Chris Hayashi: More Appreciation

I owe Deputy Director Christiane Hayashi an apology for the limp article I wrote yesterday in her defense. I was trying to walk on egg shells and sidestep the critics. What a joke! To act is to create critics.

Let me make a correction: Hayashi is the best thing to happen to the cab industry in the twenty-seven years that I've been in it. And, if you don't like it, you can suck those egg shells.

I was speaking to a MTA official yesterday who said that she thought Hayashi was doing a pretty good job. That's like saying Beethoven was a pretty good pianist.

Putting the Pilot Plan together was not a "pretty good job" it was an impossible feat. The only other person who I thought might have been able to bring the taxi industry together would have been the Obama of 2008.  Maybe you had to be there but I'll try to explain.

The recent protests should give you some idea of how hard it was to put the plan together. For instance, Tariq Mahmood and Brad Newsome are both loudly calling for drivers to strike. They both agree about the 5% but little else. Brad wants to stop the sales of cabs and return to the sentimental days of Prop K while Tariq wants open auctions. How could you make a policy that they will both want out of that?

Hayashi was faced with the same challenge a year and half ago - only it was much more complicated. The sides were:

• Pre-K medallion holders who despised
• Post-K medallion holders who snobbishly looked down upon
• Non-medallion holding drivers not on the Waiting List who hated all medallion holders and disliked 
• Non-medallion holding drivers on the List who, along with all the other groups, hated 
• The owners who hated the medallion holders and each other and, along with all other groups, hated
• The MTA who thought of everyone in the cab business as potential serfs in an endless money stream.

Of course I'm greatly over-simplifying but I'm running out of time. The general wisdom of the day was that nobody could get cab drivers to agree on anything.

Hayashi's dictum was that "everyone will get something but no one will get everything they want."

She listened to everyone's ideas and gradually crafted the plan out of the hostility and chaos using an awesome blend of creativity and critical analysis. She put plan after plan up on her famous white boards, constantly crossing ideas out, adding other ideas, merging thoughts - always working toward something everyone could accept, if not love. Day by day, meeting by meeting, the boards changed as if they were blank music sheets being worked and re-worked by a master composer. In the end, only the UTW failed to go along and they still got a Driver's Fund and a Waiting List left intact.

But what about those damn back-seat terminals?

Once again, Hayashi wanted the back-seat terminals put in because she had been led to believe that the VeriFone prompting system would make the cab drivers way more money than the 5% they would spent on credit card charges. The jury is still out on this but, if she's wrong, she's wrong. It's not a crime.

When she discovered that many drivers did not like the back-seat terminals and hated the 5% she looked around and found Square as a 2.75% alternative.

Perhaps the greatest quality that Chris Hayashi has is her flexibility. If you show her a better option she'll more than likely go for it.

The Town Hall Meeting starts in about an hour. Let her know what you think. She's a great listener.

I don't time to proof this because I have to make the meeting. My apologies for any errors.

Chris Hayashi: An Appreciation

The first time I saw Chris Hayashi was at an MHA board meeting where she had come on a Saturday to do "outreach." She introduced herself, sat down with a cup of coffee and was soon joking and laughing with the drivers. The most ordinary of scenes yet I was struck by how extraordinary it really was.

When former Taxi Commission Director Heidi Machen said that cab drivers "were all either ex-convicts or soon would be" she was merely expressing publicly a view that most people in City Hall appeared to hold in private.

Back in the day, for instance, every time I renewed my A-Card a woman used to tell me that I should feel "honored and privileged" to be driving a taxi in San Francisco. After listening to this for three years, I said, "and the City of San Francisco should feel honored and privileged to have me driving here." She stared back, appalled by my impertinence.

And, so-called liberal Supervisor Carol Ruth Silver once decided to run on a platform of "improving" taxi service. Her idea of doing this was to herd a group of us into a room, make us stand in a straight line and have us show her our identification cards while she walked back and forth glaring at us like the commandant of a penal colony. When I asked her what the point was, she ordered me to, "Shut up!"

So, taken in context, to see the Director of Taxis joking and laughing with a bunch cab drivers just like they were humans was an extraordinary thing - that would soon become ordinary through repetition.

Listening to Drivers.

