How Taxi Companies Rip Off Their Drivers

If you have been aggravated about what you perceive as high taxi fares, especially in New York or other major cities, and you think the drivers are making off like bandits, think again. I have been interviewing cabbies in major cities across the country about how they get paid and what they make, and the dollars can be pretty dismal except in rare cases, or where the Taxi Authority jacks up the rates for special events or major weather problems like the hurricane in New York on August 27^th that never came but the fares were doubled anyway.

I rode with Alvan Narine in Boston the other day. He is an immigrant from Trinidad and came to America thirty-five years ago, when he started driving cabs. Now he owns one at age 71 and drives three 12-hour shifts a week. The other days he rents his cab out to other drivers for $75 to $100 a day. He is responsible for all maintenance and insurance, while the drivers pay for gas.

I asked him what he can make if he has a really good day. His answer was maybe a hundred dollars.
He said a vast majority of drivers are immigrants and need the jobs, so they work like dogs for essentially minimum wage. They can get paid in two different ways: either by a percentage (usually about a third) of the gross fares, or by renting the cab by the day or week and paying all fuel costs.
If they rent, it is usually about $100 per day for their cabs plus fuel. So do the math. If they gross $200 in fares on a good day, they clear maybe $75 when you subtract gasoline costs. Would you like the hassle of driving through heavy traffic all day for eight or nine dollars an hour? Probably not.
The other problem with accepting credit cards, according to many drivers, is the delay in payment by the cab companies. They can take up to three weeks to remit the money back to the driver, according to a cabbie I spoke with in New York. So that means that when you pay by credit card, the driver is not getting the money at the end of the shift, has to pay a premium to get paid, and may have to wait until the cab company gets around to settling with him.

I have a suggestion for cab drivers: hire legal counsel and demand to know what the exact charges are for each kind of credit card that the taxi company must pay, and then tell the company owners that you expect to be paid for what you earned, less their actual costs. The cab companies should be in the business of supporting their employees, not extracting a penalty because their passengers elect to use a credit card rather than paying in cash. In my world, that is called fraud and if all cab drivers complain about it, maybe the companies will get the message.

still using Etch a Sketch to charge my credit card

@PTramutolo: Taxi driver says credit card machines don't work in the rain welll how the hell am I suppose to know that I have noo cash

@memcmp: @SafeNetInc I paid a taxi driver, he needs my credit card to swipe it on front. Now he can use it online, he has all data. #securechat

@blair10nelson: RT @kirstenstubbs: Seriously? In an age of space exploration & nanotechnology, taxi drivers are still using an Etch a Sketch to charge my credit card for fare?

"we appreciate cash"

"gives me sh** about paying with credit card"

My credit card machine doesn't work

"Safer to pay by credit card on internet vs. cabdriver"

Can I pay with credit or debit card in your cab?

