city’s largest dispatch company, Yellow Cab, which services all of northeast Philly, couldn’t keep up with the work load using this outdated system and was forced to change their phone number and give up serving many of their patrons.

The Parking Authority stated to the taxi industry that this GPS/credit card system was up and running in other cities, yet after a year of implementation here in Philadelphia, this experiment is still having major problems. “Old folks can’t get to the doctors, drivers are losing money from credit card transactions, and David Boonin is laughing all the way to the bank.” cried Tekle Gebremedhin, a long time medallion owner and organizer with the Alliance. Boonin was the Parking Authority’s consultant, but now is with the GPS Company that got the solo contract that service the industry. On August 3, 2007, the Philadelphia Dispatchers Work Group, an organization of dispatch companies that the Parking Authority selected to provide feedback and guidance about the GPS system, issued a letter stating that the system is non-usable and requested that the Parking Authority remove it. These companies consists of Quaker City Cab inc., Old City Taxi Coach Assn., Crescent Cab Assn. inc., and Capitol Dispatch inc..

Lastly, on June 7th, 2007, the Taxi Workers Alliance and Philadelphia Parking Authority held a meeting concerning the problems with the GPS, and for creating a timeline to remove the system because of major problems. The Authority agreed to remove it within 6-9 months if they could not fix the problems. “We the taxi workers of Philadelphia feel that we have been more than patient on this issue that is effecting our livelihood and dignity.” stated Mohammed Shukur, vice president of the Alliance. “Unfortunately, no one is speaking up for the inner city people who are forced to use those expensive town cars instead of taxis, or the cab drivers who aren’t getting paid for these credit card transactions, but the Taxi Workers Alliance.” said Mohammed S. Khan a long time taxi driver. Other problems that drivers face with this system includes, late payments, no insurance on the system so when the system is damaged or stolen, the driver pays, and the panic button that goes to the dispatcher instead of to the police. Taxi drivers in other U.S. cities have problems too with this tracking device and forced credit card system. Philadelphia cabbies will be joined by a shutdown from drivers in New York City. Taxi drivers as far away as Rome, Italy are organizing a protest in Venice Square in a show of solidarity also on this date. State Representative James Roebuck jr. has recently introduced a resolution in Harrisburg to audit the Parking Authority because of their use of unnecessary policies. The entire taxi industry from the drivers, dispatchers, medallion owners and the riding public have now united against the Parking Authority’s GPS system.

This entry was posted on Tuesday, August 28th, 2007 at 11:15 am.