Taxi Blog

Wall Street had another rough day today. The Dow dropped another 444 points to below 7600. My wife is watching her 401k swirl down the proverbial toilet, my kids’ college funds are down 45% on the year, and I’m thinking, “Hey. It’s a good time to buy.” As a matter of fact, I think it’s downright un-American to sit on the sidelines and watch the market go down. You should all be out there snapping up bargains and helping to right the economy. I did my part to help Citigroup today, as their shares dumped to record lows. Bought it at $5.00 a share, it ended the day at $4.71, but at the price I paid the shares produce 11% annually in dividends. Of course, unless the rest of you go out and buy some as well there may be no money in Citigroup to pay any dividends. If they cut their dividend, however, the cash position gets better and the stock price goes up. Good deal. I hope. I also bought Microsoft and Dell, both of which are trading at ridiculously low price earnings ratios. That means they are cheap to you and me.

Where am I going with all of this? I have no clue. Has nothing to do with what I really want to talk about, which is customer service. Industry legend (paid endorsement) and former Taxicab Livery and Paratransit Association President Brian Hunt dedicated much of his term in office to improving customer service. We may all think that we have incredible customer service departments at our operations, but do we really? I mean, General Custer probably thought he had plenty of men with him at Little Big Horn, but sometimes we deceive ourselves.

After taking Brian’s customer service quiz in Birmingham, Al last year, I decided that it was about time to run our staff in Chicago through a customer service class. We had a group come in and give seminars to everyone in the organization, from the President, to the driver training staff, to the dispatchers and call takers that actually deal with the public on a day in day out basis.

The results were not shocking. To a man the staff thought the seminars were interesting and helpful. Translation: I got to relax and listen to someone for three hours, I got a free lunch and I got paid for it. Also to a man the primary tenets of customer service went in one ear and out the other, often dragging little used brain cells along with them. The class and I both stressed that it is important when a customer has an issue to begin by saying, “I’m sorry.” You can say anything you want after that, but at least the customer knows you are sympathetic to his plight. Call microsoft and complain. Call AT&T. Call anyone, and the people over in India on the other end of the line will say, “I’m sorry.” You don’t have to believe them, but it’s better than saying, “Oh shit, dude, there’s no way you’re getting a refund for that.” So we pounded “I’m sorry” into everyone for 3 days, and yet when I listen to the call takers most of them still don’t get the message.

It’s not that our customer service people have no interest in improving their skills. I am sure some if not all of mine do. It is more a function of bad initial training, bad habits, and watching others continuously do things wrong all around them. When you learn to play a sport the wrong way it is very difficult to relearn it the right way. You have to first un-learn your bad habits. The same is true for behavioral patterns, including customer service. How do we un-learn something? By having it repeatedly drummed into us. Have the posters up on the walls, have the tapes reviewed daily and when they calls are not handled properly have the reps called in and point out where they could improve. If they fail to improve after 2 or 3 meetings cut them loose and get someone new who can be trained in proper procedures from the outset. This will not only improve that one position, but it will show everyone else how serious you really are about improving customer service.

Just as tape reviews can help improve customer service internally, our new “secret shopper” program has been an enormous success in improving customer service on the road. When you have 50 vehicles and you know all of your drivers it is fairly simple to keep on top of them regarding customer service. When you have 2600 cars it becomes more problematic. Our solution was to send 10 people our Yellow Cards (corporate cards) for free. These 10 people in the course of their daily business will call our dispatchers or hail our cabs in the street, and will have all of their cab rides paid for by us via the Yellow Cards. In return, after each trip, they hop onto our website, log into our customer service page, and fill out a questionaire on the ride. Maximum time on the questionaire is about 45 seconds. Most of our secret shoppers feel that it is a pretty fair trade.

The results have been incredible. We have found drivers that refuse to accept plastic, hacks who drive erratically, and dispatchers who are simply “not nice” on the phone. In every case we call in the driver or dispatcher who is shocked to find that someone actually complained, and complained accurately, about their behavior. Drivers who receive glowing recommendations receive bonus points, drivers who rack up complaints will eventually be sent packing. Eventually they will all get the message that big brother is watching.