September 27, 2011 Cabdrivers are hardworking people who put in long hours and deal with a lot of confused, impatient or drunken passengers. While many riders are polite, some are not (cough, Patrick Kane, cough), so I always make an extra effort to be courteous. I sit in the back seat, give clear directions, pay promptly and exit curbside. Every time I slide into a taxi's back seat, the city's passenger and driver bill of rights is on full display behind a layer of clear plastic. Yet my friends and I have found that many cabdrivers ignore one of those rights — the right to pay by credit or debit card. For me and many others, the debit card has become king. No longer do I have to worry about bills floating around or coins jangling around and taking up precious cargo space. And checks — well, checks are for rent and dinosaurs. Instead I use a thin piece of plastic — one thing to keep track of and one-stop access to my funds. But countless times my friends and I have been told that the cab is cash-only and the driver will not take our cards. The excuses vary — the machine is broken, there's no paper in the printer, your trip is too short to use a card, etc. I had one cabdriver ask if he could take me to an ATM to get him cash instead of paying with a card. Another time, even before I stepped into a cab, I announced that I planned to pay by card, and the cabbie drove off so fast he almost ran over my toes. Others who actually let us in the cab sometimes seem bitter and resentful — speeding, taking corners hard and trying to get us out as fast as possible. Why is it that some cabdrivers don't hold up their end of the bargain? Isn't it my right to use plastic? Efrat Stein, spokeswoman for Chicago's Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, said yes. If the cab doesn't have a back-seat swipe machine, the driver should have a machine in front, she said. If the machine isn't working, the driver can use a manual imprint machine or call in the credit card number to the company. "If their equipment is not working, the driver should have a backup," Stein said. Of the 6,800-some cabs in the city, only about 230 are independent and owner-operated and are not required to take credit cards, she said. "We are looking at changing this exemption and requiring all drivers to accept credit cards in the near future," Stein said. "If the driver's not going to accept a credit card, we encourage riders to call 311 to file a complaint," Stein said. "Have the cab number, company, time and date available when you call. Not taking a credit card is breaking our rules." While it's not required to tell the driver you're planning to use a credit card upon entering a cab, it might be a good idea to do so, Stein said. "It gives the driver a sense of how you expect to pay, as credit cards often take a bit longer than a simple cash exchange," Stein said. "That way they can be sure to pull over to a safe location appropriate to wait for a longer transaction." Kousay Ahmad, a cabdriver for City Service Taxi Association, said he doesn't mind cash or credit but has heard from passengers that his stand on payment is a rarity. "I have a machine in the back, and if that's not working, I'll run the card manually," Ahmad said. One problem with card swipers in the back of cabs is customers who don't know how to use them, Ahmad said. "If I'm pulling over on Michigan Avenue to let out a customer and they're taking forever with the machine, I'm obstructing traffic and I'm going to get a ticket from the police," Ahmad said. "That's not helping us." Mike Levine, owner of Yellow Cab Co., said when he came to Chicago in 2005 from New York City to take over the company, the difficulty of using credit cards in city cabs was the biggest complaint he heard from riders. The reason many drivers prefer cash, Levine said, is that they pay a 5 percent fee on each credit card transaction. Ahmad also cited the fee, saying, "If the trip is only $4 or $5 and the customer is paying credit, it's almost not worth it because we pay out 5 percent." But Levine said company research shows that credit card users tip about 18 to 20 percent, while those who pay with cash generally tip about 15 percent. "Our drivers are making more on tips with credit cards but pay out 5 percent," Levine said. "Essentially, they're losing 2 percent. I tell my drivers that they will always accept credit cards. If we can get that reputation, maybe they'll get business they normally wouldn't have." Since he joined Yellow Cab, Levine said he's made it his mission to put more card swipers in the back of cabs so passengers can avoid confrontation with the driver. Until all cabs have back-seat card machines, I'm sure I'll be wrestling with drivers to accept my plastic at the end of a long night. But I will still tip well, regardless.

"it is safer to use your credit card on the internet than in a taxi"

Granny Cabbie calling in a Credit Card Transaction

Boston cabbies deny credit cards

Scores of stubborn Hub cabbies have brazenly flouted a two-year-old city rule and flat-out refused to let cash-short riders use credit cards this year — with some drivers accused of lying and coercing customers into forking over hard currency, a Herald review of consumer complaints found. “All the time. It happens all the time,” Boston businessman William Shaw, 47, told the Herald after paying cash for a cab ride to South Station this week. “The struggles of living in the city are hard enough. I don’t want to struggle with a cab driver.” Boston police have fielded nearly 100 complaints since Jan. 1 accusing taxi drivers of spurning customer requests to use plastic to pay for their rides, the review found — even though cabbies have had to accept credit cards since 2009 and the processing fees were factored into a 16-percent fare hike. First-time offenders are slapped with a three-day suspension. Mark Cohen, chief of the Boston Police Department’s Hackney Carriage Unit, said the offenders belong to a small but persistent group of drivers who long for the cab trade’s bygone cash-only era. “They’re moving from an underground economy to the traditional role of a businessperson. There’s a general sense of uneasiness about that,” Cohen acknowledged. “It is not a rarity for a passenger to get into a cab in Boston, ask to pay with a credit card and be . . . refused or given a long song and dance about why it’s not a good idea for the cab driver.” A Herald reporter took several cab rides this week, asking after each trip whether he could pay with a credit card. Some drivers welcomed the plastic gladly, with one even offering the option. Another accepted a credit card payment but had a piece of black electrical tape draped over his card reader’s display. A third cabbie complained he made no money on credit card payments. “Why, you don’t got cash?” the driver said when he was offered MasterCard. After a pause, he added, “Drivers don’t make any money when you use the card.” Any answer other than “yes” is inappropriate, Cohen said. “If you say to the cab driver, ‘Do you take credit cards?’ and the cab driver says anything but ‘Yes,’ I consider that to be a bit of coercion,” Cohen said. “In the end, I think passengers are to some degree intimidated . . . and I think that’s wrong.” Boston taxi drivers do, in fact, profit from credit card transactions, Cohen noted. Card-processing fees are capped at 6 percent, and Cohen said those fees were factored into a 16-percent fare hike in 2009 to cover the cost of card readers and other business expenses such as gas price increases. That means cash-paying customers — currently, about two-thirds of Hub cab riders, Cohen said — are actually giving their drivers a bonus — another possible incentive for cabbies to discourage plastic. “If one third of the fares use credit cards, there’s another two thirds out there that aren’t even being charged that 6 percent,” Cohen said. “(Cabbies) win two out of three times currently. They are way far ahead.” Driver Naoufel Titiahi, 47, said credit cards are convenient for customers yet insisted they hurt his bottom line. “That 6 percent (processing fee) hurts us because we have family, kids to feed,” he said.