No slander could be more absurd than the current image (fueled by half-truths, innuendo, quotes out of context and lies) of Hayashi as a super snob colluding with the companies to cheat the drivers whom she despises.

On the contrary. She's a driver's director. She's the only person in the taxi industry (in government for that matter) ever to ask me what I thought or wanted. And, I'm not alone. She didn't only talk to medallion holders. She did "outreach" with  the SFCDA and the UTW.

Her Town Hall meetings have been a model for openness and free discussion. The Pilot Plan was put together primarily from driver's suggestions. When Hayashi realized that most drivers weren't coming to the meetings, she set up a table at the SFO so she could hear what the airport players had to say.

In short, she has given many drivers a voice for the first time.

What Else Has she Done for the Drivers?

 - She's written legislation outlawing enforced tipping by taxi companies. Faced with (how shall I put it?) the SFPD's lack of enthusiasm for cooperating with Taxi Services, Hayashi has drafted and passed legislation that would allow her staff to bust illegal limos and taxis.

- She also spent a year fighting for the funds to hire two investigators who are being trained and should start enforcing the above laws soon.

- She helped the drivers create the Pilot Plan which kept Former Mayor Gavin Newsom from destroying the taxi industry as we know it.

Without Hayashi, either all cabs would have been sold at open auction or some mad plan by MTA Board member Malcom Heinicke for creating endless income streams would be holding sway.

Without Hayashi, there would be no Driver's Fund and the Waiting List would be history.

Hayashi has also been the main advocate for Cabulous which is already boosting the incomes of many drivers and will help everyone - drivers and customers - once Open Taxi Access is accepted.

Thoughts on the Protest

If nothing else yesterday's protest was the biggest in my 27 years of cab driving, topping even the famous anti-Feinstein demonstration of 1984. It was truly awesome with honking taxis circling the block around City Hall for at least 4 hours.

• The 1984 rally took place just before the Democratic convention that year and probably cost Diane Feinstein the chance to be the first woman to run as a Vice Presidential candidate.
• Nonetheless Feinstein won the argument, put more cabs on the street (the issue of that day) and went on to become a very powerful U.S. Senator.

• Lesson - honking horns don't necessarily make policy.

The drivers made their point - they don't like electronic waybills and they don't want to pay credit card charges. In addition, there were about a dozen other things that the hundred or so drivers who spoke at the MTA Board meeting either liked or didn't like - including some of which (selling cabs at open auctions or putting an end to the sales program) contradicted each other. 

• Most of the drivers were, as advertised, the ones (mostly non-medallion holders) you never see at meetings.
• But there were also a fair number of medallion holders including friends from the SFCDA.

Misplaced aggression?

Many of the drivers complained about being forced to open bank accounts by companies like Yellow and Luxor; or being forced to give their social security numbers to open these accounts; or being hit by transaction charges; or being threatened if they tried to use Square or other Apps. If so, it should have been the companies that the drivers were protesting - not Taxi Services. To clarify:

• A driver does not have to use the back-seat terminal.
• He or she is entitled to use Square or any other App to process the credit card receipts.
• A driver should never pay more than 5% including all banking fees.
• If the drivers are being overcharged or threatened by a company they should contact Taxi Services.

At the Board Meeting I rhetorically asked, "If Green Cab can afford to pay their drivers credit card receipts why can't Yellow or Luxor Cab?"

• Actually my feeling are stronger than that.
• If Yellow and Luxor can't do anything without cheating their drivers, why should they get any break at all?
• To put it crudely: If they aren't satisfied with saving a $ million a year - screw 'em. They should continue picking up the tab.

Now for the most popular parts of my post.

I still think the back-seat terminals might work if installed properly and that they should be given a chance to prove or disprove their value.

• http://phantomcabdriverphites.blogspot.com/2011/04/tip-prompting-will-it-make-drivers-more.html
• http://phantomcabdriverphites.blogspot.com/2011/04/back-seat-terminals-demonstrated.html
• http://phantomcabdriverphites.blogspot.com/2011/04/back-seat-vs-front-seat-tipping.html

Higher Math or Cutting Off Your Nose to Spite Your Face.