As an added bonus, all of the secret shoppers were picked from local firms who are potential corporate clients: law firms, financial institutions, and the like. As their employees get used to using the corporate cards they spread he word to their coworkers, and as they help to improve service they begin to feel that they have a vested interest in the success of our company. We hope this proprietary interest will lead to some new Yellow Card customers in the future. We will be rotating the shoppers on a bimonthly basis to spread the wealth around.

So in the end, the $2000.00 or so per month in free taxi rides we spend to improve customer service may be the best investment I can recommend to you today. And you don’t even have to pay a broker’s fee.

Dear Mr. Mayor:

I applaud your initiatives to improve the air (or the “Ayer” if you are the Villareals) quality in New York City. After all, I breathe my share. I do have some concerns, however, regarding your current taxicab initiative. Our fleet of 300 taxicabs in New York City currently operates 17 Ford Escape Hybrids, and we have an additional 20 Escapes in our fleet of over 700 vehicles in Chicago. We are testing these vehicles to determine their utility as taxicabs, specifically as fleet taxicabs, and our experiences give us unique insight into the effects of your proposed regulations.

Available hybrid models approved by the TLC as taxicabs include the Toyota Highlander and Prius, the Chevy Malibu, and the Nissan Altima. No fleet that I know of operates a significant number of Altimas, so there is no real data as to their utility as taxicabs, yet of the 300 hybrid vehicles that will be made available monthly for sale to the industry 200 of them are Altimas. The one fleet that operates $40,000.00 Highlander Hybrids has not been able to keep them consistently on the road due to mechanical difficulties. Indeed, Toyota has said publicly that their hybrids are not built to handle the rigors of taxicab service. Furthermore, an article in the Sunday NY Times reports that actual mileage on the Highlander Hybrid runs 10% to 20% lower than EPA estimates. The Chevy Malibu Hybrid, which is rated only 2 miles per gallon higher in the city than is the non-hybrid Malibu yet costs $6,000.00 more, entered taxicab service in New York City for the first time this summer. I was told by one fleet that when the temperature rose above 90 degrees the cars averaged 11 miles per gallon.

The only widely used hybrid taxicab, the Ford Escape, has a much higher cost of operation than does the Ford Crown Victoria, the current taxicab standard. A Crown Vic purchased in New York in August came with a price tag of $24,200.00. The Ford Escape costs $29,600.00, a difference of $5400.00, or $1800.00 per year for a fleet vehicle utilizing the 3 year maximum allowable useful life. If a fleet operates their vehicles for only two years, as does our New York operation, the incremental annual expense skyrockets to $2700.00. As an interesting aside, despite the article in the New York Times regarding big incentives to spur auto sales Ford took advantage of city medallion owners’ current plight by eliminating last year’s incentives on the Escape. Mechanically, the Escape costs about $350.00 per month in parts and labor to maintain, as opposed to $275.00 per month for the Crown Vic., bringing my fleet’s additional cost per vehicle per year to $3600.00, and a 3 year operator’s costs to $2700.00. These figures do not include repairs for accidents.

Your “incentive” is a $3.00 per day increase in the amount a fleet owner is allowed to charge a driver for a shift, known as the lease cap. The additional $2000.00 per vehicle generated will not cover the average fleet owners $2700.00 in incremental costs, and it will only offset a little more than half of our fleet’s $3600.00. Owners who decline to participate in the “voluntary” incentive will be penalized $12.00 per shift or $8500.00 per medallion per year, which is in many cases more than the net income generated by operating a single medallion. If this is the your idea of an economic incentive then we are going to have a long next 4 years.

Considering nothing but the pure economics of the issue, a minimum of $4.00 would be needed for an owner with a 3 year car to break even on the Escape, and $7.00 per shift would be the smallest increase that might actually be considered an incentive. At $2.75 per gallon on a 125 mile shift a driver will save over $14.00 driving an Escape rather than a Crown Victoria. A $7.00 lease cap increase would pay for the incremental cost of the Escape, put some additional money in the pocket of the operator, and still leave the driver, who has no incremental cost, with 50% of the gas savings.

