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PUBLIC TESTIMONY
Testimony by Allison Langley, Staff Attorney at New York Taxi Workers Alliance
4:40:57
·
3 min
Allison Langley from the New York Taxi Workers Alliance testified about the challenges faced by taxi medallion owners due to the wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) mandate and proposed solutions to support drivers. She emphasized the need for city support in this transition to an accessible fleet.
- Requested an amendment to the city sales tax to exempt WAVs purchased for use as taxis, potentially saving drivers $4,000 per vehicle
- Called for additional funding for the Taxi Cab Improvement Fund (TIF) to support WAV purchases and operations
- Highlighted the financial strain on drivers due to the higher costs of WAVs and reduced trip levels, urging the city council to provide support similar to other transportation infrastructure
Allison Langley
4:40:57
I'm a staff attorney at the New York Taxi Workers Alliance.
4:41:00
You'll hear more from my colleagues and our members about the demands related to the medallion relief program.
4:41:05
Today I'd like to focus my testimony on the wheelchair accessible vehicle mandate that yellow cab owner drivers are subject to.
4:41:12
As a result of settlement that the city entered into and a 2024 court order enforcing that settlement, 50% of the taxi fleet has to be wheelchair accessible vehicles.
4:41:22
And until that threshold is met, all medallion owners have to put wheelchair accessible vehicles or WAVs into service.
4:41:29
The Taxi Workers Alliance supports this transition to an accessible fleet and the city has to ensure that this transition does not happen on the backs of owner drivers.
4:41:39
As Wayne was explaining, WAVES are twice as expensive as conventional vehicles.
4:41:44
And even though it was the city that entered into the settlement agreement, it's owners who have to pay the price for those vehicles.
4:41:51
This doubling in expenses is coming at the tail end of decades of crises.
4:41:56
As you heard so compellingly from Wayne, you know this has had a real life or death impact on this community.
4:42:01
People have died because of the debt crisis, and on top of that there's the entry of Uber and Lyft, the COVID nineteen crisis, and as a result, taxi trips are just 26% of the level they were at in March 2014, which is when this settlement agreement was entered into.
4:42:17
The transition to an accessible fleet demands the same level of attention and care from the city and city council that the council is applying to the rest of the transportation infrastructure in the city.
4:42:29
So, we ask that the city council first amend the city sales tax to exempt wheelchair accessible vehicles that are purchased for use as taxis.
4:42:37
This will be a savings of nearly $4,000 per vehicle and that money will go right back into the pockets of owner drivers, and the cost to the city is extraordinarily minimal.
4:42:46
This year for example with just some back of the napkin math about how many vehicles are retiring would cost the city around $500,000 in lost revenue if they make this amendment.
4:42:56
So it's a common sense intervention, it has to happen.
4:42:59
In addition, the city has to fund the Taxi Cab Improvement Fund.
4:43:02
This is a fund set up in the wake of the 2014 settlement to support owner drivers in the purchase and operation of WAVES.
4:43:09
However, the funding has been solely by drivers labor as it's funded only on a surcharge on each trip, the trips that drivers perform.
4:43:18
Now of course, as you've seen the trip levels get decimated between 2014 and now, not only does that impact driver income, but that also has impacted TIF collections.
4:43:28
So TIF is actually going to be insolvent in the next year or two.
4:43:32
And so the council has to support TIF with more funding.
4:43:37
The TLC has been trying to address this affordability crisis.
4:43:40
Waves require bigger down payments because they're twice as expensive.
4:43:44
Many owner drivers simply cannot afford that cost.
4:43:47
So TLC rearranged the benefits to increase the upfront benefits drivers get from TIF.
4:43:53
However to do that, they had to get rid of slash the $1 per trip that drivers were receiving to operate a wave.
4:44:00
That resulted in up to a $3,000 loss in annual wages drivers.
4:44:05
And that's just unacceptable, particularly in this moment, of crisis and poverty.
4:44:10
So we ask that the city council support us, in these demands to support owner drivers in the same way that you have supported the rest of the transportation infrastructure in this city.