driver threatens to charge passenger 30% fee to accept card

i had a cabbie tell me that if I used my card, I would be charged a 30% fee on the total fare from the cc company. I told him he was full of crap (not the words I used) and he could either let me swipe my card, or he wasn't getting any money at all.

"Don't disrepect me."

This in not Manhattan, we don't take credit cards here.

Taxi Credit Card Charge occurs 2 Months after the ride was taken

Driver Asks for Credit Card #, Address & Phone #....(whoa)

It takes 22 seconds for the cabbie to figure out if he accepts credit cards

MSN Money: Times you shouldn't pay with plastic

Credit cards are convenient and offer you lots of protections -- but there are times when using them (or trying to) just buys trouble.

We're used to thinking of credit cards as something we can use whenever we choose. But a few recent stories are reminders that we either can't or shouldn't use credit cards for absolutely everything.

When you want a peaceful taxi ride

In some cities, taxi drivers may give you a hard time if you try to use a credit card to pay your fare -- in spite of the fact that their cabs may be festooned with American Express, Discover, MasterCard and Visa stickers. The Bay Citizen suggests that San Francisco may be the latest such city.

Apparently, cab companies have imposed a 5% fee on card transactions, and drivers are understandably resentful over having their incomes "taxed" in this way. The Bay Citizen website has a scary video of the sort of conversation you may expect if you try to flash your plastic in a San Francisco taxi.

Instant Fail

Sabotaging Taxi Credit Card Transactions

Manual Imprinting Credit Cards (& praying they are good & not sold to a strip joint)

Credit Card Info broadcasted over CB Radio

Credit card fail

San Fran cab credit card issues

Philly cabs don't like taking credit cards

The guy at the airport that buys/sells taxi credit card slips (yikes!)

more taxi credit card drama from the twitterverse

#verycomplicatedthings

cab driver heaves a sigh when you use a credit card

Ever had a cab driver heave a sigh when you use a credit card? Kristine Casman says that's nothing.

"I've had them get very angry, even when there's a sticker on the side of the taxi. It's like, 'You clearly displayed to me that you accept Visa,'" the 24-year-old Lincoln Park resident said.

The city of Chicago requires taxis to have equipment to accept all major credit cards, but some customers complain that drivers give them a hard time for not paying with cash. Some even say cabbies claim too often that the credit card machine is broken.

"Almost every other [bleeping] time," River Russell, 21, of Lakeview said. "They're probably faking it. It probably does work and they just want cash."

The Chicago Department of Business Affairs and Consumer Protection, which licenses taxicabs, says it does receive complaints about taxi drivers not taking credit cards.

"It's a violation and a fine," spokeswoman Efrat Stein said. "My suggestion would be for passengers to file a complaint with the taxicab number and the time and date."

Most cabdrivers are independent contractors who lease their cabs from taxi companies for a monthly rate. Drivers also pay credit card processing fees to the cab company.

At Yellow Cab, drivers pay 5 percent of the fare to swipe a credit card, which is standard across the industry, CEO Mike Levine said. This percentage covers the costs his company pays in swipe fees to banks and to rent the credit card terminals, he said.

When he receives complaints of drivers not taking credit cards, Levine says he investigates them and takes action if necessary, but drivers usually are just frustrated. Most of the time drivers still accept the credit card, he said, "but they grumble."

