Re: More on Taxis
- From: "maxwell" <mmmaxwell@xxxxxxxxxxx>
- Date: Sat, 14 Jan 2006 17:25:43 GMT
"Dave" wrote ...
Only an Australian could write a stupid article like this.
<detailed deserved derision of know-it-all wanker (whether an Aussie or not)
noted>
The author has it just as right (NOT!) about NY City hacks.
Quoting:
||Research has solved another mystery about New York cabs: why, on busy
nights, they're nowhere to be seen, while on quiet nights the streets
are teeming with them.||
D'oh, on busy nights much of the time (by definition!) the cabs are en
route, away from or returning to central locations. It apparently 'escaped'
the knowledgable one (LOL!) that NYC is a LARGE city and cabs actually have
to DRIVE to (often outlying) destinations and BACK before they go crusing
along the avenues of Manhattan, and gosh, there's also these inconvenient
things like traffic lights and coppers and even passengers who frown upon
ultra high speed driving, not to mention traffic congestion, of all
things--and in NY City, of all places. Who'd have EVER suspected?
|| The phenomenon isn't confined to New York but he reason is the same.
Cabbies have a target income for the night.
That 'target income' is the break-even for the leasing fee, and it's not
cheap, TYVM. Once made, THEN the cabby is working for himself (minus fuel
costs, the blessed IRS and NY State and City tax authorities, etc .. . )
( 210 9-hour shifts are required for the owner himself to drive himself each
year, BTW--do the math and see that most of a year's hours go leased)
|| When fares are plentiful, they quickly make their target,||
Quickly? Try six to eight hours--or more, _nowadays_. Apparently the
'savant' is unaware that with taxi medallions selling for near to a quarter
of a MILLION dollars, and insurance and required fees, plus worker's
compensation payments (though waiver is possible as long as the owner
him/herself drives a minimum average of 40 hours/week) etc., owners don't
lease out their vehicles for a mere pittance. Most hacks I've known
(including myself, 30 years ago, back when one could drive for a fleet at
42-45% gross of the meter, plus tips) routinely work 10 to 12 hours on a
shift, and surprise surprise, medallion owners QUITE often lease out OTHER
than prime hours, or exact a higher lease fee for the richer times.
> then pack up and go home. When customers are scarce the cabbies trawl the
streets trying to reach their quota.||
How very perceptive.
.
- References:
- More on Taxis
- From: Sandy Cruden
- Re: More on Taxis
- From: ben@xxxxxxxxx
- Re: More on Taxis
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