When life’s not fare
Cabby: Why I’m forced to use instincts, not rules
HERE are some dirty little secrets known only to cab drivers for sure — but suspected by many others.
Drivers sometimes leave the “off duty” sign on the top of their cab illuminated until they see a profitable fare to pick up.
Cabbies will grease hotel doormen’s palms so they’ll steer them to passengers who are going to the airport or who look like big tippers.
And, finally, cabbies know that picking and choosing customers is not only against the rules but also can get them fined or cause their hack license to be suspended — but they do it anyway. They pass by people who they fear will bolt out of the cab without paying.
As I explained in Tuesday’s column, I took a ride for several hours last week with a cabby I’m calling Ibrahim, a Pakistani-American man who offered to show me the ins and outs of a business that is under siege from Uber and other ridehailing companies.
I promised to keep his identity secret so we could talk frankly about some of the not-so-legal tricks employed.
In a heavy accent, Ibrahim explained why some cabbies have learned the hard way to follow their instincts about not stopping for some fares who give him a funny feeling.
Ibrahim said he recently picked up two “very clean, innocent-looking girls” near the Yotel Times Square hotel on 10th Avenue in Manhattan. The women wanted to go to Brooklyn, so he obliged by taking the Hugh L. Carey Tunnel, which has a toll that the women said they didn’t mind paying.
“I said [to myself], ‘I got a feeling. [But] I got to take a chance.’ The fare was good,” Ibrahim told me.
The women started acting up in the cab, seeming to hit on Ibrahim and asking if they “could smoke weed.” When they got near their destination in the far reaches of Brooklyn, one of the women said she needed to stop and buy fish for her grandmother.
The other woman waited in the cab. Then the second woman announced that her friend had forgotten her money. So the second woman went after her.
Ibrahim soon realized there was a back exit to the fish market and both women had taken off.
That ride cost Ibrahim $65 plus the $10 E-ZPass tunnel fare and gas. Worse, whenever that happens, cabbies are also unlikely to get a fare back into the city, so that’s a cost as well.
Ibrahim says every cabby has stories like that one. And also like the next one. He tells me about the time he took a passenger to West 233rd Street in the Bronx. While on the West Side Highway, the passenger reached through the partition between the front and rear seat and tried to steal money that Ibrahim keeps in his console.
He swatted the passenger’s hand away. “I [was] wishing to stop at the highway and kick him out,” says Ibrahim. But he didn’t. When he got to the passenger’s location, the guy met a woman with a baby carriage, and the two bolted.
Ibrahim says he called the cops. “A guy was there and he said, ‘Don’t bother, it happens all the time.’ ” So Ibrahim left without getting paid, and he won’t go back to that neighborhood again.
Let me be clear. I don’t condone drivers’ practice of cherry-picking passengers or refusing to go certan places. But I figured people might like to know the other side of the story — why cabbies sometimes use their instincts and say no — and Ibrahim was willing to tell it.
There’s harsh punishment if a cabby gets caught doing what Ibrahim described.
If a customer complains to the Taxi & Limousine Commission about “unjustified refusal of service,” the fine for the first violation is $350 if the driver pleads guilty before a hearing. It jumps to $500 if he doesn’t take a plea and is found guilty. The fine goes up to $700 if the cabby does it again within 24 months and agrees to plead guilty. If he is found guilty at a TLC hearing, the fine is $1,000, and he may have his license to drive a cab suspended for 30 days. Ibrahim’s 12-hour shift was nearly over when he dropped me off. He was going to try to pick up one more fare if it was on his way home. But that also would require selecting a passenger and turning down others, so he was worried. It’s iffy whether the TLC would approve of that.