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Credit Cards Boost Some Cab Drivers' Income
By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 12, 2008
Modified Mar 12, 2008
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By
John Del Signore
Published Mar 12, 2008
Modified Mar 12, 2008
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It seems that after months of threatening, chasing and punching passengers who insist on paying with plastic, some city cab drivers have come to love the new credit card devices, which will be in all taxis by the end of August. Their original objections were to the 5% transaction fee, but now drivers are reporting higher tips because of the way the machines display the tipping options.
One cabbie tells the Sun he’s earning $100 more a week since his machine was installed, bumping his weekly earnings into the princely $600 range. The new machines give riders the option of paying tips of 15%, 20% and 25%. And because business travelers prefer paying with plastic, taxi ridership has reportedly increased, especially since out-of-town trips don’t require riders to bring a wad of cash. Still, some drivers have yet to warm up to the changes; the Sun talks to another cabbie who hasn’t seen any increased revenue and grumbles that he has less cash at the end of the day because of all the plastic payments.
And the Post's Jeremy Olshan reported his cab driver to the Taxi and Limousine Commision after he wouldn’t let Olshan pay by credit card. After a six week wait, Olshan testified against him at TLC hearing, where a fine of $500 was levied against the driver. Olshan says he felt so guilty for taking bread from the mouth of poor Surjit Singh that “if I had had the $500 in my wallet, I might have handed it to him… If only he took plastic.”
Photo: Gary Visco.
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John Del Signore
Originally from the Albany area, John Del Signore has called NYC home since 1995. In addition to his thousands of meticulously-crafted bespoke blog posts for Gothamist, his writing has also been published in The Awl, Deadspin, The Nervous Breakdown, and performed at The Brick Theater in Brooklyn.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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