The Five NYC Taxi Drivers who Refused My Fare

1) The author of this post is wrong when he assumes that the driver's refused his fare solely because JFK is a location that is "out of the way". There are indeed set shift changes that the large majority of cabs in NYC adhere to, and when they do change shift they leave their "off-duty" lights on and try to get one more fare on their way back to the depot/home at the end of their shift. I don't know how many times I've been refused by a string of taxis at the shift change because I'm going in the wrong direction, even though my route is normally one with the best profit margins for them.

2) To those suggesting you get in the cab before you state your destination, the cabs that do this already know that it is harder to refuse you once you get in the cab. That is why they will leave the doors locked, roll down their window, and only partially position themselves in the stopping lane.... They are ready to veer off very quickly. When it is raining outside and you are desperately trying to catch a cab you are going to comply with this routine.

3) Also, if you do manage to enter the cab and tell them a destination that is out of the way of their return journey, they have no qualms in telling you to get out.

EDIT: I'd also like to add that Uber hasn't really brought anything new to New York other than a smartphone app. Town car services in New York City are more than plentiful and no less reliable when you call them up than when you request one through Uber. In my my experience, the town car companies I have used over the past decade have been much more reliable and quicker to service me than the few times I've tested out Uber's service. I wouldn't call Uber a disruptive service in the NYC ecosystem, just a complementary channel for requesting private town cars.

It does make me think though, why should these town car services even cut Uber into the loop? Maybe there is space for some type of PAAS for town car companies to roll out their own web and mobile based booking system?

Anecdotally, having lived in NYC for a few years now, the shift change thing is real. Some time periods are just dead for a little while. If a cab is actually on shift and available, they'll have their light on and stop and pick you up without asking you where you're going. If they're at the end of their shift, they'll likely stop and ask you where you're going first (without letting you in yet) to see if you happen to be going the same direction they are. If a guy is at the end of his shift and he's based in Jersey, I can understand why he wouldn't want to commit to driving 30-45 minutes in the opposite direction. There are literally hundreds of other cabs in manhattan that would be happy to take you to JFK, and there's a high likelihood you'd be waiting only a few minutes for one of them to come by.

I think Uber's a great service, but this article seems to be trying to invent a problem that doesn't really exist. For some cities, like SF and several others in CA where taxis aren't ubiquitous, Uber makes a ton of sense. But in manhattan, I'd say 95+% of the time I'm able to find a cab in under 5 minutes, at a reasonable price, by walking to the nearest street corner.

We're sort of interested in customer satisfaction (being customers).

If a law helps it, it should be kept. If a law prevents it, it possibly should be repealed.

Sometimes you can even stop a livery car that is vacant, as you would a taxi. Be prepared to pay in cash :)

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