Mellow yellow: Uber and other ridehailing apps overtake an old favourite
Facing growing competition from ride-hailing apps, yellow cabs are struggling to remain relevant to a generation of digital-minded New Yorkers, writes Winnie Hu of The New York Times
JohnMcFadden no longer sticks his hand out for a yellow cab. He has plenty of other options at his fingertips.
With a couple of taps on his phone, he lines up rides with Via, a carpooling service that shuttles him around Manhattan with strangers for a flat rate of $5. When he wants to ride alone, he taps again, this time summoning a car through Uber.
“I used to go out and hail a cab, but this is more convenient,” said McFadden, 47, a photographer. “We all use our phones all day, every day.”
The yellow cab may be as synonymous with New York as pizza, Broadway and the Empire State Building, but more and more it is no longer the ride of choice.
This fixture of city life — a touchstone of popular culture in movies like Taxi Driver and the hit television series Taxi — was once the main alternative to subways and buses, hailed by rich and poor alike. Cabdrivers were the ambassadors of the streets, welcoming newcomers, passing along city lore and dispensing advice even when no one asked.
But yellow cabs — which now number just 13,587 — have lost significant ground to a growing fleet of black cars summoned by ride-hailing apps with short, catchy names and loyal followings: Uber, Lyft, Via, Juno, Gett.
The average number of daily taxi trips fell by more than 100,000 in November 2016 from the same month six years ago as these apps have taken off.
Today, more than 60,000 black cars are for hire in the city. More than 46,000 are connected with Uber, though they also work for other services, too. And the competition is fierce.
The so-called e-dispatch services offer discounts and promotions along with options such as car pools, the ability to rate drivers and GPS tracking. They have flooded neighbourhoods where taxi service has long been spotty and are now competing in areas like Midtown Manhattan, where taxis once flourished. And they appeal to a new generation of tech-skilled riders who live on their phones, ordering everything from groceries to books and movies.
“It won’t be long before this is an Uber town instead of a yellow cab town,’’ said Evan Rawley, an associate professor of management at the Columbia Business School. “Ride-hailing apps have gained huge market share in a short period of time. They have expanded the market, but also stolen share from taxicabs.’’
Many yellow-cab owners and drivers are struggling in a city with more transportation options than ever, including a new subway line on Second Avenue and the proliferation of Citi Bikes.
The medallions that give cabs the right to operate have plummeted in value, going for less than half of the $1.3 million price recorded in 2013 and 2014, though industry experts have cautioned that their value was inflated.
At the same time, many drivers have defected to the new services, which often offer more flexible hours and bonuses, resulting in so many taxis sitting idle in parking lots and garages that they have become known as “taxi graveyards.”
Overall, yellow cabs made an average of 336,737 daily trips and $4.98 million in fares in November, down from 463,701 trips and $5.17 million in fares in the same month in 2010, according to city data.
“I don’t remember the last time I took a yellow cab,” said Stacey Moorehead, 51, who works in advertising. “My son had a bar mitzvah every single weekend for six months. I never took a cab. I either took Via or Uber to take him there and to pick him up.”
Kwabena Boateng, 46, a cabdriver since 2001, says that things have gotten so bad that many of his friends now work for Uber.
He makes less than he did even three years ago. “I am still contemplating what to do.”
Still, Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, which represents the owners of 5,500 medallions which give the cabs the right to operate, said the yellow-cab industry was evolving to meet the demands of passengers and drivers, introducing its own apps, Arro and Curb, and opening a new center in Queens to provide training and recruit new drivers.
“This is always going to be an iconic yellow-taxi town,’’ Woloz said. “Uber is the same everywhere — there is nothing ‘New York’ about them — kind of like McDonald’s or Starbucks. But yellow taxis are unique to New York City and, while maybe a little retro, they are as vital and soulful as ever.’’
New York City’s taxi industry grew out of the horse-drawn hansom cabs of the 1800s, according to Graham Hodges, the author of Taxi!: A Social History of the New York City Cabdriver.
After a businessman, Harry N. Allen, was overcharged for a ride, he started the first fleet of gas-powered cabs in 1907. The shiny red cars were imported from France, equipped with fare meters and lined up at a stand outside the Plaza Hotel. As the years went on, yellow taxis became popular because the colour was easy to spot from a distance, Hodges said.
John Hertz, the founder of Hertz car rental company, started the Yellow Cab Co in Chicago in 1915. Yellow became the official colour of New York’s medallion taxis in 1967.
There were more than 16,000 cabs in New York before the city began regulating the number in 1937 out of concerns that an oversupply had led to reckless driving, congestion and cut-rate fares.
“It became part of our consciousness,” Hodges said. “They’re really essential to the quotidian life of the city.”
Yellow cabs still have their fans.
Sean Lawrence, 28, a freelance producer, said he preferred hailing a cab because it was less complicated than fiddling with an app and because cabdrivers knew their way around.
“I like to think the hail is here to stay,” he said.
But others have never even set foot in a yellow cab. Since moving to the city in June, Chip Hermann, 25, an associate at a financial services company, has used only Uber, Lyft, Via or Juno.
“Maybe I’ve missed that ‘New York experience,’ but I don’t really want it,” he said. “It just makes sense to use technology to make things cheaper and easier.”
Yellow-cab owners and drivers complain that while they serve the same customers as the ride-hailing apps, they are more heavily regulated by the city.
Uber, for instance, can use surge pricing to charge higher fares during peak times while cabs are locked into fixed rates.
By 2020, half of all yellow cabs must be wheelchair-accessible while the new services have no such mandate.
“Some progress has been made in leveling the playing field, but a lot more work needs to be done,” Woloz said.
I used to go out and hail a cab, but this [Via] is more convenient ... We all use our phones all day, every day. JOHN MCFADDEN A PHOTOGRAPHER