IT’S A HAIL OF A MESS
Yellow-cab drivers complain that . . .
DRIVING A yellow cab just isn’t hacking it anymore.
Pickups for the iconic taxis that long ruled Manhattan streets plummeted 10% to 77 million in the first six months of 2015 — down from 85.5 million the year before, a Daily News analysis of trip data showed.
Fewer riders for the fleet of 13,587 yellow cabs translated into less cash.
The taxis collected $981 million through June of this year, a 7% drop compared with the $1.06 billion raked in over the same period last year.
In real numbers, each cab brought in 9% less on average due to an increased number of taxi medallions and stiffer competition.
The numbers illustrate the economic pain suffered by cabbies as fresh challengers from Uber and other app services flood the streets.
Pro-medallion forces leaned heavily — and unsuccessfully — on Mayor de Blasio to impose a cap on new Uber cars.
“It’s a race to the bottom,” said Bhairavi Desai, director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which supported the cap.
Uber drivers “can't earn a full-time living,” she said. "Meanwhile, with the unprecedented competition, the full-time living you used to be able to earn driving a taxi is gradually falling.”
Cabbie Mahmoodul Hassan, 27, watched helplessly as Uber encroached on his airport pickups and trips to Brooklyn and Queens during his 31/2 years driving a yellow taxi.
“It’s basically taking all of our business,” he said.
Jamil Ali, 54, remembers earning up to $1,000 a week during his grueling 12-hour shifts just a few years ago. Now, a good week for him is around $800 to $900.
The Hicksville, L.I., father of two can’t work any more hours to recoup the lost revenue. “That’s making me depressed,” he said. Ali believes Uber’s claim that it will create 10,000 jobs without a city-imposed limit on growth — and that worries him.
“What about the people who are already doing this?” he said. “There’s more than enough drivers on the road right now.”
At a popular gas station for hacks at Houston and Lafayette Sts., Sohail Chaudhry, 53, recalled driving 30 fares a day — and even doing pickups in Brooklyn.
Those opportunities have dwindled to about 25 a day, he said. He’s driving longer on each shift, up to 12 hours, to make up the money. “You drop a passenger and somebody’s waiting at the next block,” said Chaudhry, of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn, in recalling his heyday on the street. “But it's not like that (anymore).”
Competition from Uber and even green outer-borough taxis, along with more traffic congestion, have chipped away at his livelihood, he said. “Business is divided,” he said.
The News’ analysis found green cab pickups were up 38% during the first six months of 2015 compared with 2014, but still account for just a fraction of the total cab rides in the city.
Despite the hand-wringing from hacks, former Taxi & Limousine Commission Chairman Matt Daus said the drop is not fatal to the industry.
“The modest ridership adjustment over the past six months is unlikely to impact the taxicab market’s resiliency long-term, and is driven by a combination of seasonal variables, competition, increased taxi supply and fares, and additional traffic congestion,” he said.
Still, city transit officials have suggested that Uber is muscling into yellow taxis’ main turf — Manhattan, which makes up 90% of the industry's business.
City transportation officials, at a City Council hearing in June, said 72% of pickups by “highgrowth” for-hire companies — essentially, Uber — were in Manhattan’s core.
“Yellow taxis, for the most part, have continued to focus primarily on Manhattan, which has more competition from car service vehicles than ever before,” TLC Chairwoman Meera Joshi said in a statement.
Uber responded with its own data, claiming 60% of its trips during the evening rush started below 59th St., and 42% of morning trips started there from June through July 19. An average of 2,000 Uber cars were in the city’s central business district between 7 a.m. and 7 p.m., the company said.
“Uber’s fastest-growing areas are in communities outside of Manhattan,” said company spokeswoman Alix Anfang. “Unfortunately, yellow cabs have historically refused to serve these communities where more and more New Yorkers are looking for affordable, reliable rides.”
Yellow cab owners claim Uber is luring away their drivers as well, making it difficult for them to keep cars on the street.
The controversial firm has mounted a campaign to entice drivers with the mandatory hack licenses to switch sides.
“It’s undeniable that some drivers have chosen to see if they can make more money or have a different livelihood working for a company that allows for surge pricing,” said Michael Woloz, a spokesman for the 5,500 cab owners in the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade.
Mandiou Keita, 58, of the Lower East Side, is one of those drivers on the fence about a move. “I’m thinking about joining the Uber,” he said. “I don’t make what I was making.”`