RAISING HAIL
4 suicides stir cabbies’ protest vs. Uber
FED-UP TAXI drivers and medallion owners rallied Wednesday at City Hall to demand new regulations after the tragic suicides of four of their own.
The taxi workers placed white flowers on four mock coffins symbolizing the deaths of drivers Nicanor Ochisor, Douglas Schifter, Alfredo Perez and Danilo Corporan Castillo.
Some taxi drivers yelled out “murder not suicide,” laying the blame on the city for allowing unchecked growth of Uber and ehail companies and unfair competition with the highly regulated yellow taxi industry.
Nicolae Hent, a taxi driver since 1988, said he invested everything he had in a medallion, only to see values plunge as he nears retirement. Hent said he’d carry the fight to reform the industry for Ochisor, a family friend for 30 years who was found hanging from a wooden beam in his Maspeth, Queens, garage on March 16.
“He couldn’t take it. I won’t take it,” Hent said. “I will die fighting. I’m not going to leave it like this.”
The unchecked influx of drivers who use e-hail apps has tanked taxi drivers’ business, forcing them to work longer hours for the same pay.
Uber — the market leader in the for-hire sector — has 69,490 cars affiliated with its bases. That has caused medallion prices to drop and made it tougher for owners to make loan payments — as demand for trips slides.
Solomon Neuschatz, 46, a yellow cab driver for 17 years, said he works 14 hours a day, seven days a week, while app companies operate without buying a medallion or permit, and with fewer fees and regulations.
“What has become of our industry is tragic,” said Neuschatz, who was a friend of Ochisor’s. “I have to work now double to make less.”
Bhairavi Desai, the director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which organized the rally, called for regulations that would immediately put money in the pockets of cabbies, like a cap on drivers and regulated fares to keep apps from undercutting meter rates.
“When one side gets an advantage, that’s not competition, that’s a slaughter,” she said.
A comprehensive bill on the taxi industry from City Councilman Ruben Diaz (D-Bronx) will be introduced next month. The bill would require a $20,000-ayear fee to start a car base, limit bases to 1,000 cars, and reclassify Uber and other apps as e-hail companies. E-hail app drivers would have to pay a $2,000 annual fee.
“Uber has no regulation,” Diaz told The News. “Everybody else is being regulated.”
Uber spokeswoman Danielle Filson said passengers want to ride with Uber, pointing to 30,000 New Yorkers who sign up each week, and adding that half of the trips start outside Manhattan.
Taxi and Limousine Commission head Meera Joshi, in an interview on WNYC’s “Brian Lehrer Show,” said the agency will vote Thursday on a pilot program to let passengers who hail a yellow cab with an app get upfront pricing — a policy she hopes will make cabbies more competitive, even if it’s no “silver bullet.” But only the Council can halt the flood of drivers.
“We are unable to stop that influx,” Joshi said. “City Council can stop that influx and it’s become increasingly problematic for drivers, as they earn less and less money because there’s so many new cars and drivers coming in.”