The Tesla Model 3 is the first electric vehicle approved as a yellow cab in New York City, and the first one has hit the road.
In October 2019, Electrek was first to report that the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), which oversees the city’s fleet of yellow cabs, has approved the Tesla Model 3 as the first electric vehicle to be eligible to become a yellow cab in New York City.
Continue readingNew York State’s attorney general has accused New York City of committing fraud by significantly inflating the value of yellow taxi medallions and demanded $810 million from the city to compensate the thousands of cabdrivers who are now saddled with debt.
The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission marketed the medallions — city-issued permits required to own a yellow cab — as “a solid investment with steady growth” and reaped a profit from the sale of thousands of them at artificially high prices over a 14-year period, from 2004 to 2017, according to an investigation by the attorney general’s office.
The attorney general, Letitia A. James, formally notified city officials on Thursday that she planned to sue the city for fraud, unlawful profit and other violations of state law within 30 days unless the city agreed to provide financial relief to the cash strapped taxi medallion owners.
Officials at the Taxi and Limousine Commission did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Continue readingFear of catching the coronavirus has some cabbies and ride-share drivers discriminating against customers.
“I feel bad about it, but when I see Chinese passengers, I just go,” one cab driver — who asked that his name be withheld, lest his hack license get suspended — told The Post. “I don’t pick up anyone Chinese. I’m scared. I don’t want to get the disease.”
Continue readingFrom the outside, Manny Anzalota’s yellow cab looks just like all the others cruising around New York City, but for Anzalota, the experience has been anything but ordinary. Each ride is a surprise adventure. Since he began driving a taxi in 2007, his customers have run the gamut from mediterranean royalty to billionaires and Hollywood celebrities.
Anzalota’s numerous encounters with the rich and famous and his signature black fedora have earned him a reputation as the unofficial cabbie to the stars. Known as “Mr. Ferrarii,” a nickname given to him by actor Tom Hanks—whom he drove in 2013 and is still in touch with—Anzalota has turned himself into a bit of a social media personality, posting selfies and videos with the likes of Anderson Cooper, Drew Barrymore, Frances Turner and even Prince Pavlos of Greece and his wife, Princess Marie-Chantal. Entrepreneur and investor Michael Loeb, whom Anzalota has coincidentally driven twice, invited him to his famous Halloween extravaganza at his Upper East Side residence and also gave him a private tour of his home. His trip with British hedge fund billionaire Michael Platt recently went viral.
Continue readingA decade ago the federal government stepped in to bail out the nation’s biggest banks. Now it may be time to for New York City to bail out its cabbies.
A New York City Council commission released a report Friday recommending a publicly managed fund to bail out thousands of taxi drivers struggling to pay back six-figure and even seven-figure loans they took out to buy the official city taxi medallions that allow them to legally operate a cab in the five boroughs of New York.
Continue readingFederal prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible lending fraud in New York City’s troubled yellow taxi industry.
The New York Times reports the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is investigating the lending practices that led thousands of cab drivers to take out high-risk loans that left them buried in debt.
Drivers who took out large loans to buy the medallions that allow a person to operate a yellow taxi were crushed by debt when the value of a medallion plunged from more than $1 million in 2014 to less than $200,000 today.
Continue readingWith thousands of struggling New York City yellow cab drivers like Mouhamadou Aliyu desperate for a bailout, elected officials on Thursday quarreled over who should pay for it.
Aliyu, 47, emigrated from the Ivory Coast to New York in 1994 in hope of a better life. Now, thanks to plummeting yellow cab medallion values and predatory lending practices, he’s $700,000 in debt and often considers killing himself.
“I’m under water. I can barely survive,” said Aliyu, who bought a taxi medallion for $370,000 in 2004. “We are asking for relief because we really have nothing to do with all this suffering, but we’re the ones who are paying the price.”
Continue readingFrom the outside, Manny Anzalota’s yellow cab looks just like all the others cruising around New York City, but for Anzalota, the experience has been anything but ordinary. Each ride is a surprise adventure. Since he began driving a taxi in 2007, his customers have run the gamut from mediterranean …
Federal prosecutors have opened an investigation into possible lending fraud in New York City’s troubled yellow taxi industry. The New York Times reports the U.S. attorney’s office in Manhattan is investigating the lending practices that led thousands of cab drivers to take out high-risk loans that left them buried in debt. …
With thousands of struggling New York City yellow cab drivers like Mouhamadou Aliyu desperate for a bailout, elected officials on Thursday quarreled over who should pay for it. Aliyu, 47, emigrated from the Ivory Coast to New York in 1994 in hope of a better life. Now, thanks to plummeting …
This commute comes with a (potential) cash payout. Ben Bailey’s “Cash Cab” is set to begin filming in Manhattan again this summer, this time under a new network. The taxi cab game show has been acquired by Bravo, after airing two revived seasons on Discovery, the network confirmed. The 11th …
Anthony J. Medina, who was charged with pretending to be a city law enforcement official to intimidate yellow cabdrivers, was arrested after an investigation in The New York Times. In the rough-and-tumble New York City taxi industry, Anthony J. Medina was an enforcer. For years, Mr. Medina was the go-to …
Every working cab driver should get involved to use this website to share; Here is one to start the discussion; It’s time to get rid of the taxi TV from yellow and green cabs, and these TV should be installed with the partition in every UBER car!
Patience is not lost on Ali Abubakar among the hustle of a New York rush hour. A yellow-cab driver from the South Bronx, Abubakar, 43, was one of 493 professional drivers the city honored Wednesday for their sterling driving record. Abubakar completed 10,830 trips between 2016 and 2018 without a …
