Dear Passengers,
Question: If 2 cars run a red light, one of them is a yellow cab and another one is a regular car..which one will be stopped by Police to issue a Ticket..?
Question: If 2 /3 or even 4 cars are standing in a no standing zone and one of those is a yellow cab, guess which one will be given a ticket..?
Question: If 2 or more cars are crossing the street and all of a sudden the front cars stopped and 2 or 3 cars are on the cross road mark..guess which one will be singled out…

Question: If few cars were speeding and one of them is a yellow cab..guess which one will be given the ticket for speeding…?

The answer is as easy as abcd..in all the situations the scapegoat will be the yellow cab..yellow cabs are may be most effective mode of transportation in New York City but Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) and The city of New York specially The Police department treat these cab drivers who are relentlessly carrying passengers to their destinations like dirt…yellow cabs are such an easy target of any kinds of propaganda that it is unbelievable. The TLC which are run by the city with the money earned from the cab drivers are may be the single worst people to deal with.

A cabbie has practically no rights, a cabbie means thief, a cabbie means Liar, a cabbie means worst than a dirt…even the so called mayor treats are like criminals…I urge the Taxi Commissioner to drive a yellow cab for a month and I can bet with my life that the experience will open his eyes so wide open that it would never be closed..the kind of abuse the cab drivers take from each of the way from Police, TLC that it seems we are living under Saddam Hussein where the very people he governed had no rights what so ever…

The TLC Commissioner is born with a silver spoon..may be a gold spoon in his mouth..the vast majority of Cab drivers are poor people who came to this land of opportunity to support his family. The Commissioner would never be able to even fathom the idea of sending money for the hungry family to Africa, To India, to Bangladesh and so on…let alone understand the situation. The cab drivers work 12 hours straight and many times they earn after paying for the lease, gas and food..they may end up with 30 to 40 dollars..that’s like $3 to $4 dollars an hour…yes sometimes if the day is great then they may earn $100 for themselves and that amount is close to the minimum wage. A cab driver does not become millionaire by driving cab. Most cab driver work 72 hours a week taking one day off…he makes more money for the garage (average lease in Day time is $108X6=$648 plus gas and food..and night time is about $125 X 6=$750 plus gas and food is about $40 a shift) than for him in any given week. And if he gets one or 2 tickets ..that means..the whole week’s worth of money is gone..

Why the cab is the safest bet for city to issue a ticket..because the cab drivers normally do not go to the court and fight for the ticket..they rather pay than going to the court where they know that there is not even a 5% chance to win the ticket..The Police, The TLC and the Ticket agents all know how to write tickets..they all know what to say in front of the judge so that the tickets sticks..because they are professional and boy they know how to write the ticket the right way…I wonder one thing..New York City issues thousands of tickets every year…in fact the number is in millions..and only a handful of the tickets were dismissed as the faults of the issuers..what is that really mean..? Isn’t it really mean that all the people (in millions) are really liars..? I want to know one thing…how is it possible that so many people are liars and few thousands ticket issuing cops, TLC, agents are all St. Peters..? Think about that…

Now lets see if the TLC commissioner wants to experience the real taxi driver experience..he has to take a disguise as many people know his face…He has to wake up 3 in the morning..take a shower, shave then take subway to go to the leasing garage…say he reached there in an hour..then he has to give his hack license to the Taxi dispatcher…( there would be a $5 dollar bill underneath the hack license if he wants to be dispatched early….(Taxi dispatchers earn 3 to 4 times more than the cab driver in any given day as tips..if the Commissioner does not want to give the tip..then he has to wait..god knows how long..as there are no car to give him..may be if the dispatcher feels sorry for him then he will give a car to the Commissioner. At about 7 o clock..what do you do ..you try to doze off..watch TV..read newspaper..and so on)..then he will take the car to the city as most cab garages are out of the city..he still have to pay full lease money..so the Commissioner has to drive like crazy…because he only has may be 10 hours to go back..he tries to pick up passenger from the street..but in that morning..there are more cab than passengers..so he decides to go to hotels so that he can get an airport passenger…he waits in the line..there could be 10/15 cars are in the line..passengers are coming with luggage and to his surprise all those sharks ( door mans) start putting those luggage into different cars..from Livery cabs..to New Jersey or even Pennsylvanian license plates..and the Commissioner will see that right in front of his very own eyes..those sharks take money from those black cabs…may be 2 hours are gone..then his turn comes..guess what..he gets a Penn Station job…so at 9 o clock..he might have $20 to $30 dollars..the whole day is gone down the drain…he keeps driving on the streets..He met some very nice people..almost all the passengers are nice..that is the only good thing in driving the cab.

The commissioner turns the meter on…there is the extra 50 cent pops up..few ask about it..now how would he explain that that 50 cents are not going to the cab driver..rather it is going to MTA..who does not even know how to run their own dept..and expect Cab drivers to pay for it…. Everyday a cab driver take about 30 passengers .. so lets do the math.. there are 13000 cabs in one shift..so in 24 hours there are 26000 cabs X30 passengers X $.50 cent per trip= $390,000.00 dollars a day X 30 days = $11,700000 X12 month =$140,400000.00..so as you can see we, the cab drivers are generating about $140 million dollars extra income for the city…. In other words we the cab drivers are loosing a huge amount of money everyday as our tips…sometimes I wonder the passengers has nothing to do with the money..is it even legal..? Can we just charge passenger extra money but do not give them anything in exchange..? New Yorkers are the best passengers in the world..most of the passengers love us ..we are their friends for few minutes..we are the place to vent..to complaints about their husbands and wives..as they know we will never tell anything to their spouses…many passengers take cab everyday multiple times..and every times they get on a cab..extra 50 cents are being robbed from them..and still they give us tips..sometimes I feel embarrassed to accept the tips…So the commissioner was right..we are robbing the passenger..we are cheating the passengers..and all those cheating are city’s fault..the city tied our hands and made us liars and cheaters and robbers…

So the Commissioner comes back to the garage after having may be $40 to $50 dollars..then wait in the line to check the gas..then pay back the garage after doing the calculation..Credit card company charges the driver 5% as fee from every charge.Commissioner had to pay may be $15 for the surcharge he collected during his shift…after driving mostly in Manhattan..Where the roads are may be worst among all the cities of US..the ever going on construction. The pot holes, the uneven roads..the traffic, the congestion make his body pain..then he has to take a train to go home..when he comes home..it is about 14 to 15 hours later…and all he made is $40 to $50..or even $100…
He goes to sleep..but he cannot sleep..all those faces from back home are flushing in front of his eyes..how he will be able to feed those poor people …he cries..then goes to sleep..have to go to work again…tomorrow..
So Mr. Commissioner please do this routine for a month…you will change your views forever..I told you that your wide open eyes will never be able to be closed..

The Sixth amendment is broken everyday in TLC.. The Sixth Amendment says

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the State and district where in the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the Assistance of Counsel for his defense

But the cab drivers have no rights ..anyone can complaint against a cab driver but he/she does not have to be present in the court..so TLC did what they do best..already assumed that the cab driver is guilty..so there goes the rights given by the US constitution through the window..This is Wrong…the city is guilty of this but no one says anything about it…
I wish during the one month of driving..the Commissioner would get a complaint against him and his civil rights were violated..Only then he would know the pain of losing your basic rights guaranteed by the constitution…How could this be even legal..?

So dear passengers, next time you get into a cab please think that we are human being too (In fact you do think that we are human…but the city does not..especially the Billionaire, self elected and arrogant Mr. Mayor Bllomberg)