• One driver said that the 5% cost him $4.00 on a $24.00 ride. "It cost me my tip," he said. Actually, dude, what you lost at 5% is $1.20.
• The suddenly omnipresent Dean Clark claimed that the 5% would cost him $300 a month.
• Have either one of these guys calculated how much NOT taking credit cards would cost them every month?
• I mean, two $10 rides a day should easily cover the 5% charge.

A suggestion.

Since you guys started complaining and refusing to take credit cards, I've been getting the best tips I've ever had in my life. I think of you as my living tip prompters.

When a customer gets in and nervously asks, "Do you take credit cards?" I smilingly say, "Of course I take credit cards - my customers always come first."

I repeat: the best tips I've ever had in my life. And, after the protests yesterday, they'll only get better.

Try a little showmanship. Smile through the pain.

Correction: Sorry Royal

Awhile ago, I wrote a post that accused Royal Cab of being one of the companies that illegally charges their drivers for cashing credit card receipts.

It has since come to my attention that my information was incorrect.

Royal only cashes the receipts on Wednesdays. They do not charge for this service. However, if a driver doesn't want to wait until Wednesday, he or she can put the receipts through on a VeriFone account for which there is a 5% charge.

I'd like to apologize to Chris Sweis, the CEO of Royal Cab, for not researching my article more thoroughly.

Cabulous and Open Taxi Access: Overview

Cabulous is an App that allows direct communication between a cab driver and a cab user via an iPhone or a Droid. Taxi Magic, which works exclusively with Luxor Cab, and the infamous Ubercab offer similar services.

As such, they are in direct competition with each other: Cabulous and Taxi Magic, legally, and Uber, to the extent that it goes after taxi business, illegally.

 Open Taxi Access (OTA) is a system or a network that potentially can graphically represent all available taxis in San Francisco on a map of the city. This map would show the approximate locations of all the cabs.

Taxi Magic and Cabulous (but not Uber) could be linked in this network so that, although they would still be in competition, they would also compliment each other. If, say, a customer used Taxi Magic, he or she would be unable to also use Cabulous to hail a cab. The problem of customer contacting multiple taxi companies could disappear.

Thus the cab driver's nightmare of spending five minutes riding to an order only to see the customer driving away in another taxi would be greatly reduced by OTA.

In addition, the customer living at 36th and Santiago would no longer feel the need to contact multiple companies when he or she could look at the map of the city and simply choose the closest taxi.

Thus the customer's fears of never getting a taxi might gradually wither away.

Next: Cabulous and OTA in more detail.

Open Taxi Access Killed?

There were strange goings on at the SFMTA back on April 11th and 12th.

There was supposed to be a hearing on Open Taxi Access (OTA) held by the MTA's Policy and Governance Committee at 9 am on April 12, 2011. Instead, some people were informed (misinformed?) on April 11th that the agenda item was being postponed. Then the item was apparently discussed anyway and tabled.

I wasn't paying the matter much attention because I was under the impression that OTA was a done deal. So all I'm doing is passing on rumors.

Depending upon who you talked to, the matter was;

1. Tabled by Mayor Ed Lee because he didn't want to spend $405,000.
2. Send back to TAC for discussion by MTA board member Jerry Lee for the same reason.
3. Killed by President and General Manager of Luxor Cab John Lazar's huge back-door presence.

This might be a delaying tactic but if so why? TAC has already discussed OTA and most of the councilors appear to be in favor it.

On the other hand, there is little doubt that John Lazar feels threatened by Cabulous and thinks that giving OTA city money would undermine his own application, Taxi Magic, and thus hurt his business.

Tip Prompting: Will It Make Drivers More Money?

I guess I'll add my two cents to the debate that has been well (but not totally) covered by John Han in TaxiTownsf. There are a few things  that John failed to touch upon.

Why the back-seat terminals?

The main reason why Deputy Director of Taxi Services Christiane Hayashi chose to have the VeriFone back-seat terminals installed was that she was convinced that customers would tip more because of tip prompting built into the PIM units.

It was supposed to be a classic Hayashi "something-for-everyone" scenario: the companies would save millions of dollars per year by not paying credit card fees. The drivers would make much more than the 5% that they would have to pay. "Win-Win."

Hostility

What Hayashi failed to foresee was the hostility on the part of the drivers to the very idea of paying credit card fees at all. Most of them can't get beyond the fact that they have to pay 5% and simply don't believe VeriFone's claims.

