Posted on 04/09/2013 5:48:29 AM PDT by Kaslin
SO THE MAYOR OF BOSTON, channeling his inner Captain Renault, is shocked – shocked! – to find that Boston's taxi industry is a rigged and pitiless racket.
Why, until he read about it in the Boston Globe, Tom Menino never had a clue that in the city he has presided over for 20 years, cabbies are commonly treated like serfs, abused by multimillionaire owners who flout the law with impunity. If it hadn't been for the Spotlight team's detailed exposé, the mayor still wouldn't know about all those besieged Boston cab drivers, most of them immigrants, who have to work exhaustingly long shifts as "independent contractors of earning a living wage. He still wouldn’t without benefits or job protection — and with no assurance't know about the bribes and swindles many cabbies are forced to endure if they wish to stay employed. Or about the grossly underinsured cabs that put passengers and pedestrians at grave financial risk. Or about the Boston police regulators who do nothing – and claim to know nothing – about the corruption endemic in a system that empowers fleet moguls to gouge drivers in much the way that unscrupulous landowners gouged sharecroppers in the post-Reconstruction South.
To hear Menino tell it, these revelations all came as news to him. "I'm very concerned about it," the mayor said in an interview with the Globe last week. "We're not going to tolerate this nonsense." Except that he does tolerate it. The Menino administration "turns a blind eye to this climate of casual exploitation," the Globe reported. "Worse, city officials – in ways both subtle and obvious – enable it."
Stung by all the negative publicity, not to mention the fact that federal prosecutors have launched a criminal investigation, Menino is promising a wall-to-wall review of the city's taxi industry. He vows to "revamp" the hackney division of the Boston Police Department – maybe even get the BPD out of the business of regulating the taxi business altogether.
Far be it from me to doubt the mayor's newfound zeal. But like Captain Renault's aversion to gambling in Casablanca, Menino's distress over the exploitation and ill-use of Boston's cabbies was never something he was known for in the past.
When taxi drivers were being attacked by armed passengers in the 1990s and early 2000s, for example, the mayor seemed to take it all in stride. Only when some drivers threatened to stop picking up fares in Roxbury and Dorchester, where the worst attacks had occurred, did the Menino administration get worked up. "We will not tolerate any discrimination," the mayor warned. The head of his hackney division – Mark Cohen, then as now –accused the cabbies of seeking to "systematically redline neighborhoods." Most of the drivers were black, and the implication of racism was ludicrous. At a time when the Labor Department was reporting that cabbies were far more likely than other workers to be murdered on the job, it was also remarkably callous.
Boston's streets are safer today, but taxi drivers are as economically vulnerable as ever, squeezed by a system that has been stacked against them for decades.
The cruelties and rip-offs documented by the Globe's series are ugly indeed, but uglier by far is the government-sanctioned oligopoly that sustains it. Boston's antiquated medallion scheme, which arbitrarily caps the number of taxis in the city at 1,825, is the real reason the taxi industry is so abusive. Because the supply of medallions is so much lower than the demand, their value has soared, massively enriching those who were lucky enough to acquire the little tin plates when they were cheap – and fleecing nearly everyone else. Would-be cabbies must choose between going deeply into debt to acquire a medallion – the price in Boston now is up to $625,000 – or paying through the nose to lease one for 12 hours at a time.
No one imagines that City Hall should decide the number of bookstores or florists Boston needs; an official ceiling on the number of cabs is no less irrational. What Menino calls "this nonsense" – the grinding, humiliating, overpriced unfairness that is the daily lot of so many cab drivers – didn't just happen. It was caused by the deprivation of economic freedom. It can be cured by the restoration of that freedom.
If you can visualize more cabs in Boston's neighborhoods, more owners driving them, better service, and lower fares, then you can visualize the end of medallion oligopoly. After 80 years of the current mess, isn't it time Boston set its taxi market free?
Has the Mob in Boston made more money from “the Big Dig” or the Taxi Cab scam?
Let’s see. We put twice as many taxis on the road.....then they will only have to pay half as much to lease their cabs. Of course, they will only take in half as much in fares (since there are now twice the number of cabs chasing a fixed ammount of money). And that means they will also take home half as much money for themselves. So let’s see. The city makes the same ammount (2 * 1/2), the owners make the same ammount (2 * 1/2), and the drivers make half the ammount. Yup, sounds good to me.
The government formation of limited competition via issuance of a finite number of taxi licenses creates the perfect environment for abuse.
The loony libertarian solution is to allow anyone to buy a $500 annual permit to put a taxi on the road in Boston. In this effed economy you will have 20,000 taxis cruising the streets causing traffic jams and getting into fights over the meager business
Similar to other loony libertarian ideas like—
— open borders as long as they are not allowed to get on welfare (yeah right hahahah)
-— free trade Just so long as I I I me me me myself myself myself can buy cheap Chinese stuff
— legalize drugs starting with marijuana (creating millions more disability claims)
Ever been to DC (a non-medallion city) on business? The value you get from a cab ride is far better than Boston for less money. People assume they are government subsidized for the benefit of tourists and bureaucrats, as did I. But they're not. It is just the magic of a competitive market at work.
Of course, the DC politicos see a flock of sheep to be shorn (or skinned) like Boston and they are working to end the medallion system.
If there is meager business, you won’t have 20,000 taxis cruising the streets very long.
Boston’s taxis are terrible, topped only by Las Vegas in sheer awfulness. Any change in Boston is a positive change.