The driver agreed to waive the fare..if i didn't press charges

I was running late to an important doctor's appointment and the credit card machine in the cab wasn't working. I specifically asked before getting in the cab if he would take a credit card. After a lot of yelling and arguing about how I wasn't doing it right, he got into the back seat, swiped my card, and agreed the machine was broken. He offered to drive me to an ATM, but I was already late, and, after all the screaming, wanted to get away from him as quickly as possible. I got out of the cab, and the cabbie followed, grabbed my arm, and tried to take my purse ( I had no cash on me anyway). I had bruises on my arms for weeks. Luckily, someone driving by saw the assault, intervened, and called the police. The cops I'm sure had better things to deal with, and told me the cab driver had agreed to waive the $16 fare if I agreed not to press charges. I was so angry, but also still running late to my appointment, so I agreed, and the ordeal was over. I still wish I would have pressed charges against the cabbie--if he can assault one passenger, what is keeping him from doing it to others? I always thought cabs were the safest way to get around--not anymore. And while I don't know the driver or cab number, I will never ever ever take a City Service cab again.

if your driver tells you he won't take a card...just don't pay him.

Two weeks ago, a cab wouldn't take my credit card when I was getting a ride from O'Hare because his, "machine was broken." I went to Chicago's official website for reporting such instances, and the submission form was broken. I went to the contact form on the website to report that the complaint page was broken...(that worked). Two weeks later, no response. The city of Chicago isn't equipped to help you, you're on your own.

So essentially the lesson here is, if your cab driver tells you he won't take a card...

1) Just don't pay him.

2) Always ask before you get into the cab, that your legal right as a taxi rider are going to be respected.

3) This is for the super paranoid, take your luggage with you into the backseat so they can't hold your items ransom in exchange for a cash payment.

4) If you're forced to stop at an ATM to get cash, calculate how much money YOU make per hour, then multiply your rate x time you spent getting cash and going out of your way and subtract that from the total fare.


The system is broken and not enough people (myself included) have the energy to fight this ridiculous reality we're dealing with. Sure, this is the epitome of a #firstworldproblem, but regardless, this blog post is me trying to help fight the issue.

Hopefully someone who works for the city of Chicago is listening. If so, on a micro scale, you should have a chat with Cab #4619TX, on the macro, you should create an environment for taxis that doesn't result in them having to lie or deceive customers in order to maximize earnings from their livelihood. (In other words incentivize them for using cards, don't punish. That's how you change behavior for the better).

He immediately threatened to eighty-six me (for wanting to pay by card)

Last week, I got into a taxi and asked the driver if he accepted credit cards. He immediately threatened to eighty-six me. He didn’t even ask if I had money. I showed him a ten so he took me to my destination.

Wow it's amazing how all cabs in Chicago have broken credit card machines...

Dear taxi drivers, if your cab says it accepts credit cards, don't give me crap when i use one

Pretty sure the real reason Sherman burned this city down was because he, too, couldn't find a taxi that would take a credit card.

@nerdliness‎

#shady

a charge has mysteriously appeared on my work credit card for a taxi in Mpls on May 3 when I wasn't even there then!
@kgoingglobal‎

Noticed that a lot more SF taxis' credit card machines seem to be "broken"

@zoecorneli

All cabs are supposed to take cards right?

Apparently not this one! Way too expensive for having to take the damn bus home anyway.
@scalpelandspoon‎

Why do cab drivers put credit card machines in their cabs if they don't want you using them?

Chicago has gotten rude since I was here last!
@KLLogan‎

"Get out of my Cab" - to passenger who wants to pay by card

sorry the credit card machine is not working

Ed Meng just wanted to go home. It was late last Sunday night and Meng needed to get out of Potero Hill and back to his bedroom, stat. He didn't have any cash on him but he hailed a cab anyway, assuming he could use his credit card. He figured paying with his card was a safe bet because most San Francisco cab companies have willingly accepted plastic for years. Besides, thanks to a new SFMTA rule, all cabs operating in the city are now required to accept cards.

Things did not work out precisely how Meng had envisioned.

"When [the driver] picked me up, I said I need to pay with a credit card, and she immediately said, sorry the machine is not working," Meng recounted to the Appeal.

"I had no cash on me, so I asked if she had the swipey manual card thing they use to make carbon copies...and she flips out on me, starts screaming at me, so I got concerned and started filming it."

Meng's video reveals a tense situation. The driver won't accept Meng's card even though signage on the cab clearly states the contrary. She tries to kick Meng out of her cab, but he stands his ground asking for her name and her cab identification number. Eventually Meng gets a name and ID number, hops out of the cab and quickly hails another one who was more than happy to accept his card.

