TAXI FOCUS


“These increasing cost pressures on taxi operators flow on to the drivers, who as a result often find themselves in a situation where they need to earn more and more money from fares to cover the cost of renting the taxi from the operator,” the paper said. “The flow of money around the industry seemingly has little to do with delivering taxi services to the community.” Mr Samuel said as operators paid increasing fees, drivers were paying the price. “If you want to own a taxi licence, pay as much as you want. The issue is that they lease it back into the industry and the flow-on effect for drivers and customers,” he said.


from USA


MANHATTAN DRIVERS OFFERED NEW WHEELCHAIR ACCESSIBLE OPTION


A few months after the Taxi of Tomorrow and its wheelchair inaccessible design sparked a “roll- in” protest in the Flatiron District, disability rights advocates returned to the pedestrian plaza at 23rd and Broadway last month to test out a new option for New York City cab drivers. The fully ADA-compliant (Americans with Disabil- ities Act 1990) MV-1, built by a South Florida-based company called Vehicle Production Group, is the first vehicle in the country to be made wheelchair accessible from conception to completion, without having to be retrofitted, the company said. The Taxi and Limousine Commission, which, as reported by PHTM, has come under fire lately for its largely wheelchair inaccessible fleet of taxis, tested out the vehicle and late last year deemed it worthy of service as a New York City cab. DNAinfo reports that Fred Drasner, chairman and CEO of VPG, said his company has already sold a few of its vehicles to taxi medallion holders, and New Yorkers should start to see the MV-1 on the streets of the Big Apple in about four weeks. “What we hope to do here is to develop the new taxi of New York along the lines of the iconic Checker,” Drasner said. “The car is durable, designed by taxi fleet owners, built for the taxi duty cycle, and whether you’re on two legs or four wheels, it won’t leave anyone at the curb.” The city’s taxi system has been the subject of serious controversy in recent months, with a series of political and legal battles culminating most recently in two big victories for disability rights advocates. On December 20, Governor Andrew Cuomo signed a landmark piece of legislation that authorised the sale of 2,000 new yellow cab medallions to wheelchair accessible taxis only. The bill will also sell 6,000 street hail per- mits for livery cabs, provided that 20 per cent of those vehicles are also wheelchair accessible. Then, on December 23, Judge George B. Daniels ruled that the city’s cur- rent taxi system violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, ordering the city to draft a plan that would provide the disabled with “meaningful access” to cabs. The TLC has already begun drafting such a plan, Commissioner David Yassky told DNAinfo last month. And at last month’s unveiling of the MV-1, Yassky hailed the new vehicle as “a prominent new entrant to the market- place.” “We want taxi and livery owners to have as many strong options as possible to determine which accessible vehicles work best in these roles,” Yassky said in a statement. “Along those lines, the MV-1 shows great promise.” Drasner said the MV-1 can seat up to six passengers and reserves the front seat for those who use wheelchairs or motorised scooters. The vehicle is manufactured at a former Hummer plant in Indiana and available with either a traditional gasoline engine or one that that runs on compressed natural gas. “[Building wheelchair accessible vehicles] was a niche in the market that just wasn’t being addressed,” Drasner said in an interview. “And the converted vehicles have a lot of issues because they are being modified from a design that wasn’t intended to carry the size or the weight of a wheelchair passen- ger.” Drasner said the MV-1 costs about $37,000 for the basic model. The upgraded consumer version costs about $39,500, and one that runs on


FEBRUARY 2012 PHTM


compressed natural gas goes for about $45,000. To help with that cost, Governor


Cuomo


recently signed another taxi-related bill that will provide a $10,000 tax credit to cab drivers who purchase accessi- ble vehicles. Drasner added that the city plans to use funds from the sale of new taxi medallions to provide grants worth $15,000 per vehicle to drivers who wish to purchase accessible cabs. By contrast, Nissan’s Taxi of Tomorrow, which the city recently selected to one day populate its fleet, reportedly costs around $29,000 apiece. As it stands, the so-named NV200 is not wheelchair accessible, and making ADA modifications will likely raise that price an undetermined amount. Drasner said he received nothing but positive reactions from the people who got a chance to preview the MV-1. “We had the drivers crawling all over it,” he said. Wheelchair users seemed similarly pleased. In a statement, Edith Prentiss, chair of the disability rights organisation the Taxis for All Campaign, called the new vehicle “the right taxi for our city and for the city we want to be.” “The MV-1 can be New York City’s taxi of today, tomorrow and for decades to come,” she added.


Protesters visited the Taxi of Tomorrow expo to protest its inaccessibility in November 2011


from Italy


ITALY TAXI DRIVERS STRIKE AGAINST FREEING UP THE SECTOR


Last month, thousands of angry taxi drivers from all over Italy continued to protest in central Rome against government plans to free up the sector bringing more taxis on the Italian streets. While awaiting the outcome of talks between their union representatives and the government, they expressed their discontent by chanting out loud slogans against the Prime Minister Mario Monti and his liberalisation plan which is one of the measures that are meant to revitalise the stagnant Ital- ian economy. The objective of the liberalisation of services trade is to reduce privileges for certain groups of professionals, often accused of using guilds to limit access to competition in their sectors. According to Press TV, there are about 50,000 taxi drivers in Italy and prac- tically almost all of them want to preserve their present status. They are against the government’s proposal to open up the circulation of taxis. Currently a taxi driver is permitted to work only within the area in which his licence was granted. Furthermore they are opposing the plan to license more drivers. They are also demanding that each taxi driver holds one taxi licence only. Meanwhile the government wants to give licensed drivers an additional licence that they can rent or sell. The taxi drivers view this as insufficient in light of the economic setback they will suffer due to the reforms. Unions were to hold a nationwide strike on January 23 against the gov- ernment’s plans if an accord is not reached with Italian premier Mario Monti. At the end of the meeting with the government – that some union reps described as “the mother of all the battles” – the unionists announced that some concessions to the government had to be made and that a final decision by the Monti-led executive was to be made on Friday 20 January. When they ordered the taxi drivers to put an end to the strike and go back to work many disappointed protesters lost their nerve and approached their own unionists with aggressive intent. Several taxi drivers are threatening more wildcat strikes in the coming days.


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