In fact, I don't think I've seen minds this closed since my childhood in the 1950's when my neighbors were shocked by troublemakers claiming that black people were just as good as whites. An extreme example, it's true, but the sense of outrage and the unwilling to even entertain the possibility that Hayashi might be right are much the same. No less a personage than John Han himself told me that VeriFone's claims were wrong before he'd ever looked at one of their terminals.

Reason's for the Hostility


Most taxi companies, like Luxor and Yellow, are already coercing a minimum of 10% of their drivers incomes in the forms of tips and other scams. The drivers can't or won't complain about this because they are afraid of not being able to get a shift or of being fired.

You add another 5% to this 10% and figure becomes substantial - almost like a social security tax. But, this 5% is dictated by the MTA, not the companies, so it give the drivers a safe outlet for their frustration and their fury. They can scream all they want at Chris Hayashi or Nat Ford and still keep their jobs.

Another source of angst are the merchant accounts set up by Yellow and Luxor that reputedly hit the drivers up for bogus fees and charges.

What Me Worry?


It has been pointed out that I'm not only a medallion holder but I work for Green Cab. Now - that's what I call a "win-win" in this situation. I don't have to pay any fees and, according to Han's post, in the long run I could end up befitting in other ways.

However, being out of the line of fire does have it's good points. Not having a direct stake (at least not in the short term) in the debate allows me to keep a calm frame of mind. I can perhaps look at both sides of the question without becoming hysterical.

Anecdotal Evidence -  Drivers


I'm getting second hand reports of drivers claiming that they are getting tipped less than they were before and that they are sometimes being stiffed. And, I'm sure that John Han will soon regal his readers with more such tales.

But, I confess that I'm a bit dubious about these claims. Not that I doubt their truth. What I'm not sure of is whether or not they mean anything. I have some questions:

• Do the people making these claims actually keep records of their tips from the past?
• Have they never been stiffed before on a credit card?
• Attitude is so important in getting a tip. Are these drivers saying things like, "the damn companies are screwin' us again. They made us install these effing back-seat terminals. Nobody's tippin' me. You got cash?" Such outbursts might have a negative effect on your income.
• Do you realize that this is April? The slowest month of the year. For those of you who keep records, do you get the same tips in April that you do in October.

The fact is that it would take about three to six months to make a study that meant anything and at least a month to make a meaningful comparison between those with back-seat terminals and those without. 

Fortunately, we have just such a study taking place.  And, if those of you who do keep records (especially before and after back-seat terminal records) could make them available, an answer to the question - Do the back-seat terminals stimulate more 5% in tips? - might be found.

Personally, I'm looking forward to finding the truth. If the back-seat terminals actually do improve driver income, I'm going to urge Green to put them in.

Anecdotal Evidence - My Own Experience

The above image of the bitching cab driver didn't come solely from my imagination. I've had a number of customers lately who have complained about drivers with the back-seat terminals either whining about the units or refusing to take credit cards.

"I'd have given him a big tip," one attractive woman told me, "but the jerk wouldn't take my card."

Instead, she gave the big tip to me. In fact, my tips from customers who'd been whinged at by back-seat terminal cab drivers is about 10% above normal.

Not that I'd be so dictatorial as to suggest a change in attitude among other drivers.

I've started keeping records and my own experience of using a dashboard PIM unit is that I get tipped better in cash. I mean, a random customer might throw a twenty at me for an $8.50 ride but this almost never happens on a credit card.  I'd estimate that my credit card tips are about 10% less than my cash tips and also about 10% less than I thought they'd be.

But ... it's still April.

Anecdotal Evidence - New Yorkers

For whatever it's worth, I've been asking both New Yorkers and frequent Big Apple visitors what they thought of the back-seat terminals. The response has generally been enthusiastically in favor of them. The only complaint has been about the advertising. One woman told me that the first thing she does when she gets in the cab is turn off the damn TV.

Without exception, the dozen or so people I queried said that they tipped more on the back-seat terminals. This is an option that is backed up by UTW Rua Graffis  (hardly a Hansu Kim groupie) who says that New York drivers tell her that, indeed, they get tipped better than they did BT - before back-seat terminals.