Stories of cab drivers feigning broken credit card scanners or just refusing to take cards have abounded in the months after SFMTA imposed a 5% processing fee on all credit card transactions.

Credit card usage in cabs has been on the rise in recent years and currently accounts for one third of all fare payments. Some in the industry, such as Yellow Cab General Manager Jim Gillespie, speculate cards could be used to pay for up to half of all trips within a decade.

In a business with margins as razor-thin as cab driving, some are opting to take the chance of losing a passenger's fare entirely in the hopes of forcing them to pay cash. With cash, not only do drivers get to keep all of what they earn, but those earnings could be entirely tax free if they simply "forget" to report them, some say.

Cabbies Request Cash After Credit-Card Fee Is Imposed

On a recent night, Sarah Rachlin hailed three separate cabs in San Francisco — one to an event in Pacific Heights, one to Russian Hill and one to downtown.

Each time, she said, the driver told her the credit-card machine was broken and requested cash. Ms. Rachlin, who works for a technology company in Silicon Valley, said she began to wonder, what was going on?

Other cab riders in San Francisco may well be asking themselves the same question.

But the problem isn’t mechanical. “All the machines are working just fine,” said Jeffrey Rosen, a cabbie. Rather, what would seem to riders to be an increase in malfunctions can be traced to a 5 percent fee that taxi companies recently imposed on drivers for credit-card transactions. The levy is one of many changes that in recent weeks have led cabbies to protest and threaten to strike.

But the fee has provoked another kind of rebellion: since the charge does not apply to cash payments, some drivers have decided to just say no to credit cards — even though all cabdrivers in the city are legally required to accept them.

Claiming the machine is broken is “a good excuse,” said Prithvi Upreti, a Yellow Cab driver for four years.

Some drivers are even bolder. Mychael Monroe, a driver for 22 years, said that “quite a few” drivers have added the word “no” to the “credit cards accepted” signs in their cabs.

It is not possible to know how common such practices are, but drivers, passengers and an industry regulator contacted by The Bay Citizen said that the number of cabbies refusing credit cards had increased markedly since the fee took effect.

Violators may face disciplinary action.

Many drivers who do not want to flout the rules have nonetheless started encouraging customers to pay with cash.

“Nobody has the right to refuse credit cards,” Mr. Upreti said. “They can politely tell customers that credit card is a pain.”

The fee stems from the large increase in credit-card use in recent years. Unhappy about having to cover transaction costs, the DeSoto Cab Company declared in April 2010 that it would stop accepting credit cards.

The San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency threatened to sue DeSoto. The company retreated and in July, the agency voted to allow companies to pass transaction costs on to drivers.

About three-fifths of the 5 percent charge covers credit-card fees. The rest goes toward the installation of new backseat “passenger information monitors.”

On Tuesday, after a series of town-hall-style meetings with drivers, the agency agreed to raise fares for the first time in eight years.

But the fee is not likely to go away because it puts San Francisco in line with Boston, Chicago, New York City and Philadelphia.

liars who say their credit card machines broken

@dovzmood
I've noticed taxi drivers get rather testy when you call them liars after they tell you that their credit card machines are broken.

#shady

@kgoingglobal
a charge has mysteriously appeared on my work credit card for a taxi in Mpls on May 3 when I wasn't even there then!

Cabbies charged 15% to take cards - no wonder they don't

Please Pay Cash!

Why bother protesting [credit cards] when they can just lie

I don't see the problem. The last time that I took a taxi to SFO, the driver just lied and said his credit card reader wasn't working. This is akin to their telling potential passengers that they're going off shift if they're given a destination where they don't want to go.

Why bother protesting when they can just lie

cash is faster & easier

You can only charge rides over $25

taxi credit card machines mysteriously break

You should check that the taxi's credit card machines don’t mysteriously break when you arrive at your destination, creating an awkward and occasionally contentious situation.

It’s fluky, but I’m sure the true taxi of the future will have overcome this glitch.

Watch the 8 minutes it took to charge my ride (at 4x speed)

Why do taxi cab drivers in San Francisco hate taking credit cards?

I've had cab drivers claim the machine is broken and argue with me about taking credit cards (from SFO) and saying the money comes out of their pocket. I tip nicely but i prefer to only use my cash for situations where credit cards really aren't an option and credit cards for everything else.