Of the 300 hybrids available monthly, 250 will be vehicles that have no real safety record as taxicabs, and the remaining 50 are Escapes. One of our Escapes recently flipped over in a relatively minor sideswipe accident in New York City landing the driver in the hospital and totaling a relatively new car. Thankfully there were no passengers. I know of 2 other Escape taxicabs that have rolled as well, but in all my years of running Crown Victorias, Chevy Caprices and many other sedans I have never had one flip. Even Ford noted that lighter SUV’s are more likely to roll than are heavier sedans, and they have issued warnings noting that modifications to the vehicle necessary to comply with TLC regulations may hinder vehicle safety devices from deploying. Since the city is now effectively forcing me to buy hybrids, and Ford is selling them as taxicabs, in any lawsuit resulting from an accident in an Escape in which an injury is due in part to the partition, in which the vehicle rolls, or where factors specific to the Escape are involved, we will be bringing both the city and Ford Motor Company in as third parties to the suit.

Finally, Mr. Mayor, you should lighten up on the rhetoric. Claiming that the taxicab industry is “trying to kill our kids” is worthy of a terrorist propagandist not a mayor of New York City. There are under 14000 taxicabs in New York City, and over 30,000 city owned vehicles. Are the city’s vehicles all hybrids? It is the Mayor’s responsibility to enforce traffic regulations, and yet vehicles are parked and double parked illegally all throughout the boroughs radically reducing traffic speed and markedly increasing air pollution. And that is before we even get into a discussion about the building department and social services, both of which fall under the auspices of the Mayor’s office. So who is killing more kids Mr. Mayor?

Our fleets will continue to test new and improved vehicles, and we would welcome any real incentives offered by the Mayor and the Taxi and Limousine Commission. The Mayor is very intelligent, and if he wanted to bring about positive change fairly and expeditiously I am sure he could manage to do so. Since he has instead opted for the stick rather than the carrot one can only call this “incentive” package by its true name: sour grapes.

The joke goes, “Aside from that Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?” After watching president elect Barak Obama’s first press conference one has to wonder if Chicago Sun Times Washington Bureau Chief Lynn Sweet was the one asking Mary Todd the question.

To set the scene, we have just emerged from a historic election where the United States has voted to put the first African American into the highest office in the free world. The economy is in shambles, we are in the midst of two wars, and it is Ms. Sweet’s chance to ask the president elect a question in front of the entire country. Policy? History? Economy? No, doggy. What type of dog are you getting? Is she serious? Does Ms. Sweet have a column on the society page perhaps? No. The fashion section? No. SHE IS WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF!! And the print newspaper industry is wondering why THEY are going to the dogs. Ms Sweet told the world that she broke her arm running to hear Obama’s election-night victory speech. I think that she just strained herself trying to pat him on the back.

We can learn a lot from Lynn Sweet’s reporting style. She forgot the basic rule of public speaking: It is better to remain silent and have everyone think you a fool than to speak and prove them right. Don’t ever feel as if you have to immediately respond when asked for a comment. If you do not know all the details, or if you need more information, do not comment until you are fully informed. It may be in the media’s best interest to get your comment in time for the 6:00 news, or the morning edition deadline, but it is certainly not in yours. Tell the media that you are still gathering information, but that you will get back to them as soon as you have all the facts, hopefully in time for them to meet their deadline. This will sound much better than “No Comment”, and if you actually do get back to them with a cogent comment in time for their deadline you will have made a friend you can use to get your own stories out on other occasions.

Remember that in most markets the media will ignore the taxicab industry unless someone feeds them a story, or unless it is not good news. They will not know that your drivers just drove 15 elderly people to the voting booths for no charge, but they will know that one of your vehicles crashed into a liquor store window. They will not know that you just spent a quarter of a million dollars to upgrade your systems so that calls will be answered in 10 minutes instead of 20, but they will know that some lunatic cabbie and his 2 friends plan to strike if there is no fare increase by Thursday. The fact that they do not know your positive stories, however, does not mean that they are not interested. It is your job to make them aware of the positive issues. Similarly, just because YOU know that it none of your drivers will be on strike does not mean that they know. So pass the information on.

Have a media plan prepared in advance for emergencies and other situations. In small markets it could be as simple as making sure you have the email address and phone number of everyone in the local media that might be covering a taxi or transportation related event. In a larger market you might want to have a media firm available to help get your side of the story out. You don’t need to have them on retainer, but you should have your deal set with them in advance so that you are not either negotiating a price, or educating your media partners about industry and your company in the middle of a crisis. Make sure that everyone on your staff knows who the company’s designated media spokesperson is, and make it abundantly clear that attempting to be that spokesperson without permission will be taken as a severe breach of trust.

Finally, take note that not everyone is comfortable speaking in public. If you are not, then you should not be the one commenting even if it is your company.

