Driver Mohammed Liakot Ali hopes that’ll make it easier for him to become his own boss.
Ali was among the cabbies who left their driver’s seats Tuesday to park themselves at an announcement of a legislative probe of their industry.
The announcement, made by state Senate Majority Leader Martin Looney, took place at Union Station, where some cabbies wait in line to pick up fares up to 12 hours a day, seven days a week — in return for taking home $400 weekly, if they’re lucky.
Looney, a New Haven Democrat, said the General Assembly’s Program Review and Investigations Committee will look at two areas of concern. One: Whether the state Department of Transportation (DOT) should de-regulate the industry so cabbies can more easily obtain licenses to run their own companies. Two: Whether the relationship between company owners and drivers — technically “independent contractors” but more like indentured servants, in some cabbies’ opinions — needs to be reexamined.
Click on the play arrow to the above video to watch highlights from the event.
Drivers “are defined as independent contractors but in reality they have verly little discretion” over working conditions or their terms of service, Looney said. And “the structure as it is set up now encourages monopolies” by companies like Metro Taxi, which dominates the Greater New Haven market.
Long-simmering tensions between drivers and Metro Taxi led to today’s announcement. The drivers originally brought their complaints of unfair treatment to the state’s African-American Affairs Commission. The commission’s chairman, New Haven attorney Michael Jefferson (pictured), joined Looney at Tuesday’s announcement.
So did Antoine Scott (at left in photo, beside Jefferson), a former Metro Taxi driver who has organized the Coalition of Independent Contractors.
Many drivers came here from such countries as India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Haiti, Scott noted. “They live five to a room just to make ends meet,” he said. “Many … want to drive a taxi to achieve the American dream,” only to be thwarted by exploitive conditions.
Scott said drivers can end up a day actually earning no money — zero dollars — after paying $160 daily rent (or over $40,000 a year) to Metro for their cabs, as well as paying for gas and maintenance. He and other drivers complained about the lack of recourse drivers have in bringing complaints against the company or renegotiating terms.
Metro Taxi owner William Scalzi couldn’t be reached on deadline. (A message was left for him after a three-minute wait at the company’s main number to speak to an operator.) Scalzi has previously defended his company’s actions. In a statement released to the Register last October, he detailed investments he has made “to ensure that our drivers enjoy a safe, supportive work environment and a good quality of life.” Lease fees “appropriately reflect the current cost of doing business in Connecticut,” Scalzi was quoted as saying. He made similar comments in this December feature article on the issue in the New Haven Advocate.
Veteran cabbie Michael Simmons called at Tuesday’s Union Station event for the creation of a state ombudsman to represent drivers who lease from companies.
Meanwhile, Mohammed Ali is hoping Looney succeeds in easing the path for independent operators to run their own companies.
Ali (pictured), a Bangladesh native who’s now a U.S. citizen, worked for Metro Taxi from 2000 – 2005. Outraged over the terms of service, he moved to a smaller company, New Haven-Milford Taxicab Co. He called his current boss, Richard Spear, “a good person” who deals fairly with the drivers. But Ali would still rather not pay $300 a week in rent for the right to transport passengers for the company.
Once gas (for which prices have been rising) and maintenance costs are figured in, Ali said, he brings home betwen $350 and $425 a week. That’s working seven days a week, 10 – 12 hours a day.
Too Many Cabs?
Spear disagreed with the cabbies about the solution to the poor service and exploitation of drivers.
Reached by phone after the event, Spear called for the state to reduce the number of licenses for New Haven cabs — with all the cuts coming to Metro’s approximately 160 licenses. Spear called for allowing the 18 smaller operators to have a few more cabs each to improve service and competition.
Overall, the market is glutted, he said. Companies like his are struggling to avoid bankruptcy. Spear, who has been in the business three decades, has 12 cars at his company.
“Nobody can make a dime. You can’t even put gas in your car,” Spear said.
By coincidence, Spear had Martin Looney as a professor 30 years ago, at University of New Haven. “It was the most boring class I ever had in my life,” he said. But he praised Looney for “passing me” even though he was a poor student.
Now, three decades later, he’d like to reunite with his old teacher to offer his passionate views on how to reform the industry, Spear said.