Dean Clark, Out of work teacher, having to drive ...San Francisco Cab Drivers Pay 5 to 10 percent of the fare to the credit card processing fees, so if your fare is 50.00 dollars they pay up to 5.00 to take your credit card. San Francisco Cabbies do not make a lot of money and are not covered by health insurance, retirement, nor uninsured motorist. In addition are responsible for paying taxes as an independent contractor. Every money they get a San Francisco Cab Driver needs. I myself as a cab driver don't mind taking credit cards, but the fees are killing the money I need to put food on my table for my family!

NYC Taxi companies are double charging credit cards

We spoke with the TLC after they reviewed our mailed-in complaint letter. We went over each of the double-charges on our statement and learned that the four charges that showed up on February 22 were in fact erroneous double charges.

The TLC official said that they have received numerous complaints about this. They explained to us that many cab drivers are still trying to discourage people from using credit cards. The drivers sabotage the meter so as to make it appear as if their system is unable to accept credit cards. When the passenger swipes their card the first time and the driver says, “It did not go through”, the charge did in fact go through. On one’s credit card statement, there will be a charge but no medallion will be associated with it. When the passenger swipes the second time, if the driver relents and enables the system, that charge will then be associated with a medallion.

If you see back-to-back identical charges from a NYC taxi on your billing statement, you were likely double charged. Look to see whether there are medallion numbers associated with each charge.

As if it were not bad enough in New York City to have many taxi drivers, years after the introduction of the credit card payment methods, still pretending to have broken credit card machines or becoming hostile and violent to passengers trying to use credit cards, the taxi drivers and cab companies are now double charging credit cards. BatteryPark.TV has been monitoring the monthly business card reports and has spotted numerous cases of identical, back-to-back, charges run through by taxi companies.

We are initiating a full investigation with our bank and the TLC. Stay tuned.

Meanwhile, this is a link on the TLC web site related to these problems. You can file a complaint with the TLC at this address:

Pansy Mullings

Deputy Commissioner

Taxi and Limousine Commission

2455 BQE West

Woodside, NY 113377

Sorry the machine is down

The City of Chicago requires that all non-independent taxis accept credit cards. (almost all cabs in the city are affiliated) However, when trying to pay with a credit card it is not uncommon for the driver to say something like "Sorry the machine is down," especially if they believe that you may be a tourist. It is however, considered polite and fair, as it does cost them to process the card, to pay in cash for short (ie. less than 15$) trips. If you can only pay with credit consider adding a dollar or two to the tip.

Australian Taxi driver charged with card fraud

A taxi driver has been charged with theft and deception for allegedly using a credit card left behind by a passenger.

Adelaide police say a woman used her card to pay for a fare early on Sunday.

It is alleged the driver, 21, took note of the PIN and used the card to withdraw money from an auto-teller in the city.

The man allegedly fled when questioned while making a purchase at a food store and was arrested by police a short time later.

Phoenix Cab Driver Involved In Credit Card Identity Theft Scam

Phoenix SWAT team officers have broken down the door of a Phoenix taxi driver's home near Interstate 17 and Greenway Road.

Phoenix police officers were at the home to serve a search warrant in connection with an arrest made Wednesday at a grocery store, Sgt. Jason Davis said.

Police said Roberto Sambra used a stolen credit card to purchase groceries at the store. Since he used his personal club card, officers were able to track Sambra down and arrest him.


During the police interrogation, Sambra told officers he was given seven bogus credit cards from the taxi driver's house.

Officers went to the taxi driver's home on North 23rd Lane today to serve search warrants and investigate the man's allegations. That's where they arrested 28-year-old Jhoan Quiala in connection with the identity theft. They believe he was stealing the credit card information of his customers in order to make the fake cards for himself and his friends.

Ever Try To Use Credit In A Boston Cab?

It's been a year and a half since the city of Boston mandated that all of its cabs install credit card machines in the back seats. But that doesn't necessarily mean using them is so simple.

BOSTON — It’s a frigid cold Sunday night and a group of young people are huddled together outside a bar, shivering. All they want is a cab. Well, that’s not entirely true. They also want to pay with credit. But none of them are particularly hopeful.

“A lot of times they’ll say they take credit cards and then the machine’s broken,” one man says.

“I’ve been in a cab and tried to ask them to drop me off at an ATM machine so I can get cash because I don’t want to go through the s*** of trying to use my debit card,” a woman says. “It kind of sucks.”

