In order to own a cab in New York, you need a medallion – a metal shield that is literally attached to the vehicle’s hood. There are a fixed number of these medallions issued by The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC).
Owning a Taxi Medallion used to be the dream for taxi drivers. It made you an entrepreneur and it was a solid financial investment.
Until recently, medallions were a great achievement and a good thing to have. In 2013, medallions were going for $1 million.
But owners of these prized medallions are now filing a lawsuit against New York City regulators, claiming that their business has been destroyed by their decision to allow companies such as Uber to compete using “E-hail” services.
The story of Harbir Batth is becoming a common one among taxi drivers. Batth is from India and has been driving a taxi for more than 20 years. He built his life around driving a taxi.
Three years ago, Batth was able to finally purchase a medallion. At the time, he thought it was something that would eventually pay for his retirement. But now, buying that medallion is one of his biggest regrets and his dream of owning a medallion has turned into a nightmare.
That is because historically, only taxis with medallions were permitted to pick up passengers in response to a street hail. But nowadays, companies without medallions, like Uber and Lyft, are able to compete for their business.
Batth says his income has been cut almost in half since the emergence of Uber in the New York City area. He would like to sell his medallion, but now buyers are so scarce, there is a waiting list to sell. This means he will continue to make payments on his medallion, while earning less because of the unfair competition.
According to the lawsuit, the number of Uber rides in the core of Manhattan between April and June 2015 increased by 3.82 million. On the flip side, the number of rides picked up by a medallion cab fell by 3.83 million. This, in turn, has driven down the value of the medallion.
The sudden drop in medallion values has created a financial hardship for taxi drivers. In order to purchase the medallions, people would take out specialized loans. But these loans were only good for a few years and they would need to continue to keep taking out new loans when time expired. This was easy to do when the value of the medallion remained steady or went up.
One of the suit plaintiffs, White & Blue Group, manages fleets of licensed taxicabs by leasing out the medallions. They have seen its monthly leasing income drop by 50% in the past year. Since many of the taxicab drivers have left the industry to drive for Uber instead, this has left a graveyard of empty taxicabs in New York City.
Another plaintiff in the suit is the large number of credit unions that give loans based on medallions. One credit union has 628 medallion loans that totals close to $138 million.
By Samantha
YellowCabNYCTaxi.com Staff Writer
When next step in medallion owners suit against NYC?
Still don’t like the way this suit is phrased. Using all the equal rights, etc., and other claims.
It is plain and simple. NYC which has been using the NYC yellows as their pacifiers for decades, SOLD the exclusive street hail rights to yellow medallions.
Suddenly, the creative criminal has a brainstorm: we can run a huge fleet of taxis for FREE, all we have to do is buy a more expensive vehicle or a different vehicle, and voila! we don’t have to pay a back-breaking medallion mortgage. AND we can charge more. The GREASE on this plan is the little trick that makes it NOT A TAXI. heh heh heh, and that is you get it instantly by using your cell phone. With 50,000 of them flooding, overshadowing, and smothering all NYC traffic, there is always one at your ELBOW, just like a YELLOW MEDALLION CAB. heh heh heh
A FREE TAXI – while NYC PRETENDS everything is the same.
To reduce it to a nutshell. Exclusive street hail rights were sold by NYC and bought by medallion owners. By tricks, bfuscation, and a million little distortions, Uber is getting and enjoying those same street hail rights. Flipping everyone the bird at the same time.
Adding other claims, only muddies the waters, allowing tricky judges to join the mud. To say that if yellows have e-hail would level the playing field is an illogical monster. That just means let yellows be tricky too, 40,000 ubers plus 13,500 yellows equals 53,000 TAXIS, the greater part 40,000 which is in violation of the exclusive rights purchased and sold. Any more extrapolations about equal rights, and constitution, etc., just makes more muddy waters, until the description is so convoluted that you’d have to be a superior mathematician to understand it.
It is commerce pure and simple. NYC sells something EXCLUSIVE TO MEDALLION buyers. Then gves it away to other enterprises for free. Judge Judy can see this in an instant.
Then, when is the NEXT MILESTONE in this now FAMOUS court suit?
The medallion owner/drivers have the most bleeding point, but medallion ownership was allowed to have a LONG TAIL by NYC regulators, SO the whole business developed from small fleets to larger fleets, to leases of the medallions, to management of the medallions. All this LEGAL business comes with the exclusive street hail rights sold to medallion owners by NYC.