You got that right. And it's a lot better since DC got rid of the zone fares. I was there a couple months ago and we took a cross town trip together. I commented about how cheap the fare was--less than $10. The same ride in NY would have cost a lot more.
In Boston, a cab driver or company that has a fleet must secure a medallion for each cab. It is displayed on the back of the cab. There are limited numbers of these medallions in circulation. When they become available, very wealthy entities know about it in advance from hacks at City Hall who get greased by these same wealthy entities. The medallions are scooped up and then sold to the highest bidder (cab companies and cabbies). The cost of one of these medallions can run up to $60k or more.
So it isn't simply a matter of putting more cabs on the street.
Ooop....typo. Make that $600k
We’ll put you driving one of those 10,000-20,000 Boston cabs scrounging for fares and see how long you last preaching libertarianism. Or how about your son or grandson trying it.
Doesn't quite work that way. Ever been to New York on business? It is a medallion city and getting a cab during certain times of the day can be challenging, to say the least. It is even rarer to find a cabbie who actually speaks English.
One bright exception are the unlicensed limo drivers at JFK and La Guardia. I'm not sure how they get away with parking curbside without getting hassled. Maybe they pay off the airport parking nazis. But these are typically older model limos driven by the under 30 set, so mostly not owner drivers, I'd suspect. You can spot them because the drivers have a very generic looking uniform or none at all. Sometimes they will approach you. You can get a ride into mid-town Manhattan for typically 60% of what a licensed cab will charge. Negotiate your fare in advance.
Of course, these guys like tips and will let you off at the front door of your hotel if you offer one. If you don't, it may be on the opposite side of the street . . . which is fine by me since I'm overweight and can use the half block walk.
My native New York business colleagues tell me there are other ways to spot and hail unlicensed cabs on city streets, but I haven't been there enough to figure out the system.
Most of the unlicensed cabs and limos I've ridden have local drivers who speak English and know directions, unlike the immigrants who drive the licensed cabs. They are also generally cleaner and give better customer service. Some of my local contacts even tell me many of the unlicensed drivers have regulars and favorites who show up when requested for a little extra $$ which is still less than hailing a medallion cab. None of them look like they are starving; they've just learned how to operate around a socialist system.
One night, a group of us hailed a cab, and as we were getting in, I could see other cab drivers yelling stuff and honking at our driver - even though he had pulled over and was not really blocking traffic.
As we pulled away, we noticed there was no meter in the cab... We asked how much and he said "flat rate $15", which was on the high end of where we needed to go - then we figured out why the other cab drivers were so pissed at him - he was not driving a licensed/medallion cab.
I'm assuming that the cab which you got into was painted up and labeled like any other cab, different colors or brand maybe, but indiscernible to the out-of-towner. Am I right?
If so, it means that unlicensed drivers in Boston have ratcheted it up a step above their NYC counterparts, who use unmarked limos and cabs.
I'm also curious about your observation that "There were plenty of cabs around." Does this include rush hour? Friday evenings? Other peak times?
If so, that is a strong indication that the economy, at least in Boston, is even further into the dumpster than many of us think.
The rest of us have been living in a mostly free market for a long time, where we have to compete for our income against however many people decide to do what we do, whether it be engineering, carpentry, lawn mowing, or selling food in a restaurant. And our kids will have to do the same. Our parents and grandparents, and their parents did the same thing from the day they arrived in America.
In fact for many of us we already compete with people from around the world, including those in China and India.
As for "preaching libertarianism" if you don't believe in free market capitalism, where people are free to start their own business without buying a very expensive permit that limits competition to a chosen few, then there is not much I can say to you other than that is what 99% of the working people in this country live every day.
With the exception of those who have a monopoly position, like the cab medallion owners, everybody else competes in the free market for their income. You should too, and teach your children to do so as well.
Maybe, but that’s how the market works. There are winners and losers. People have to adapt.
Why should society lose in order to protect 1,800 cab drivers in Boston?
This was only my second time in Boston ever, so I had no idea what a "real" cab was supposed to look like. It looked like a cab to me, and to the other people in our group, including the guy who flagged it down - and he works in Boston! Though he takes the train in every day from the suburbs, not sure how much he uses cabs.
I'm also curious about your observation that "There were plenty of cabs around." Does this include rush hour? Friday evenings? Other peak times?
If so, that is a strong indication that the economy, at least in Boston, is even further into the dumpster than many of us think.
I used cabs at 6 - 7 pm, 10 pm (the incident above), and mid day, over a 3 day period. I don't know how jammed up Boston gets, but I was surprised at how well traffic moved, and how little there was. I live near Philly, and things are almost always jammed up somewhere. There were a few congested spots, and I was only in a few mile radius, so I don't know how good of a picture I got.
I thought it was FUBAR as far as traffic goes until I had the pleasure of being sent to Baltimore and Philly to negotiate traffic on a business trip once. I thought my Japanese employers were doing me a real favor sending me to these places with a meeting with several big brass from the home office.
It turned out that all they wanted was a driver they could trust and who understood Japanese. LOL!
When it comes to the taxi medallion system you are clueless. Why not preach that other clueless libertarian doctrine called free trade? Where we play the chumps to mercantilist nations that are our adversaries such as China
Personally I could care less if Boston and NY have medallion systems. They have had medallions for years and they are jacked up so high only due to so many immigrants going into the business. Chalk up another win for our treasonous immigration policies/ but then libertarians like open borders.
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