It has been about a year and a half now since the city of Boston mandated that all 1,825 of its cabs have credit card machines installed in the back seats — and that drivers must accept those cards when the passenger asks. But all you have to do is bring it up and everyone seems to have a story of what happened last time they or one of their friends tried.

Policing The System

The folks at the Boston Police Department have heard it all. Especially Mark Cohen, the director of licensing for the Hackney Division.

“We probably are receiving at least five or 10 complaints a day on a bad day,” he told us when we visited him at police headquarters, to see how his team is handling regulation of the system.

There isn’t actually much to see, though, in Hackney, where most of the policing is being done digitally. The complaints usually come in by e-mail. Cohen had received this one the day we visited:

When we were asked to pay, I took out my credit card, but was told there was a minimum of $10 in order to use it. This had not been mentioned at the beginning of the ride. I became more skeptical of the driver’s claim when the credit card began to process and asked me for a tip amount. He hastily reached into the back and pushed cancel. I don’t know his intention, but this isn’t the first time this has occurred.

Of course, there is no minimum dollar amount for a credit card transaction on a cab ride.

So the next move is for an officer to call the driver of the cab in for a hearing, to get his side of the story. But given that all these transactions leave digital footprints, it’s pretty easy for the police to figure out who is telling the truth.

“Nobody keeps records like banks,” Cohen jokes.

“The credit card machines are absolutely the best thing that’s ever happened to the cab industry.”
–John Ford,
owner, Top Cab and City CabIf it turns out the driver was the problem, the police slap him with a three-day suspension. It is in Hackney’s interest to take these claims seriously — a year and a half into the program, Cohen estimates one-third of all cab transactions are already by credit.

And he is convinced that many of those transactions are customers who would not otherwise have taken a cab, because a few months after the machines went in, he said, cab ridership in Boston went up for the first time since Sept. 11.

That’s why the cab companies like the new rules, too. John Ford, the owner of Top Cab and City Cab, two of the seven accredited taxi companies in Boston, said his business is up 15 percent since the machines became mandatory.

“From my end of the business, which is the boss, I think the credit card machines are absolutely the best thing that’s ever happened to the cab industry,” he said.

So Ford has no tolerance for resistant drivers. In fact, he doesn’t hesitate to hand them over to Hackney. “If the same guy is continuously doing this to customers, we will turn him in,” he said. “Because it hurts everybody. He hurts my business by doing that; he pisses off my customers.”

The View From The Front Seat

If the cab companies love the new regulations, and the police department loves them and it is meaning more business for everyone — what exactly is it that is motivating these drivers who give you a hard time when you try to swipe?

We recently hailed a cab outside our studios on Commonwealth Avenue and met Tony Mwokeji, a driver for Independent Taxi Operators Association, and asked him if the credit card machines are costing him money.

“Oh yeah, big time,” he said without pause.

Mwokeji lists two major reasons: the 6 percent fee he’s charged on all credit card transactions and the fact that he has to wait 24 hours for the transactions to go through, meaning he’s shorter on cash.

“Sometimes I don’t have cash to buy lunch because everybody uses credit card,” he said.

“Sometimes I don’t have cash to buy lunch because everybody uses credit card.”
–Tony Mwokeji,
Boston cab driverBut it was the 6 percent fee that was easily the biggest complaint we heard from drivers. The payment system is set up between the cab companies and the two credit card processors who run those services for all Boston taxis, Creative Mobile Technologies and VeriFone.

The drivers have no control — which makes Mwokeji furious. “They make you take the bank that you don’t want to deal with,” he said. “I don’t like Bank of America. I have my own bank.”

Then there are the technical issues. The same morning we got in Mwokeji’s cab, he’d had trouble getting his credit card machine to work after taking a customer from Logan Airport to Newton. The customer didn’t have the $68 in cash, so Mwokeji had taken down the man’s credit card number by hand on a piece of paper, along with his cell phone number in case of any issues.

“I don’t know whether anybody will cash this for me,” Mwokeji said, holding up the slip of paper. “Sixty-eight dollars, that’s risky business.”

And this was one of the good customers. Mwokeji says there have been many cases where the machine goes down and a customer just flat out refuses to pay. Often, he says, they think he’s lying because drivers have earned that reputation. But there is nothing he can do about it.

“It’s lost money,” he said. “I have [a] wife and four kids and my mortgage to pay. And every day I come out, I have to take risks like that. It doesn’t make sense.”