Busy week. First the Jets beat Buffalo at Buffalo to tie for first place, then we find that Lincoln Towncar sales are down over 50% (sorry black car guys), and finally, we have a national election of historic importance. Elizabeth Dole had her butt voted out of office after suggesting that her opponent was godless. Not that I am looking for another Democrat in Washington, but good riddance. Oh, and by the way, Barak Obama won as well.

On to business. Taxiblog has, in the past, extolled the virtues of the companies that have provided quality equipment and service to the transportation industry. We have talked up phone companies, credit card processors, vehicles and even to some extent good regulators. In the interest of cosmic balance, I feel it is necessary to point out that there are some companies who, regardless of the actual services they provide, should be taken over the industry knee and soundly spanked. And no, I’m not talking about the motorcycle chicks at Research Underwriters.

Topping the wall of shame is the Ford Motor Company and Manhattan Ford, a Company owned dealer in New York City. Ford’s behavior leading up to and during Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s (I believe the new law is that you hve to say “praised be he” when you use his name) 2012 hybrid initiative was stupefying, and the pricing policy of Manhattan Ford immediately following the Mayor’s defeat was simply Ford taking advantage of a vehicle shortage largely of their own making.

The little angel person on my left shoulder compels me to remind everyone that Ford has, for a while now, been a strong supporter of the taxicab and livery industry. The Crown Vic is our money vehicle. The workhorse of the industry. It represents the majority of new taxicabs purchased in the United States.

Now the little devil Mike on the right shoulder. When the hybrid initiatives went into effect in New York, Ford was, at best, less than helpful to the industry. They touted the Escape Hybrid as a solid fleet vehicle which could withstand the rigors of taxicab service in New York City, and Ford promised to make available for sale as New York City taxicabs 50 vehicles per month. Some time later, after the initiatives were already announced, they noted that adaptations made to the vehicle to meet Taxi and Limousine Commission standards, specifically vinyl seats and partitions, could prevent airbags and safety devices from properly deploying in accidents. Didn’t their engineers read the regulations before they asserted that the Escape would make a great taxicab? Have they never ridden in a taxicab in New York City and seen a partition? Were they not involved when the partitions were designed specifically for the Escape in NYC and were then brought to the city for approval? Furthermore, after 3 Escape taxicabs rolled over during operation, at least one that I know of personally in a very minor accident, Ford maintained that the Escape was viable and safe as a taxicab, but did add that lighter SUVs are inherently less stable than heavy sedans. Way to go out on a limb.

At the onset of the lawsuit in New York City, operating under the assumption that no one would be ordering them, Ford stopped making the stretch Crown Victorias. Unfortunately, at the same time they ran out of 2008 Escape Hybrids. There were, for all intents and purposes, no cars at all available to buy as taxicabs. If a car died or got totalled you sat with an empty medallion.

After Judge Crotty’s decision to grant an injunction preventing the city from implementing the mpg initiative, Ford agreed to begin prodicing the stretch Crown Victoria again. The only catch was that it was going to take 6 weeks miminum to get them ready. But wait!! The 2009 Ford Escapes are in stock!! The 2008 Escape cost approximately $25,000.00. Not much more than a Crown Vic, so since I was desparate for cars I figured I would put a couple of 2009’s on. I mean, really, how much could the price have gone up? I’ll tell you how much. The 2009 Escape Hybrid taxicab package was quoted to me by Manhattan Ford, which is wholly owned by Ford Motor Company, at just under $30,000.00. An increase of $5,000.00, or 20%. Basically, they eliminated the fleet discount, since there are no other cars to buy and we are forced to buy the expensive Escapes. Why are there no other cars to buy? BECAUSE THEY STOPPED MAKING THE CROWN VICTORIA!!

You would think that, at least until they got the Crown Victorias to market again, they would maintain the fleet discount and not gouge their customers. You would think that they would want fleets to buy their Escape taxicab. After all, they did maintain that it was a viable taxicab vehicle, and they do get more parts and service work with the Escape than they do with the Crown Vic. APparently none of that matters, and as long as they have us over a barrel they will make whatever they can.

Here’s to you Ford Motor Company. Winner of the first (but I’m sure not the last) spot in the Taxiblog Hall of Shame.

