Illegal Livery Street Hail Study


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Press Release:

January 29, 2002--The Taxi Policy Institute, a not-for-profit policy institute that performs studies on the yellow medallion taxicab industry, has released a comprehensive study on illegal livery street hail activity in New York City. The study, which was prepared for the Taxi Policy Institute by Schaller Consulting and the Sam Schwartz Company, reports the observations of trained testers who monitored illegal livery activity at 52 locations in Midtown Manhattan and the Upper East and Upper West Sides in November 2001.

Yellow medallion taxicabs are the only vehicles licensed to pick up street hails while livery cars are required by law to only pick up passengers who have pre-arranged service.

The study found that:

41% of vehicles stopping for testers who attempted to hail a cab were liveries (358 of the 874 vehicles---liveries or taxicabs--that testers successfully hailed). In other words, for every 3 yellow taxicabs that stopped, 2 liveries illegally stopped for the testers.
On average, fares quoted by livery drivers who stopped for testers were 97% higher than (or nearly double) the estimated fare for the same trip in a yellow taxicab. Instead of paying $5.00-8.50 for a taxi trip, most testers would have been charged $12-45 by the livery driver.
A great deal of this illegal activity occurred in major tourist areas, indicating that out-of-towners may be especially targeted and preyed upon by these drivers. Some of the heaviest volume of illegal livery activity occurred in the Theater District on weekend evenings, where illegal livery stops outnumbered yellow taxicab activity by 3:1. Nearly all testers who requested a ride from Broadway between 45th and 46th Streets to 2 Av and St. Marks Place, for example, were quoted fares by livery drivers that ranged from $15 to $45. The estimated yellow taxicab fare for the same trip is $8.50.
Livery drivers are illegally stopping to pick up passengers in areas of Manhattan where yellow taxicabs are highly visible and available for street hail pick-ups.
Liveries clog Midtown¹s streets cruising for fares, with 60% of liveries observed on the street without a passenger compared to less than 35% of taxicabs.

"Based on these findings, we estimate that over 100,000 liveries a day illegally attempt to pick up passengers just in Midtown," said Bruce Schaller, Principal of Schaller Consulting and a former TLC Policy Director. "In all of Manhattan, we estimate that livery drivers attempt to overcharge passengers $2.05 million a day."

According to Ross Sandler, former New York City Transportation Commissioner and former member of the Taxi and Limousine Commission, who supervised the study on behalf of the Taxi Policy Institute, "New York City strictly licenses yellow cabs to guarantee riders a high quality, safe and fairly priced ride. That service is being undermined by the practice of illegal livery street hails."

The study documents what many in the taxicab industry have been saying for years, that by routinely and egregiously breaking the law, livery drivers who cruise Manhattan for street hails are taking away business from yellow taxicab drivers.

"Illegal street hails undercut legitimate taxi service and make it very difficult for the industry to attract and retain drivers drivers that we need to get taxicabs on the streets," said Ron Sherman, Co-President of the Taxi Policy Institute. "Additionally, livery drivers who break the law in this way are doing a terrible disservice to members of the riding public by grossly overcharging them."

"While we are pleased that the city has recently stepped up enforcement, the riding public continues to be overcharged and the yellow taxicab industry continues to lose fares and drivers as a result of this illegal practice," said Louis Jimenez, Co-President of the Taxi Policy Institute. "It is necessary to adopt a zero tolerance policy so that we can put an end to this illegal practice once and for all."

The Taxi Policy Institute, which is comprised of transportation experts, brokers, lenders, taxicab medallion agents, fleet owners and individual medallion owners, was formed in July 2001 to protect and promote the New York City yellow medallion taxicab industry.