Hurting hacks rally vs. apps

DISTRAUGHT, struggling cabbies demanded action from lawmakers Tuesday to save an industry that’s pushing drivers to the brink — and some of them tragically beyond it — physically and emotionally.

Outside City Hall, dozens of drivers called for a cap on Uber and other for-hire companies.

The calls for action have grown angry amid the spate of deaths, with Yu Mein (Kenny) Chow this month becoming the latest driver to commit suicide. Chow was 56.

“Kenny paid $700,000, I paid $400,000,” said his brother Richard Chow, also a yellow medallion cabbie. “Uber or Lyft, they don’t need to pay (for) a medallion.”

Richard Chow, 59, said he and his brother were forced to work longer hours to eke out a living, while app drivers flooded streets with little regulation.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance called for a cap on new vehicles, a meter rate as a minimum fare across the city, caps on leasing and financing cars in the for-hire vehicle sector, and a rule giving app drivers at least 80% of a fare.

“What was once a full-time, solid job is now being turned into a poverty-paid gig,” Bhairavi Desai, the alliance’s director, said.