Maybe off topic, but how is it that, in so many cities, the foreign born are the ones driving cabs nowadays?? It’s rare to find someone born in this country driving a taxi. The stereotypical New York cabbie with the Brooklyn accent has gone the way of the dodo bird. What happened??
My understanding is that the typical owner-operator of yesteryear couldn't afford a medallion anymore so the taxi companies bought them up and hired foreigners because they worked cheaper.
Back in the 1990s when I went to New York on business regularly, I learned how to spot the unauthorized cabs and limos, especially at JFK. They were typically but not always 20 something kids, usually but not always white. They would pull up to the luggage claim door typically in a plain white station wagon. They couldn't stay long because of the parking nazis but if things were quiet, they would typically call out "Anyone need a ride to Manhattan?" or the more cryptic "Mr. Philip Jones, your ride is here. Is anyone going into Manhattan with you?"
Of course, there wasn't a Mr. Philip Jones (or whatever), that was a cover to solicit riders which they legally couldn't do without a cab medallion.
Most of them would give you a business card and a receipt for the company expense account unless they thought you might be an undercover medallion nazi trying to bust them.
Of course, the official excuse was that medallion drivers were trained and licensed and these guys weren't. Which was plainly bullsh*t once you discovered they couldn't even understand English in most cases . . . you had to write down the address for them and they looked it up in a city map atlas.
You'd save roughly $10 off a fare from JFK to Midtown Manhattan by using one of the 20 something native New Yorkers.