Few month before there was a big news in the tabloid especially in the New York Post that cab drivers are charging customer more because cab drivers deliberately wait in the cash lane booths so that meter runs high. That was a big news and the Post implied that cab drivers are becoming millionaires doing that. Friends, that was furthest from truth. The truth is… Surprise…! Many of the cab drivers don’t have bank account and are 1st generation Immigrants struggling to making their ends meet. Now tell me if a cab driver does not have a bank account how would he be able to use the EZ pass lane ? What should he do..?
And even if a driver has a bank account , most of the time his bank account is empty. So how would he be able to use EZ pass lane when there is no money in his bank account…? So a cab driver uses cash lane where he collects the toll from the passenger and pays for it then forgets about it. He does not have to worry about not having money in his account.
And what about the extra money he allegedly makes by cheating the passenger..? For the reporters of the tabloids….there may be an additional 40 to 80 cents charged more only in the rush hour and only for the passengers who are coming from mostly LaGaurdia Airport. The flat fee charged for JFK Airport does not work that way. So dear reporter friends now you can see that that was not a news to print and that’s why your paper is called Tabloid and New York Times is called the best newspaper in the country.
?ed USA was ranked 25th in the world. Please check..http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0923110.html). There are more than 13000 yellow cabs in New York City in 2 shifts. That means there are minimum 26000 drivers are driving yellow cabs everyday. Just for example if we say that 10000 cabs comes and goes (10,000 X 2 = 20,000) through toll ways. Out of that half of the cab drivers use EZ pass lane and the other half uses cash lane. There is a .93 cent difference in EZ pass. Which is about a dollar. So everyday the city is getting a dollar more from the cab driver for each ride. That is $10,000 dollar a day ( I did not count the passengers coming from Long Island, Queens, Brooklyn, Bronx and so on), multiply that with 30 days for a month ($300,000.00) and 365 days a year (3,650,000.00). Now you can see that the cab drivers are giving the city $3.65 million dollars GIFT every year. So by using the cash lane we are doing the city a $3.65 million dollars worth of favor.

I hope this will clear any confusion about cab drivers ripping off the passengers. The biggest rip off is done by the New York City which is adding .50 cent on every ride. That is a separate issue and I will explain the issue in a separate post.

Another very important thing…you, the reporters should know, you guys most probably were born with a silver spoon, if not gold spoon in your mouth. But we, the immigrants are not that lucky. We work 12 straight hours to support out family. The very first rule of driving is the wheels of the car have to be moving. We make .40 cents every 60 seconds when not in motion or traveling at less than 12 miles per hour. At the same time we can go at least 8 to 10 city blocks when we are moving fast. So we can make at least double if not triple in that same minute. Now tell me who is the foolish one here..? We, the cab drivers or YOU guys who suggested that otherwise..?

I hope I could clear out the confusion about us. Please next time before you guys write some thing bad about the yellow cab drivers, please Do learn how to do the math and if the math make any sense to everyone. New York City passengers know to differentiate the facts from the lies. Remember you guys are nothing but Tabloid gossiper.