Federal court judge Paul Crotty’s ruling turned New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s taxicab mpg initiative back into a pumpkin yesterday for Halloween. In a nutshell, as related in recent posts, the mayor was running for president, the mayor wanted to have a legacy of green (not the money kind that he is usually associated with), the mayor declared that all new taxicabs entered into service after October 1, 2008 would have to have a minimum city mpg rating of 25, the mayor was sued by the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, an association of taxicab fleet operators, in federal court, and voila. We are up to date.

The actual law suit made several claims.

• Safety: the hybrids were untested and are possibly unsafe as taxicabs, especially when outfitted with partitions
• Availability: only a few vehicles met the standards, and supplies of those vehicles would not meet demand for new taxicabs
• Preemption: federal mandates designed to improve motor vehicle emissisions already apply to the vehicles currently used as taxicabs in New York City.

The last argument was used by auto dealers and manufacturers in California when that state attempted to impose stringent emissions regulations in 2007. The federal court decision in that case sided with the plaintiffs, and declared that the California statute was preempted by existing federal statutes. California and sixteen other states in turn first petitioned Congress for relief, then in January of this year filed suit against the EPA. If I were really good at my job I would know the current status of that law suit, but I will get that information on Monday.

It was this same argument that Judge Crotty cited in handing down his ruling and issuing a preliminary injunction. He said that a federal law designed to improve motor-vehicle efficiency “preempts” the city’s regulation. He added that the law suit showed merit and a good chance of succeeding, and that should the injunction not be granted fleet owners could suffer irreparable harm. Bloomberg responded that the decision “is not a ruling against hybrid cabs, rather a ruling that archaic Washington regulations are applicable and therefore New York City, and all other cities, are prevented from choosing to create cleaner air and a healthier place to live”. I tend to agree with him on that.

The bottom line right now is that fleet owners in New York City are once again allowed to purchase stretch Ford Crown Victorias for taxicabs. Unfortunately, due to the Bloomberg regulations, Ford stopped making the Crown Vic. It will take another 6 weeks for them to start up and get vehicles off of the line and into New York. Similarly, there are no Escapes available for sale until mid November, and I haven’t seen a Nissan Altima Hybrid anywhere either. There is rumor of a few Chevy Malibu hybrids available, but I don’t know of anyone who has actually found one and put it on the road. So congratulations to the City of New York for discovering a foolproof way to age the entire fleet of taxicabs by about three months.

Note: The author (I love talking in the third person) is a huge supporter of improving and greening the taxicab fleet not only in New York, but in Chicago as well. He is also a big supporter of Mayor Michael Bloomberg despite the fact that he seems to be running for lord high holy emperor for life.

Thanks once again to my good friends at America Online we at taxiblog have our lead story. A 14 month old 24 pound child in New Zealand was recently relieved of a 7.3 pound tumor. I don’t know why but I was drawn to that story. Enquiring minds want to know.

All of this has nothing to do with our lead story, the Presidential Candidate from the great state of Illinois. “Barak Obama”, you say? I think not. Enter presidential candidate and Yellow Cab driver John Joseph Polachek. According to an article in the Southtown Star Mr. Polachek’s “name is on the Illinois presidential ballot, along with those of Barak Obama, John McCain, libertarian Bob Barr (who?), Green Party candidate Cynthia McKinney and independent Ralph Nader.” Polachek collected no signatures, had no petitions, his running mate is listed as “No Candidate”, and he has pretty much $0.00 in his campaign coffers. His unofficial polling, however, suggests that “Ninety-five percent of the passengers in my cab agree with everything I say.” To evidence his grasp of basic logic, Polachek added, “Obama may be more popular because more people know about him. If more people knew about me, I would be more popular than Obama.” Yogi Berra would be proud.

Polacheck has been driving a cab for the past 16 years. We know he has class and good sense, because he drives for Yellow. When the question of why he was running for president came up, he answered, “I wanted someone I could vote for on the ballot.” I kind of feel the same way.

You might ask yourself, “But how does he get on the ballot without petitions?” The answer is simple. No one really cared enough to challenge his list of signatures, or lack thereof.

• Polachek On Iraq:”I would pull out of Iraq immediately. Not in 100 years, like McCain, or one year, like Obama. But right away.”
• Polachek On health care:”I would go with the Sicko System from Michael Moore’s movie. Everyone should have health care.”
• Polachek’s slogan:”The Kool-Aid ain’t right if the outcome is poisonous.”

