Complaining that soaring gasoline prices have made it barely possible for them to scrape by, 17 cabdrivers held a rally on Monday afternoon outside the Lower Manhattan headquarters of the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission, demanding that the panel impose a fuel surcharge on fares.
Victor Salazar, an owner-driver, beat on a pot, saying, “If they can’t give us a fuel surcharge, at least give us food stamps.”
The chairman of the commission, Matthew W. Daus, who noted that fares had been increased twice since 2004, said in a statement, “We do not believe that circumstances warrant a surcharge or adjustment.” However, he added, “We will continue to monitor the situation closely.”
The taxi industry in New York City is stratified, with large and profitable fleets at the top of the pyramid, independent owner-operators in the middle and, at the bottom, a large work force — many of them nonunionized immigrants — who lease medallions from middlemen known as leasing agents or, in some cases, from fleets. The New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which organized the protest on Monday, mostly comprises members of the third group, some of whom own their vehicles and some of whom lease them.
“Why are taxi drivers treated as second-class citizens?” asked Bhairavi Desai, the chief organizer of the workers’ alliance, who presented commission officials with a petition requesting a temporary fuel surcharge. Several other cities have imposed such surcharges, she noted.
Bill Lindauer, a driver and a member of the alliance’s organizing committee, said the Bloomberg administration had disregarded the economic straits drivers faced with gas prices that now exceed $4 a gallon.
“This is how the mayor treats working people?” he asked, adding, “I believe the mayor is a bold, innovative and pragmatic man, but he has an Achilles’ heel; he doesn’t feel for other people.”
In May 2004, fares were increased by 26 percent, the first such increase in eight years. Three-quarters of that increase went directly to the drivers; the rest benefited medallion owners in the form of lease caps, the amount the owners are permitted to charge drivers leasing their medallions.
In November 2006, the commission doubled the fare passengers pay while waiting in traffic to $24 an hour from $12, and all of that increase went directly to drivers, said Allan J. Fromberg, a spokesman for the commission.
According to the commission, the average daily gross earnings for a driver who owns his or her own vehicle and leases a medallion were $290.75 in June, unchanged from June 2007. (Fleet drivers and lease drivers, who rent both the car and the medallion, make 20 cents an hour less on average, according to the commission.)
But because per-gallon gasoline prices increased to $4.45 from $3.44 over the same period, the actual earnings per hour for drivers fell, to $13.41 from $14.59 for drivers of a Ford Crown Victoria, and to $16.12 from $16.69 for drivers of the Ford Escape, which runs on a hybrid of gasoline and electricity and has a significantly better fuel economy rating.
Several drivers said they had to work longer hours to make ends meet.
Victor Salazar, an owner-operator who drives a 2007 Toyota Sienna, and who took part in the protest, said: “To fill up the gas tank, I spend almost $80 per shift. My shift now is about 14 hours. I have to work more hours to compensate. I work six shifts a week. Actually it’s more like six and a half, because on my day off, I have to go out.”
Factoring in vehicle maintenance, car insurance, health insurance, liability insurance, the mortgage on his medallion and even the expense of looking for a bathroom while on the road, Mr. Salazar said, “It’s terrible.” He added, “It’s just amazing that I end up paying this much, even without having any accidents.”
Loubert Alexander, another owner-operator, said, “Two years ago, a fill-up cost $40; now it’s double that.” With the hot summer weather, he noted, cabs are burning even more gasoline as they run air-conditioning. (Cabdrivers are required to turn on air-conditioning if the customer requests it.)
The New York drivers were joined by Ronald Blount, president of the Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania, based in Philadelphia. “If I have to pay an extra $30 to $40 a day at the pump, that’s my rent,” Mr. Blount, a lease driver for 25 years, said. “So we came up to show solidarity.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/08/nyregion/08surcharge.html?ref=nyregion
