We Say, "Down with Lyft": CPUC Say, "Down with Us"

San Francisco taxicab drivers held the biggest protest yesterday in the thirty years that I've been driving a cab. As a low estimate, 1,000 taxicabs circled City Hall. There may have been more. A crowd filled the steps. There were numerous brilliant speeches given by cab drivers, handicapped people, a taxi company owner and the head of a credit union.

At approximately the same time as the protest ended, I received this e-mail from the CPUC.

antonina.swansen@cpuc.ca.gov	3:43 PM (5 hours ago)
to me

This email provides service of Cmmr Peevey's Proposed Decision. The full text is made available through the link provided below on July 30, 2013. A Notice of Availability has been served by mail to all persons on the service list.

Summary: Proposed Decision Decision adopting rules and regulations to protect public safety while allowing new entrants to the transportation industry. Opening comments, which shall not exceed 15 pages, are due no later than August 19, 2013. Reply comments, which shall not exceed 5 pages, are due 5 days after the last day for filing opening comments. .

In the event of problems with the e-mail or the internet link, please contact Antonina Swansen at avs@cpuc.ca.gov, (415) 703-2546.

The afore-mentioned "internet link" did not work for me. So, the above is all I have for the moment. ABC news has reported that the decision will allow the illegal rideshares to become legal. But any relation between what ABC reports and reality is purely accidental. Until I can actually read what Swansen sent me, I won't understand what the decision really means.

In the meantime, we have thirty days from either now or the 24th to formulate arguments to sway the CPUC commission of the virtues our positon. In the meantime here are some photographs of the rally.

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.