14 DAY TRIAL // A recent proposal to fit every yellow cab in New York with GPS systems is causing massive protest among drivers who threaten to call strike until the order is revoked. The trade body representing more than 8,000 drivers is considering this last resort action against city officials.
Two months ago, this project was viewed as a major technological advance by NYC officials. "This project is nothing short of revolutionary and evolutionary for the taxi industry," Taxi and Limousine Commissioner Matthew W. Daus wrote in a recent agency newsletter.
But it seems that the thousands of drivers actually bearing the consequences do not agree, as Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, told AFP on Wednesday that drivers considered that the proposals put forward by the city's Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) infringed on their rights.
The GPS tracking was supposed to make the required record-keeping an automated process and give drivers crucial information about traffic or lost items. It was also considered valuable for a customer who lost a wallet, for example, in the taxi commission to receive information from drivers in the neighborhood where the customer was dropped off.
The installed applications should allow the passengers to pay by credit card and will also let them view news stories and an electronic map of their cab's progress, on a monitor visible only to those on the backseat, also included in the plans.
But as Cervantes wrote, many go out for wool and come home shorn, since the official plans backfired and the cab drivers, along with some clients found many reasons why this decision should not be put into practice.
"Taxi drivers sometimes use the cars in their private time. Why should they tell the TLC where they are going on a Sunday with their family? This is an invasion of privacy," said Desai. "We are ready to go on strike at no notice in September if the TLC doesn't cancel its plans to install a GPS in each vehicle," she added.
According to taxi drivers' groups, the devices cost more than 5,000 dollars to install and some customers even worried that the GPS will be used to track their movements through the city when paying with the credit card.