  Phil Kadner, author of the article, pointed out that it would be “difficult for Polachek to win a presidential election because he’s only on the ballot in one state.” Polachek replied, “There’s always the write-in vote.”

  Thanks to the Southtown Star and Phil Kadner for pretty much all of the info on this page.

Sometimes it’s really tough to find material to open with. Sometimes you pop onto aol.com and there it is. Staring you right in the face. So to speak. Former Massachusetts State Senator Dianne Wilkerson was arrested Tuesday by the FBI for accepting $23,500.00 in bribes while in office. While bribery is, unfortunately, not rare in our government (trust me, if I listed this year’s cases only there would be no room on the page) this one was a bit more interesting than most. Apparently Ms. Wilkerson was videotaped stuffing money into her bra. Now, I understand that her fellow legislators are not supposed to be checking out her chest, but seriously. We are not talking twenty bucks in singles stuffed into a garter. We are talking $23,500.00 in a bra. I don’t care how big you are to begin with at some point this kind of thing starts to show. What was everyone thinking? “Gee, Dianne looks great today. Wonder what it is. New hair style? Whiter teeth?” No you idiots, it’s the engorged sweater. That’s what it is.

Sometimes people are too embarrassed, too afraid of recriminations, or just too modest to speak up. And when people don’t speak out for themselves it is the responsibility of loudmouthed bloggers like myself to speak out for them. First, I would like to congratulate all of the Taxicab Livery and Paratransit Assn. operators and drivers of the year. Almost all of them acquitted themselves nicely as they accepted their awards on the podium. One, however, deserves just a bit more praise than either he or the fleet he drives for, Vital Transportation, gave him this morning.

Charles Kabbani, a resident of Staten Island (that’s in New York City for those of you who really care), joined Vital Transportation in 1985. Charles has done will by both the public and his company, according to Vital president Berj Haroutunian, serving on numerous driving committees, and just being a generally good guy. The kind of ambassador of good will and good service that we all wish we had the ability to clone.

On August 23rd, 2007 Mr. Kabbani picked up a woman at the World Financial Center in downtown Manhattan. She was on her way to Grand Central Station when she had a seizure. According to Mr. Kabbani’s interview in “Transportation Leader” magazine, “When she got in the car she said she didn’t feel well.” As they drove Charlie talked to the passenger, and when she stopped responding he looked in the back seat and her eyes were “rolling up in her head”. He pulled over, on the FDR Drive mind you, never an easy task, and stuck a 12 inch ruler in her mouth to stop her from choking on her tongue. After rushing his passenger to the nearest emergency room, Mr. Kabbani stayed in the waiting room until the woman’s husband arrived, almost FOUR HOURS LATER!!! Before he finally left, he met with the emergency room doctor who credited him with saving the passenger’s life.

Charles Kabbani was honored as Driver of the Year by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission. The award was presented by TLC Chairman Mattew Daus, and Kabbani also got to meet Mayor Michael Bloomberg.

In his acceptance speech this morning Mr. Kabbani, who spent a half an hour last night discussing his exploits with my wife last night, declined to pat his own back and simply thanked the TLPA for the honor. I am patting him on the back now.

By the way (BTW for my daughter’s friends), the passenger’s family gave Charles Kabbani a $50.00 tip but neglected to pay the fare. Oh well. Congratulations Charles.

Forward Disclaimer: It is almost 2AM, I am extremely tired, I am working on a shot (or two) of (third rate) tequila, and this page will therefore not be as witty, humorous and entertaining as might otherwise have been. But thanks for pushing on anyway.

Today Taxiblog comes to you from sunny (but really not that warm) Tampa, Florida at the Taxicab Livery and Paratransit Assn. annual convention. I know. I have been flogging it for a couple of months, but I have to be honest, the convention was more interesting than even I thought it would be. There were a number of relative newcomers at the convention, which always increases attendance at the breakout sessions and infuses fresh energy and thoughtful questions, and there were a ton of exhibitors with high tech products that certainly looked fun, and had the potential to actually be useful.