MAKE THE CORRECT CLAIM. And NYC either buy back the medallions at the pre-Uber price, or SHUT DOWN THE e-hail taxis and we all know who they are — they make themselves easy to identify, they are joined at the hip with the TLC.
I hope the OD lawyer is better than the one the fleets used. I saw him making his case on TV and he was intimidated by the questions and didn’t seem like a fighter. I think the argument the OD which I am are making is the playing field is uneven. But no one cares about cabbies including Judges.
The playing field argument loses.simply commerce,street
hails e or not,bought by yellows.
This is it. Level playing field is a loser because if everything is level BUT THE MEDALLION, it is a matter of Commerce Laws, yellows bought the exclusive right.
It is good the O/D are doing it.Fleets sued mostly to
pacify crabby drivers.
As long as the daily lease covers the cost, and a little bit more, the fleets are still in business, they can make it. I find the fleets started suits because drivers crabbing their ears off. All the fleet suits, seemed to be PABLUM.
The lawyer has to stand his ground and he has to have enough command of presence to let the whole court know the level playing field,luxury car FHV difference, is not going over. They are all over the city so many that it is a STREET HAIL. If they had 1200 and only sat in Manhattan on every corner, it would still be a street hail.
Goldman-Sachs thinks 2016 will see 5% increase
infed interest.GREED.
A financial expert, on a recent radio talk show, said big banks LIKE GOLDMAN-SACHS are speculating that 2016 will see a total 4 to 5 percent hike in the federal reserve interest rate, which has remained untouched for about 10 years. He said that big banks like Goldman-Sachs are speculating that 2017 will see a 5% hike also. Now this is talking about a 10% hike in the federal reserve interest rate.
[Don’t we remember Goldman-Sachs as being “pro-Uber” and by definition “pro-destroying-the-NYC-yellow-cab-industry?” Don’t get in the way of GREED’S BULLDOZER.]
The conservative financial expert went on to say he would expect no more than one or two 1/4 percent hikes in 2016. It is obvious Goldman-Sachs, the greedy bunch, are champing at the bit for more, more, more money. I don’t think Goldman-Sachs or the other like-minded “big banks” are good for the U.S. Money is their game, greed is their name.
He further said people now are hesitant to purchase homes, scared of the interest rates, and the very modest recovery in that area is going to be affected by a slow-down.
Big banks like Goldman-Sachs are globally intertwined and their greed is the primary influence in the direction and technology of banking and bank cards. It has become so electronic and convoluted that no one but “them” can really understand it, or go after it, when they begin pumping out huge amounts of money from the citizenry.
A lot of 2016 political candidates, like Clinton, Sanders are talking about “Wall St” but I doubt even the president would be strong enough to do anything about these GREED-MONGERS. They don’t have the means or the know how. THE GOLDMAN-SACHS GIANT SQUD IS TOO BIG.
The only way to confront these GREED-MONGERS, is to get your money, and take it out in cash, and spend it without involving them. If you opt for their process, you are feeding the MONSTER. Unfortunately, there are those people who feel it is a STATUS SYMBOL to pull out a wallet full of plastic.
Big banks like Goldman-Sachs speculate int hikes to push
Janet Yellen&Committee.
Maybe you guys should become uber drivers lol
Joshi needs to be fired. Can’t have such massive failure ignored. There must be consequences.
Very Strange Indeed….
Ubers Allowed To Surge / Bang Price The Public ANYTIME..?
Yellow Cabs Would BE HUNG from a TREE For ANY Hint of an OVER CHARGE ????…….Mr Preet Time Has COME …Investigate….!!!!
All criminals or close to it at TLC. Tom Bello, I believe he is in charge of licensing at the TLC. Look him up, a disbarred lawyer from Staten Island. Was head of the SI Bar Association. I guess anyone who is shunned from an honorable job for rule violation should work at the TLC. After al,l walks like a duck, must be a duck. TLC has been and will continue to be a mismanaged poorly run organization. Unfortunately, they own what’s left of the NYC Yellow Taxi industry. But don’t worry, those dumb greedy SOBs will find a new toy to play with as soon as Uber becomes unprofitable to them. Maybe they will go after Chinese food delivery men, god knows there are lots of them. And like the poor immigrant taxi drivers, they won’t be able to defend themselves from the rule vomiting TLC and capitulate to be licensed. Big sad joke !!!