‘Change Doesn’t Come Easy’

Back at the police department, Cohen would dispute a few of these claims.

He says finding out whether a machine was working or not is as simple as checking the records. As for the 6 percent, “the requirement for every taxi to have this kind of equipment was paid for by the last rate increase,” he says. “We built in a percentage of rate increase to cover that 6 percent.”

And, while Cohen doesn’t love to say it, he admits that an undeniable part of all this revolves around the nature of the cab industry itself.

Ford, of Top Cab and City Cab, is more blunt.

“Change doesn’t come easy, especially in this industry,” he said. “These guys don’t like change at all and it’s tough to get them into new ways of thinking.”

Most of the drivers, Ford says, have already come around. There are more than 6,000 cab drivers in the city and the majority will accept your credit card without a word. But that small group of stubborn holdouts are the ones you are always hearing about.

But Ford thinks they are part of an era that has now almost past.

“I’ve been in the business since I was 17 and it’s almost 44 years,” he said. “I have seen this industry from shaggy, shifty, sleazy to where it’s pretty much all spit and polish right now, and high tech. So I’ve been the whole gamut of this industry and right now it’s the best it’s ever been.”

And, in the end, taxis are a service industry, which means the customer is king. Just keep in mind, if the driver says the machine is not working, there is a chance he’s telling you the truth.

Sorry No Credit Card

jumped out of a speeding taxi to save herself from an unhinged hack who didn't want to take her credit card

Woman Jumps from Moving Cab to Escape Furious Hack

CASH ONLYIt's been a while since we've had a good cabbie freakout story, so we welcome this lawsuit filed by an area woman who says she jumped out of a speeding taxi to save herself from an unhinged hack who didn't want to take her credit card. Amy Ewertz, a 26-year-old who resides on the Upper East Side, was headed home from a late dinner in Chelsea when she flagged a taxi with her friends. They were dropped off at 48th and Eighth, and then she directed the driver to her abode on East 65th Street. And that's when her hack from hell got hostile.

The unidentified driver for Enaf Taxi had turned off the meter at the first stop without telling Ewertz, then restarted it, thus "improperly increasing the total fare," according to a copy of the lawsuit obtained by the NY Post. When Ewertz arrived at her address, the driver allegedly demanded that she pay the first fare in cash, in addition to the second fare. But Ewertz wanted to pay by credit card, and suggested covering the first fare with a big tip on the second fare. The suit says the driver "cancelled the transaction, and demanded that the first fare be paid in cash."

As they argued, Ewertz says she "managed to distract the driver long enough to swipe her credit card a third time, and she was able to complete the transaction." That was the last straw, and the driver allegedly sped off with Ewertz as his prisoner, screaming, "I don't care if you report me. I don't care if I lose my license. I don't care if I lose my life." But before the guy could pull a Cameron Diaz in Vanilla Sky, Ewertz managed to pry open the lock and jump from the moving taxi. "As she hit the ground, her left foot was caught between the left rear wheel of the cab and the curb, causing her excruciating pain, burning the skin on her ankle, and causing extensive bleeding," the lawsuit alleges.

Ewertz says the driver kept going, leaving her bleeding in the street. But for some reason, she waited three weeks before filing a police report. The Daily News reports, "When detectives tried to interview her, she didn't cooperate, and her lawyers told cops she wasn't interested in pursuing a criminal case. After Ewertz notified the Taxi and Limousine Commission, the agency tried to pursue the case, but she did not return calls."

"Don't trust cabbies with your plastic!"

Bank drained after using credit card in taxi

After attending an Indianapolis Colts game and going out for a drink, she and her husband, Josh, took an early-morning cab ride home to the Southport area. The driver put her card into a device that used carbon paper and a manual slider to make an imprint of its face.

Eighteen hours later, police say, the driver and another man walked into a Walmart in Greenfield with a counterfeit card containing Cook-Anderson's account information.
They drained her checking account of $1,040 to buy two laptops, kicking in $62 in cash to cover the rest.

"It literally took me to a zero balance," said Cook-Anderson, 33, who quickly contacted police. Her bank reversed the charge. "We were doing the right thing (by taking a cab), and it backfired."

The driver, Abdi A. Ali, 31, was suspended by A-Star Taxi after the company helped police identify him in images from the Walmart's security video, according to a probable cause affidavit. Ali faces charges of fraud and theft in Hancock County