City Livery Cabbies Take to the Streets with New Passenger Hails

By Harrison Golden

Despite an economy of polarizing swings and disappointing investments, Sushil Maggoo considers himself financially stable. As one of New York City’s yellow cab drivers and medallion owners, he and his colleagues have monopolized the Manhattan street hail.

Maggoo paid nearly $215,000 for his medallion in 2003. Now, its cost has over tripled to $700,000. And while the average yellow taxi driver brings home $50,000 a year, he claims to make over six figures annually, thanks to his purchase.

But last Thursday, the Taxi and Limousine Commission passed a vote that will let 18,000 livery cab drivers pick up street hails above 96th Street on Manhattan’s east side, above 110th Street on the west side, and within each of the outer boroughs. Once that rule takes effect on June 1, Maggoo says, the value of his medallion – and of the city’s trademark yellow cabs – will plummet.

“Yellow cabs are a brand,” he added. “I worry that liveries will take that away from us.”

Livery drivers celebrated the vote’s passage, saying it will better enable them to capitalize on neighborhoods where yellow cabs are less present and available.

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“Why are [yellow cabbies] so concerned about business they never had in the first place?” said Rafael, a livery driver with the Queens-based Blue Line Limo who declined to give his last name. “They spend most of their time in Manhattan anyway. Now all of a sudden, they’re pretending they need help from people in Queens and Brooklyn and the Bronx.”

Just minutes after Thursday’s vote at Brooklyn Borough Hall, TLC Chairman David Yassky broke up an argument between a taxi fleet owner and a livery base owner. He later ordered them both to leave, insisting that the city unite on the rule.

“We’re seeing the birth of a new service that will allow communities throughout the five boroughs to enjoy and come to rely on the same levels of quality taxi service that are only experienced in portions of Manhattan,” Yassky told the Queens Courier.

The TLC has promised to regulate livery cabs more closely in light of the reform. The vehicles will all be painted in one, yet-to-be-determined color, so that passengers can differentiate them from the yellow cabs. The liveries will also feature meters and a similar fare structure.

The commission has also promised to aggressively pursue livery drivers who pick up street hails in the forbidden zone, and will soon increase the number of enforcement agents from 60 to 160. Any driver who breaks the rules is subject to vehicle confiscation. But yellow cab drivers are still wary of Thursday’s ruling and are convinced that it will only take away business.

“We hope our arguments will persuade TLC commissioners to reject these rules,” said Michael Woloz, spokesman for the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade. “Letting livery cabs pick up these street hails would quickly damage yellow-cabbies who have worked so hard to get to where they are.”

Maggoo remains hopeful that yellow cabs will not lose business as a result of the new rule.

“We’ve got a reputation in this city,” Maggoo added. “Through these changes, I hope New Yorkers remember what we have done for them.”