|  New
York city cabbies are threatening
to strike next week. Well, a few of them are, at least. The New York Taxi
Workers Alliance, which claims to represent 8,000 cabbies wants its drivers
to stay home for work for two days, while the New York State Federation of Taxi
Drivers and its 10,000 members don't want the strike to happen. Why the call
for a strike at all? The city has started to require that cabbies install new
hardware -- called Passenger Information Monitors -- in their rides that includes
GPS, a text messaging system, and credit card processing capabilities.
The argument against the new devices is that they're an unfunded mandate --
the city is requiring them, but it's the cabbies that will ultimately pay for
them. But more important, judging from the cabbies rhetoric over the last couple
of weeks, is that the GPS is an invasion of their privacy and an incursion upon
their workplace autonomy. The new units will let passengers see where they are
and convey trip information back to their headquarters and the city. (One thing
the units don't seem to do is to help cabbies figure out where they're going.
Every report I've found implies that the driver won't even be able to see the
unit from their seats.)
Cynics might think that cabbies are reluctant to declare all their proceeds,
as they'll have to do with credit card fares. And some unscrupulous drivers
might not exactly want passengers to know that it's not necessary to take the
West Side Highway to get from Union Square to Soho.
How can the city require taxi drivers -- non-city employees -- to have this
technology in their cars? Because, even though they're independent contractors,
the medallions that cabbies bid for that allows them to operate opts drivers
into a host of regulations.
Those are the basics of the threatened strike. Then there's this piece of the
puzzle -- the Passenger Information Monitors will provide what
the Taxi & Limousine Commission calls "both information and entertainment."
Translation: we'll be treated to an endless stream of advertising on each and
every cab ride. Awesome. Cause that's what I'm looking for when I'm trying to
make my way home from Manhattan to Brooklyn late at night -- forced entertainment
and advertising!
But the question remains, who gets the resulting advertising revenue? If it's
the cabbies, you think they might be more excited by this plan. If it's the
city, then you think the cabbies would be up in arms about that part of the
plan too. |
