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Baby you can drive my TAXI

Taxi Commission officials say hundreds of medallion holders aren�t driving cabs, and that�s against the law

A A A Comments (1) By A.C. THOMPSON Wednesday, Feb 14 2007

...continued from page 4

It's approximately 8:30 on Sunday night and the cabbie, who doesn't have a medallion, zooms toward the airport, a drowsy Manhattan bond trader in the back seat. The bond guy journeyed to California to hunt wild boar with buddies in Sonoma for the weekend, and is now headed back to New York and the Wall Street hustle.

As he drives, the cabbie breaks down the economics of the taxi business. He'd paid a $78 "gate" fee to rent the cab and medallion, and so far — about three hours into the shift — he's yet to break even. "That 20 minutes without a fare sucks," he says. "That'll put a hole in your night. You need to be busy every minute, constantly busy."

James Sanders

At the Taxi Commission, Heidi Machen and Jordanna Thigpen are rooting out medallion fraud.

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Of course, things will be different if he ever gets a medallion. Then he'll able to lounge around, get creative with the paperwork, and stash away a couple thousand per month — all for doing absolutely nothing.

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03/17/2012 5:21:00 AM

Many in San Francisco want more cabs on the street. The current situation has been greed demonstrated by the current cab companies and medallion owners who take advantage of the gates and gas driver. The current system is not working and if cab companies and medallion owners were smart in the past they would have taken care of their own, instead of taking advantage of the poor working class of gates and gas drivers. The taxi industry should be ashamed of themselves instead of blaming the SFMTA from breaking up the current corrupt system. Taxi Medallion Owners and Taxi Companies for years have been eating their own by not providing safe working conditions, proper safety nets, and an appropriate working environment. This was the seed that was sewn. Its too late for the evil to continue. The SFMTA could clean up some of the corruption and make a more level playing field for all of those involved in the taxi industry! After all the medallions are ultimately owned by the city anyway. Imagine if all of the gates and gas drivers who got screwed by the industry in its current state came out and spoke out to the public! Imagine if all of the people who have been discriminated against by the current drivers in the industry came out to speak, people who just wanted a ride but got kicked out of the cab because they were gay, a woman, or an ethnicity that the driver did not want in their cab! Go ahead and put your ballot measure on, there will be lots of opposition to your measure. This is not a labor issue, it is a greed issue for the taxi companies and medallion owners so they can keep what they got by taking advantage of gates and gas drivers for years to come, and not give the gates and gas drivers anything to protect themselves!