StraitArro – very good post. Liked ur use of word
vomiting. Most appropos.
The whole post, says what needs to be said, but ignored by the me, me, me king-pins.
Did I say political king-pins?Meant to say
political king-kongs, and in one case king-kongness.
TLC’s inaction on Uber is nothing short of criminal. Joshi must be let go. She has no clue what regulation is.
She should step down!
https://www.change.org/p/taxi-and-limousine-commission-this-50-cent-mta-need-to-be-stopped-taking-from-passengers?recruiter=268008521&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=copylink
The operation of Uber in New York City is simply illegal. The City issues and sell the medallions under the agreement that the City, through the TLC, would regulate the taxi industry and protect the yellow cabs. That is why the value of the medallion was at a premium, a guarantee from the city. What happened? crooked politicians, started under the Bloomberg administration, the same guy criticizing Donald Trump, misled the public by first introducing the illegal green cabs. He then found a crooked judge who was paid to rule in his favor. Newsflash! Bloomberg will never run for president because he will have to answer to all the crooked transactions he participated in. Tell me how his fortune quadrupled over his tenure as mayor. Ignorant voters in NYC don’t do their research and gave this crooked dirt bag a third term to steal some more. Since when a billionaire gave a hoot about poor people’s ability to have access to cabs. The truth is this was a political gimmick for the introduction of Uber. What is happening in New York City against yellow cabs is a travesty of justice. Newsflash! Bloomberg invested in Uber. There is no way the federal supreme court would rule in favor of the dirt bag politicians of NY City. Crooked Governor Cuomo is a big fan of Uber. Has anyone looked into his offshore account? or members of the city council? we are always the first to criticize other countries for accepting bribe, but we need to clean our backyard first. Cuomo, Scumberg, crooked judges should all be prosecuted for violating the Constitution. Wake up people!
I totally agree that Blumberg did all ot thid
he killed thoutha,nds of taxi driver’s and meda
lion’s owners families like mine I thought taxi
investments will be our future but this is huge
corruption and I hope may be something could be
done against Blumberg Cuomo and corrupt judges
Got Help us
I remember during the auctions the TLC would announce the “winners”. The American Dream they called owning a medallion. I recall thinking welcome to the American Nightmare.
I’ll tell you why nobody gives a s**t about taxi drivers.
Mostly dumb immigrants.
Travis Kalanick loves dumb immigrants too.
I’m a native New Yorker.
All you immigrants brought this on yourselves by acting like the fools you are.
No, it’s corrupt politicians and regulators. Don’t put the blame on hard-working men and women, put the blame on those that creepy Uber bribed.
Some truth to what long time says.
yes that is bottom line, blame the corrupt politicians and regulators this are the guys that make deal for thire pokets uber, lyft, via, gett, juno and on on on on why?
yes that is bottom line, blame the corrupt politicians and regulators this are the guys that make deal for thire pokets uber, lyft, via, gett, juno and on on on on why? you can not just give $250,000 to help the politician and just sit down looking, some are giving millions the one that give millions he is the winner, garages make tons of money and they don’t want to share it with anybody and they sometimes ague with them and now they win and win big.
Why Are YOU Deleting MY post…???
How in the world does a Silicon Valley company put any body behind a wheel of a cab when taxi medallions used to cost upwards of a million dollars in NYC. I don’t feel sorry for yellow cabs because they are notorious for not picking up black people in mid town manhattan. GOD don’t like ugly and uber leveled the playing field. I never worry about catching a cab now thanks to uber
Why u need a medallion at all?This is a big sign of corruption! Everyone should be able to become a cab driver and have your own taxi without medallions etc…. if Uber form need it so cab drivers don’t need too… all this cab medallion system should be investigated (1m for peace of metal? Really? All transportation department should go to jail I think)
Who builds and installs the dangerous, illegal partitions and why have they never been called to task for manslaughter, and maiming taxi occupants? What is the relationship between the TLC, Peter Schenkman and the partition manufacturers? Why would the TLC rely on Schenkman to communicate with the partition makers?
Partitions drove taxi passengers to Uber and Lyft. They are trying to level the playing field a bit by allowing some taxis to choose cameras instead of face-splattering partitions.