My first session was on Monday, when I moderated a discussion on credit card acceptance with Hal Mellegard of
Yellow Cab Coop in San Francisco. We discussed credit card costs, which I have spoken on numerous times in the past, and debit cards for drivers, a program which Hal was working on in San Francisco with Paul Musselman of First National Merchant Solutions. The problem no one talks about is that the more work you do on credit and vouchers the less cash you have to on hand. The debit cards allow you to credit individual driver accounts so that they can cash themselves out at any atm, or they can use their card as they would a regular debit card. While we chatted up credit cards there were eight other sessions operating simultaneously on such widely disparate topics as dispatching, litigation, insurance and vehicles. The last was moderated by Jeff Feldman of Taxi Affiliation Services in Chicago, which operates Yellow Cab and Checker Cab in Chicago. Yes, we dominated the 1:00 pm time slot. The meeting gave a solid overview not only of the vehicles we are testing in Chicago (once again we love the Toyota Scion despite their pretty annoying website), but also of the current state of affairs in New York City. And we all know that if hizzoner the right Mayor Bloomberg pushes his mpg agenda through in New York it will not be long before regulators everywhere follow suit.

More topics were trotted out for the 2pm and 3pm time slots, the most interesting of which, to me at least were the session on Fuel Escalator Clauses, moderated by Mary Smarelli of Transit Express in Milwaukee, WI, and the session on Performance Based Incentive Programs for Call Takers, moderated by Ham Smythe (the fourth for those of you Smythe fans keeping count) of Yellow Cab in Memphis, TN. Even if you don’t get a lot out of one of his sessions, it’s always fun listening to that Memphis drawl. Of special interest to the large fleet operator of the year was the 2:20 session on Calculating Overtime Wages for Employees, as he had just recently settled a lawsuit brought by his mechanics for failure to pay overtime. Oops.

The real value of the convention, however, was evidenced at 4:30 as the exhibit hall opened. As we visited the various booths we saw the perennial exhibitors and sponsors, most notably BB&T John Burnham Insurance Services, who sponsored the cocktail reception, Mobile Knowledge, and Digital Dispatch, the two perennial heavyweights in the digital dispatch market, a ton of credit card processing solution providers, including (alphabetically so I don’t tick off anyone more than I already have) Cab Connect, and New York City based Creative Mobile Technologies (CMT), and Verifone, and a number of in vehicle camera systems, insurance providers, vehicle manufacturers and providers of all sorts of goodies that one would need to operated the modern taxicab, livery or paratransit company. What was often more interesting than the vendors themselves, however, was listening to cab operators walking past booths that they do or did business with and finding out whether the products really worked.

Tuesday morning began, and I would like to thank American Services Insurance for feeding me (and everyone else) breakfast Tuesday, despite the fact that I pretty much killed the monopoly that they and their sister company,
American Country had in the Chicago taxicab market. The general session in the morning featured Congressmen
John Duncan (R-TN), and Jerry Costello (D-IL), both senior members of the House Transportation Committee. The rest of the day was spent on meetings which, for us at least, were very successful. We managed to reduce our insurance quote for next year by at least an additional 10% by finding an additional carrier willing to write our policy, we solidified our rear seat credit card program, we found two new viable in vehicle camera providers that we desperately need in Chicago since the ONLY one currently approved is gouging everyone on price, and I ate lunch.

I could go on ad nauseum, but it’s late and I am even starting to bore myself, so with a final word of thanks to Craig Bates, who got my butt in gear today by asking me when I plan to write another page, I bid you adieu.

I was at a bar-mitzvah today. For those of you in the bible belt that is kind of like a confirmation, but with more food and less alcohol. For you Amish it is like a barn raising, but instead of actually doing the work the Jews give each other enough money to pay someone to build the barn. So, in honor of the bar mitzvah (don’t worry, I gave him a check too) I would like to discuss Genesis 2.9.

In Genesis 2.9, a serpent convinces Eve to eat the fruit of the tree of knowledge. She then convinces Adam to partake as well, which is not all that difficult given that she is naked at the time, so she could probably ask him to partake of porcupine and he would say yes. But that’s not really what I want to talk about. There are other places on the internet (I know you all clicked on that one) for that. No, we are here to talk about assumptions.

What kind of fruit did the serpent give to Eve? It was an apple. We all know that. We all know that because it is depicted in art, and it is told to us in every story and parable. In truth, no one really knows what kind of fruit it was. I know. Right about now you are asking yourself, “Why do I care?”

