By: Mike Mustiglione
With the rise of Uber and Lyft, livery cabs throughout the five boroughs have taken it on the chin – a fact that was recently elucidated in a feature story by the Associated Press.
The story chronicles what may be a bygone era.
“That’s how much parents trust the base. We are part of the community,” says Orlando Lantigua, a veteran livery driver, as he recalls instances of very real customer service – like trusting passengers to pay him later, or shuttle their kids to or from school.
These small businesses, “many times owned by Latino immigrants, are dwindling rapidly: There were nearly 22,000 livery cabs in New York in 2015, and there are approximately 9,600 now, according to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission,” noted AP. “More than 100 livery cab bases have closed their doors since 2015, when ride-hailing apps like Uber and Lyft began to provide a large number of trips, cutting into their business. This year alone, 46 have shut down. By law, livery cabs, which are also often used for airport trips, cannot be hailed in the street but are authorized to pick up paying passengers when booked by phone.”
The piece quotes the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), by whose count in excess of 100 livery cab bases have closed their doors since 2015, when apps began to provide a large number of trips.
“But that measure,” the story’s author, Claudia Torrens, explained, “aimed at giants like Uber, has inadvertently pummeled livery cab companies, which are now asking to be exempt from the cap and be given their own specialized license, claiming that the city needs to look at them individually instead of coming up with a one-size-fits-all solution that is putting them on the path to extinction.”
According to TLC, between December 2017 and December 2018, trips in all TLC-licensed vehicles went up 11%, an increase of more than 2.9 million trips. Shared trips citywide went up 39%. Northern Crown Heights had the greatest number of shared trips, at almost 120,000 in Dec. 2018, followed by Bushwick South.
Meanwhile, Uber continues to make headlines, and not always for great reasons. Co-founder Travis Kalanick “continues to dump shares in his old company,” CNBC reported recently. The former CEO of the ride-hailing giant “has sold more than $250 million in stock, according to a financial filing submitted to the SEC. That brings his total sell-off to almost $1.71 billion in a series of sales that began on Nov. 6, when the company’s 180-day restriction on inside and early investor sales ended. Kalanick was ousted as CEO in 2017 following accusations of sexual harassment and discrimination at Uber under his leadership.”
