Recent Cab Protests Making More And More Sense
We were a little skeptical about the reasons behind the recent cabbie strike, because, seriously, is it that hard to accept credit cards and not be a dick about it? After reading the Metro‘s recent expose on cab driver’s average earnings, however, we are starting to change our tune. Someone over there figured, hey, if the Fancy GPS Thingies everyone is complaining about are supposed to be tracking drivers’ earnings, it should be no big thing to find out what they’re making on an average day. As it turns out, cabbies are being totally screwed over by the PPA — so much so, that, according to the Parking Authority’s own calculations, drivers are making about $4.17 per hour. Here’s the rub: They’re assuming that any single driver will generate, on average, $119 in a 12-hour shift, but then they’re forced to pay out $60 of that to rent the cab and $30 for gas. Now keep in mind that this year, the cost of replacing their old equipment (read: that fancy schmancy GPS and perma-broken credit card machine) jumped from $65 to $200, all out of the driver’s pocket. Not to mention the fact that they are the ones paying the 5% surcharge for each credit card swipe… the whole hullaballoo is starting to seem pretty justified to us. So how do we find some sort of happy medium? Is there any way to allow cab drivers to make somewhere even close to minimum wage without sacrificing what customer service we already enjoy?
August 17th, 2009 at 12:47 pm
The article says an average cabbie “books” $112 per 12 hour shift. The article never defines books, but lets assume it means what the meter reads. This means that the 112 per hour figure doesn’t include tips which I assume are not insignificant. Also, I’d say for every ten or so cab rides I take at least one the cabbie “forgets” to pull the flag. These rides would also not be counted in the $112.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
Let’s keep some perspective here. Even assuming tips are fairly significant, that gets them to what, 6 or 7 dollars an hour? That’s pretty shitty, in my opinion.
August 17th, 2009 at 12:57 pm
@robot uh, ok, so maybe in reality they make six bucks an hour. those sneaky tricksters!
the question i have is, why would anyone even bother working a job like this, with crap hours and no pay?
August 17th, 2009 at 1:01 pm
thanks for posting this. i’ve seen a facebook gripe or two made by guaranteed phileb readers about cab drivers striking and have been astounded.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:16 pm
My point was that the $4 an hour figure is misleading and that cab drivers probably make more than that.
I don’t see how Philadelphia could support as many cabs as it does if these guys were really only making $4 an hour.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:36 pm
The real point to the article is that the cab drivers are paying for all kinds of stuff out of pocket, including, not mentioned here, the fact that they are not generally covered by insurance when the cab crashes and have to work 12 hour shifts to even make that $119. Obviously there is no way to see how much the cabbies make by not turning on the meter, but it’s still a rough job with little pay and little benefits. Philadelphia can afford these many cabs because the PPA is getting the majority of the money while the cabbies are getting screwed.
@dx the people who work as cabbies probably don’t realize all of this when they get into it, and I’m not trying to stereotype necessarily, but cab drivers tend to be immigrants or people who can’t find another job so they have to work the long hours anyway.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:39 pm
Whoa there – wish that was a “Metro Expose” instead of an editorial by the “president of the Unified Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania.” Not that I have any basis for disputing any claims but at least source it properly.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:51 pm
Ever notice the two or three portapotties on the north side of 30th Street Station where the cabs cue? Thats the main Center City cabbie “bathroom” – been there since 9/11 when Homeland Security blocked access to the employee bathroom just inside the station. Add that to the list of indignities.
August 17th, 2009 at 1:58 pm
If cabbies want to earn more money they should pick up more customers instead of hanging out at hotels waiting for airport fares.
$119 in a 12-hour shift -> works out to less than a $10 fare per hour
August 17th, 2009 at 2:01 pm
On the list of most dangerous jobs, taxi driver is the lowest-paying,and the only one that lists “homicide” as a work risk:
http://www.experience.com/alumnus/article?channel_id=offbeat_path&source_page=home&article_id=article_1156446118442
August 17th, 2009 at 2:23 pm
Once had a cabbie tell me that a lot of the guys who refuse to take credits cards do it because all of their credit sales automatically go towards paying down their debt to the cab company, and they never see a penny of it. I can understand why these guys would prefer the cash, but their debt will always be there, card machines or not.
August 17th, 2009 at 2:39 pm
It goes without saying but PPA is the WORST and these taxi drivers are working their asses off. And making a generalization but I too agree with the poster above — these guys take these jobs because (again, generalization) they are mostly recent immigrants without a lot of options. The whole thing sucks, and even if it didn’t I would take their side over the pigs at the PPA. I hope something changes for them, and quickly.
August 17th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
I work full-time but decided about a year ago to become a licensed cabbie just for the fun of it. The challenge of knowing how to get from Point A to Point B as well as the idea of piling drunk hipster girls from outside JB’s /Barbary into my cab seemed quite alluring.
Once I got down to the PPA and went through the certification process I was horrified. It’s almost $150 to get your license (drivers need to pay $80 for the training DVD). Most of the people there were recent immigrants who need to be recertified each year. Renting a car is more like $75 for 12 hours ($60 is a bargain if you can find it) unless you own a medallion on your own car, which can run $10,000 or more. No insurance, no benefits, gotta pay gas.
The worst was stories I got from everyone of being robbed, stabbed, threatened at gun-point…I was told that it would happen eventually. Some were lucky to make it 6 months without an incident.
No thanks, I said. My license expires in one week, but I never actually went through with my social experiment. It’s just not worth the bullshit.
August 17th, 2009 at 5:10 pm
I just wanted to jump in and echo HereIsMyHandle, the article is written by Ron Blount who was accused of and will stand trial for (meaning there was enough evidence) assaulting a woman who tried to pay with her credit card (http://www.philly.com/philly/news/breaking/20090728_Taxi_union_leader_to_be_tried_on_assault_charge.html – I know you’re not reading Philly.com so remove the link if you’d like). So yeah, expose, is not the word to use. More like an interested parties opinion. At the same time, I’m sure that the cabbies are not making much money probably in the 7-12/hr range. I would personally be fine with paying a 5% surcharge to use my card. But not having the cash at the end of the night is the primary concern I believe. I always cringe when mentioning the use of a card in NYC, but the cabbies there never seem to mind. I guess it’s more lucrative there for other reasons.
October 18th, 2009 at 11:40 am
1st off the PPA gave this info out by using the data from their state of the art GPS system. The PPA looked at drivers earnings over a 6 month period. So that $29 per 12 hour shift not including tips, is official documentation. 2nd, Mr. Blount was found “NOT GUILTY” by a Commonwealth jury. It took a jury less than 25 minutes to pick a foreman and deliver the not guilty verdict. The issue is about the exploitation of 5,000 taxi drivers in the city, who are being further exploited by giving up 5-10% on each credit card transactions, money that is regularly misplaced from their accounts, and if they do receive the money, it’s at the company’s leisure.