What this story tells us, aside from “never accept a gift from a woman who was already buck naked when you first met her”, is that we cannot always trust assumptions, even ones that are widely held. They may not really be based on fact. We all assumed that Lehman Brothers was a pretty solid company. We all assumed that AIG was a pretty solid insurance company (see same article as Lehman), and we all generally assume that vendors, licensed individuals and equipment that we interact with on a daily basis in our business will perform honorably, legally and predictably.

Our Chicago company was insured by an AIG affiliate. There were a few scary moments there while we wondered what the procedure was in the state of Illinois when an insurer fails. In the end we never had even the inkling of a problem, but we did learn that every major decision should come with a “what if”. Everyone knew that AIG was a great insurance company, so we had no compunctions about signing on. But “what if” they failed? We didn’t have a plan and we should have.

There are numerous examples on a much smaller scale of misplaced trust and assumptions in New York, the most glaring of which revolved around worker’s compensation insurance. There was this workers comp broker, let’s just call him Eddie for argument’s sake, who was collecting comp premiums that, according to AIG, never made it to the insurance company. Suddenly everyone was going to be liable (personally liable) for all of their company’s comp cases, because they never bothered to simply call AIG and see how things were going. They ASSUMED that their broker was doing the right thing. The whole thing would have blown up in everyone’s face had not AIG kept all of their records in the World Trade Center prior to 2002. On paper. With no off site backup. Because we all ASSUMED that nothing could happen to the World Trade Center. AIG never asked, “What if?”, so they were left holding the bag.

Bottom line, if you want to make assumptions, assume the worst, then have a plan of action. Assume your phones will fail, then plan for it. Create redundant systems at least one of which is housed off site so that you will have at least some type of service available if your main facility goes down. Assume radio service will go down. Then plan for it. Again, redundant systems are helpful, but not always possible. Where will your cars post themselves if they can’t get radio signal, and how will you get word out to the public? Assume your largest client will completely stop using your service, then plan for it. Where will you make up the calls and how will you keep your drivers from bolting until you do?

These exercises are not only vital to the survival of your company, but they may provide insight as to the flexibility and capability of your staff. Let your director of dispatch work on the emergency radio plan. Let your sales manager work on the plans for replacing major accounts. You will find out not only what they know, but how creatively they can think their way out of problems, and perhaps just how valuable they really are to the company.

File this one under, “Live long enough and you will see just about everything”. The New York City taxicab industry and two of the city’s former chairs of the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), Christopher Lynn, and Diane McGrath-McKechnie found common ground after 15 years. Lynn was not exactly a friend of the industry when he was chairman, and neither was McGrath-McKechnie. In the interest of fair reporting, however, I must admit that I did not google Chris Lynn prior to today, and did in fact forward his name to a firm that was looking to hire the next taxi czar in San Francisco. Oops. My bad. And Ms. McGrath McKechnie once threw me out of a meeting on putting EZ Pass in all New York City taxicabs for warning someone that the donuts the TLC had out were a couple of days old and stale. Actually, she told me that if I couldn’t keep my mouth shut I should leave. So I left. No surprise there to anyone who knows me, but I did call later to apologize. Not for the donut thing, but for walking out.

To get back tot he point, however, the following is a press release issued by the Metropolitan Taxicab Board of Trade, a New York City taxicab fleet affiliation that is suing the city over hybrid mandates:

Hybrid Taxi Mandate Draws Criticism From Two Former TLC Chairs Who Ask Court to Strike It Down
Diane McKechnie and Christopher R. Lynn Side With Taxi Industry Against TLC’s Hybrid Taxi Mandate

MTBOT is the country’s largest taxi fleet association. It represents 27 yellow medallion taxi fleets in New York City and over 3,500 medallion taxicabs – approximately 25% of the taxi industry. MTBOT members have operated more than 30 different vehicles over several decades including minivans, Compressed Natural Gas vehicles and hybrids. MTBOT advocates on behalf of its members, its 14,000 drivers and the riding public.

I do applaud the former chairpeeps for coming forward and speaking out on behalf of the industry. To give credit where credit is due, they could have just kept to themselves. MTBOT and I would also like to thank Taxicab Livery and Paratransit Assn executive director Al Lagasse (I would have linked Al as well, but the only good link I found brought up an unfairly hideous picture, so out of deference to his wife, Deb, we shall wait for a better link) as well for his paper in support of MTBOT’s position.

Stay tuned for updates.