All this talk of NY cabbies and not a single mention of Uber App? I can't wait for them to arrive here in the city and disrupt this chaotic system of NY and gypsy cabs.
Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
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Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
#42Earlier quoted context omitted.
On your second point, I'd like to ask if that applies to gas stations as well. Because many of them display in big numbers a price that is reserved for cash, while a higher one (~10-15c more a gallon) for credit. Is it illegal? On a related note, I also believe (no link or citation sorry) that there can't be a maximum on the amount you want to pay with credit. For example, car dealerships tend to say they can only ac…
None of it is illegal. It's just a violation of the merchant account agreement. The worst that can happen if you complain is that they will lose the ability to accept credit cards at all.
And also potentially lose a lot of money in fines. They keep your money for a bit until it clears, so your fines come out of that and you don't have the ability not to pay them.
Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
#43I am fully aware of this rule, and I have a strategy to deal with it. The last time I had trouble I was trying to get a ride from the Javits to Queens. Having a friend helped. First we would take a picture of the cab as it approached, getting the number on the roof and proof that he was on duty. What guys will do who refuse you, but know they aren't allowed to, is switch their on/off duty light. If you tell them you…
Regarding card payments, the rules are changing soon because of Dodd-Frank:
http://blog.vantagecard.com/post/Merchant-Card-Acceptance-ch...
It's also important to differentiate PIN based transactions from signature based. The "accept all cards" rules are the creation of Visa and Mastercard, they aren't inherent in law, and don't apply to (most? any?) PIN-based debit networks.
It's generally not against the rules to charge a surcharge on debit transactions.
Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
#44SF has similar laws. The one I see cab drivers break most often is refusing to accept payment via credit card. If you ever get in a cab in San Francisco and they tell you they don't take credit cards they're either lying or shouldn't be driving the cab in the first place.
More commonly (in NYC), I have had cab drivers request me to pay cash if possible as they have to pay quite high credit card processing fees.
Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
#45Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is absolutely ridiculous. Cab drivers are free to pursue any other career path if they so choose and are made aware of the rules before they get behind the wheel. They are implicitly agreeing to the laws governing Yellow Cabs by driving one. What you're suggesting would be like if I told my boss I wasn't programming today and if he wanted any work out of me that he better come up with something else.
Err, no. It would be like XYZ random client coming to your boss and saying, "I want a website that does FOO. I'm paying your standard fee, and if you don't build it, I'm filing a complaint with the government." Also, FOO might just be something that statistically increases the chance of your boss getting robbed/murdered.
This would be after your boss took a job that legally required him to perform FOO upon request.
Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
#46I am fully aware of this rule, and I have a strategy to deal with it. The last time I had trouble I was trying to get a ride from the Javits to Queens. Having a friend helped. First we would take a picture of the cab as it approached, getting the number on the roof and proof that he was on duty. What guys will do who refuse you, but know they aren't allowed to, is switch their on/off duty light. If you tell them you…
On your second point, I'd like to ask if that applies to gas stations as well. Because many of them display in big numbers a price that is reserved for cash, while a higher one (~10-15c more a gallon) for credit. Is it illegal? On a related note, I also believe (no link or citation sorry) that there can't be a maximum on the amount you want to pay with credit. For example, car dealerships tend to say they can only ac…
[deleted]
Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
#47Any idea why a cab driver would want to reject a journey? Is there some other bureaucracy that makes it hard for them to turn a profit if they abide by this? For example it is very common in England for "distance and a half" fares to be invoked when journeys are outside of a particular region. This is in place so that if a cab driver takes you to "Stixwich" they're not out of pocket on the drive back since there are…
The biggest issue is probably just trying to find a return fair. Late at night most people are going from Manhattan to one of the outer boroughs - not the other way around. The usually end up driving an empty cab back to Manhattan, so they are effectively getting a half-fare.
Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
#48Any idea why a cab driver would want to reject a journey? Is there some other bureaucracy that makes it hard for them to turn a profit if they abide by this? For example it is very common in England for "distance and a half" fares to be invoked when journeys are outside of a particular region. This is in place so that if a cab driver takes you to "Stixwich" they're not out of pocket on the drive back since there are…
It's about a New York City that's 25 years long gone, but this question, and thread, reminded of Ted Rall's recollections of driving a Cab in NYC during the early 80s http://www.rall.com/longarticle_003.htm
Hey, that's still a great read. I love the little vignette about Woody Allen. I voted you up because reading this completely answers the question of "why won't NY cabbies take me to Brooklyn?"
Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
#49So I'll ask the obvious question as a person who has visited, but never lived in, NYC. Why is this a problem? I've never had a problem getting a cab to take me where I want to go in the cities I've lived in nor the ones I've visited. The only downside I can see is if you're requesting somewhere that's remote and that would be difficult for the cab to find another fare on the return trip. NYC does not strike me as a p…
There are a surprising number of remote places in New York.
For instance, I doubt any cab would pick up a fare to Broad Channel, Queens. The truly far places like Staten Island aren't an issue, because the fare is so expensive nobody is trying to cab it out there anyway.
The fares the cabbies hate are to emerging yuppie gentrification neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Uptown and the part of Queens near Manhattan. Places like Greenpoint, Astoria, Windsor Terrace, LIC, Prospect Heights, Morningside Heights, etc. In these neighborhoods a cabbie is almost certainly not going to get a fare back to the city, especially late at night.
Re: Did you know: In NYC, yellow cabs are required to take you anywhere in NYC.
#50Thank you for posting this, could be useful to someone.
But let me remind you that this post does not fall within the general guidelines for HN posting. For your reference:
http://ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
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