When is nyc taxi shift change

Children would be sent to universities. Islam managed to put a down payment on his medallion in , and for a few years, it seemed like a good investment. Then, in , with the widespread popularity of Uber , Lyft and other ride-hailing apps, his fortunes changed. Ride-hail cars saturated the market, and an exodus of drivers from yellow taxis made medallion values drop precipitously.

The medallion has no value. No one wants to buy it now. In the New York City of the public imagination, taxicabs dot the urban landscape. Taxi driving is an old, almost mythic profession in this city; the first yellow cabs appeared in the s. Today, there are more than 13, yellow medallion taxis in New York, split among about 40, drivers — some own their own medallions and cars, but most do not; many drivers work for a fleet, like the characters from Taxi, and pay to rent each car on a daily or weekly basis.

He emigrated to New York from what was then Yugoslavia, shortly before the beginning of the Yugoslav wars. But as you well know, America has been a dream for everybody. The job is not easy: the standard shift is 12 hours, and with the cost of leasing a car and filling the gas tank, a bad day means taking a loss.

For every moment spent without a paying passenger, the driver loses money. Occasionally, passengers are abusive or violent; nationwide, taxi drivers are over 20 times more likely to be murdered on the job than anyone else. But taxi driving provides the chance to make a living, however difficult or dangerous or meager — especially for working-class immigrants, who often have limited employment opportunities.

Twenty years ago, Singh left the Punjab in northern India, where he had worked on a farm, and moved to New York. He followed his brother-in-law into the taxi business, and has been driving ever since.

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?

Was about to write the same thing. The advice people are giving to just jump in the cab applies in the case where the driver's off-duty light is not on, but the rider looks like they're going to some part of Brooklyn or wherever that the driver doesn't want to go, and the driver is wrongly being selective. The situation of having to just jump in the car has never come up for me in Manhattan with an on-duty car, it has before in Brooklyn though.

Even in the case you describe, they will try to refuse or claim they don't know the way most of the time. If you still hold your ground, you better know the route because if you don't you can expect the cabbie to get "lost" for an hour and have you pay for the privilege.

Most people commenting here about how he should stop whining and suggesting he should get in the taxi before telling the driver his destination are missing the point.

Uber provides a better experience than taxis. If it didn't there wouldn't be any demand and you wouldn't see posts like this on a regular basis. The taxi industry needs to improve their service, or stop attempting to outlaw the competition and STFU. As documented in Mike Grynbaum's NY Times article, the five taxis probably weren't lying about the shift change. More importantly, it makes day-shift vs.

It's a shame the shift changes coincide with after-work rush hour and a popular time for night life to wind down. You have to get inside the cab before you tell them where you're going, they are legally required to take you once you are inside.

In theory, sure. In reality, during the day in midtown and particularly around rush hour , you're more likely going to find a cab that pulls up to you with its doors locked, and a driver who rolls down his window to ask you where you're going. Especially if you look like you're going to the airport. I hate dealing with cabbies' bullshit, and so I simply don't. Even if I'm fairly certain I can get a cab. I'd rather pay more for a service I can count on over one that is a gamble and filled with drivers who are more than willing to deceive their customers.

Edit: context - i live in NYC, work in midtown. That way, all the taxis driving from downtown to JFK, know that they can easily find a corresponding clients for driving all the way back. Though if we're going to argue what is the most reliable way to get to JFK from manhattan during rush hour I'd offer LIRR as the best option, since it doesn't get stuck in traffic Yeah, good point. Several of my coworkers are from my company's offices in Canada, and when they are down here they always insist on getting a cab.

It always turns out bad, because they always seem to be leaving at rush hour. I wish I could convince them to either just book a car or take mass transit. They are legally required to take you anywhere whether you're inside or not. There are exceptions; they can refuse to take you to Texas, etc. But refusing to take someone to somewhere in the five boroughs while they are on-shift is not legal. Having said that, get in the damn cab before you tell them where you're going. I hate his pretentious tone.

The Uber drivers do what they do not because they are more respectful, but because you are paying out of our ass for it. You really think they like pulling around people if they could do something else? 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 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. The shift-change thing is my biggest problem with NYC taxis, but other than that, they seem vastly better than anywhere I've tried except London.

Plural of anecdote is not data, but what for me is a representative experience in NYC: I had to go from Brooklyn after having lunch with some rap lyrics entrepreneurs at a famous steak house , to my midtown hotel to pick up my luggage, to JFK, all in 2h, to catch a flight. I was also somewhat intoxicated. Hailing a cab on the street is a lot harder in Brooklyn than Manhattan, but I managed to do so as I was walking to a subway station blocks away. He said he was going off-shift, but would drive me close to his depot just across the Williamsburg bridge to change taxis.

I did that, and the next driver who it turns out knew a few people I knew who worked as translators in Afghanistan; he was waiting for an application to be an instructor at DLI drove me to my hotel, but was also going off-shift, but called another taxi who was waiting for me at the hotel to take me to JFK. I took about 25 taxi rides in NYC over 2 weeks, mainly midtown and downtown, and they were all polite, professional, competent, etc.

I talked with them about Uber, the Square reader which apparently was just a tiny trial , etc. This was during some kind of financial dispute they were having, so I asked them about that mid-summer In SF: Call a taxi. They don't show up. Repeat 3x. Hail a taxi on the street. Driver verbally harasses my companion. Next taxi I take gets "lost" in downtown. Ditto DC. Ditto Chicago though it's better.

NYC cab service is by far the most consistently reliable this side of the Atlantic One largely unknown tip is that there are many formal cab stands around NYC. At these, another human being helps you navigate the rules and hail a cab. They are great for the elderly, tourists and any of us when we have a big package or a lot of bags.

They are also often covered see: cabs-in-rain problem , discourage 'up-streaming' by other would-be riders and they seem to attract available cabs cabbies seem to favor the known quantity. Identify and map these cab stands; 2. Report if they are 'open'; 3. Show demand number of people waiting , and; 4. Show availability number of cabs waiting. Now in SF, it's the worst cab situation I've ever seen. I've had cabs that I ordered via the phone never bother to show up, and once waited 90 mins in front of a hotel, as the hotel employee tried to flag taxis as they passed by the line.

I don't bother taking the cab anymore. If I need to be somewhere for a day like New Year's Eve, I'll park downtown earlier that afternoon and then take the Muni there. On a recent post-work cab ride with a colleague, a very chatty taxi driver clued us in to why you might have a hard time finding a cab between 3 p. In New York City, there are several types of cabs on the road, our driver explained.

Some drivers own their vehicles and set their own hours, but many drivers are "daily drivers," which means they pick up a different car to drive each day. These cars are often stored in garages outside of the Manhattan, with several located in Queens, Brooklyn, and the Bronx. Daily drivers will work one of two shifts each day, our driver also explained.

The first shift runs from around 3 a. This means while you're holding up your hand on 5th Avenue at 5 p. Meanwhile, the second shift of daily drivers is still en route into the city for the evening, meaning there are fewer total cabs on the road. For you.