Have you ever hired a cab where the driver and vehicle’s overall appearance and condition coupled with the driver’s body making you want to barf and hire another cab?
Ever wonder why so many cabs are like that while most others are not?
Well the answer lies in the fact that if you’ve hired such a taxi there is every likelihood that the driver has been operating that vehicle much longer than he should have. He had likely been driving a good 15 or 16 or maybe even 20 to 30 consecutive hours without any rest at all.
DRIVER FATIGUE IS THE SINGLE MOST DANGEROUS CONDITION A DRIVER CAN HAVE APART FROM BEING DRUNK. It’s all too often the primary source of customer complaints, violence and the final factor contributing to accidents.
So the burning question is why are so many cab drivers like that? There are a number of reasons for this, the main one being the extreme hours they must put in each and every single day of the week to meet their most elementary of day to day expenses.
First, the cab driver nearly always drives 12 hour shifts and usually leases it for a fixed amount which he must pay whether he earned any money or not. Hence cab companies have little incentive to limit the size of their fleet to fit market demand. The more cars on the road the greater the company’s share of revenue.
The result is most drivers cannot even earn enough to pay rent to a homeless shelter unless they work to suicidal extremes.
Politicians and police have often voiced concerns over this and not infrequently attempt legislation without satisfactory results.
The result has been attempts to limit the number of taxis on the road using a fixed number of transferable licenses and/or legislating the number of hours a driver may work.
In general, limiting the hours a driver may operate his vehicle had never been enforceable.
Limiting the number of taxicab licenses only led to usurious stand rent and leasing cost for the driver. Driver incomes were only slightly improved.
Then along comes New York City with new legislation that is clearly a stroke of pure genius. They are now limiting the number of passenger hours than a driver may have in a 24 hour or 7 day work week.
In general, the new legislation say a driver can have paying passengers riding in his cab for not more than 10 accumulative hours in a 24 hour period or 60 hours within the space of 7 days.
For details click HERE .