New York City Taxi Medallions Have Plunged in Value By 90% In Less Than A Decade

Survivalnomics ^ | 12/30/2021 | Tyler Durden

[Roccus]

The only cabs that LEGALLY were allowed to pick up “hails” as in “hail a cab” were medallioned yellow cabs and the city limited the number of medallions. Yellow cabs were notorious for not going into certain neighborHOODS so the city started looking the other way when “gypsy” (non-medallion/radio dispatched) cabs started servicing those areas picking up passengers without being dispatched. Some yellow cab fleets started radio dispatching as well as curbside pick-ups.
As all this was taking place and owner/operators were retiring or just getting out of the business, the fleets were buying up their medallions at auctions with a steady stream of new immigrants, legal and illegal, to do the driving
Then came cell phones.
Now you could call a gypsy or “car service” from anywhere. The fleet owners saw the handwriting on the wall and, though not folding up shop, started selling off a lot of their medallions. Who bought them? The drivers that had been working for them.
Financing was arranged so these newly minted owner/operators could “afford” these tags. Quite often there were tie-ins between the fleets selling the tags and whatever entity was doing the financing (if not the fleet itself).*
Then came Uber and Lyft.
In order to keep up with payments on the tags, the new owner/operators had to run the cabs 24/7 so they would employ other immigrants they knew to take shifts. Over crowded rooming houses began to resemble Poney Express stations. Cab would pull up, driver would get out with all his stuff, new driver with all *his* stuff would get in and pull out. No time to clean or maintain the interior and so you get the filthy, smelly cabs of today.

*....This was about the time I left Fun City and moved to America, so from here I’m going on second hand info.

[cyclotic]

It’s been years since I was in a cab. Uber is also very infrequent but I like using them.

Drivers are usually nice, Cara are decent.

I’ve used the group Uber so you also get to meet other people.

The closest I’ve come to a bad experience was a driver had just moved to the city and didn’t know his way around. Wasn’t a big deal.

[God luvs America]

Yes- i am aware of that. Its still typical LW hypocrisy to whine about climate change then hand out an additional 150K transport plates for vehicles to ferry people and clog the roads.

Have you been on the highways in or around NYC the past few years?? One out of every four/five cars on the road is a car for hire- the traffic is impossible because of this. And i’m talking highways like the Bronx River/FDR which does not allow trucks.

[HKMk23]

That’s anomalous.

I’ve seen the vehicle requirements, and his ride street meet the spec. Maybe he got the gig driving something else & then something happened.

All the ones out here drove newer sedans, with the odd SUV and “crossover” in the mix.