| Illegal taxis offer cheap transport (12/07) | | Print | |
| Written by Angel Au-Yeung and Eve Denton | |
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They come during the dark hours of the night, helping innocent bystanders who are lost and confused. They respond to calls of distress and will almost always manage to bring you back to home sweet home. They are a few noble but mysterious men, only a quick dial away. They refer to their ringleader as “Morpheus.” This hidden organization is known as the Chinese taxicabs.
They are a service which, while more expensive than MUNI, is cheaper than a normal taxi and potentially safer than wandering the city streets. Drivers leave their day jobs and drive unmarked cars from early evening until early morning. Although the concept seemed questionable at first, our personal experience with the infamous Chinese taxicabs has been surprisingly excellent. After calling a Chinese taxicab driver, we found ourselves standing on a street corner waiting apprehensively for the unknown vehicle to pull up. We anxiously watched every car that drove by, until one stopped across the street. We watched our phones. The driver’s call told us that he was, in fact, there. We entered the car and the driver struck up a conversation like we had known each other for years. Music played softly in the background and time flew past; before we knew it, we arrived at our destination safe and sound. Six to seven Asian men run the Chinese taxicabs, mainly to make extra income to support their families. Many of these men have other jobs during the day – including working in construction, restaurants and grocery stores. While a Chinese taxicab is cheaper than a licensed cab, they are illegal. The drivers lack a Transportation Charter Party number, a permit that allows them to run a transportation business, from both the state and the San Francisco County California Public Utilities Commission. “There are a series of licenses you must get to run a transportation business,” Deputy Director of San Francisco Taxi Commission Jordanna Thigpen said. “When you get the TCP numbers from the state and the county CPUC, then you must register for a business license to run your own taxicab company. After that, then you come to the Taxi Commission to register for a taxicab business license.” If drivers are caught without these licenses their cars can be towed and they can be fined or charged with a misdemeanor, according to Thigpen. “The (unlicensed) drivers have to understand that they’re not only violating city laws, but they are also breaking state laws,” Thigpen said. And unlike licensed companies, Chinese taxicab drivers are not subject to background checks. “Anyone who is entering into an illegal taxicab is taking a huge risk because the city has no record of this driver in the city system,” Thigpen said. “You don’t know if they have insurance, if they have DUIs or if they have committed sexual offenses.” The presence of unregulated cab drivers also presents economic problems for other, licensed drivers. “The fare rate and number of cabs in the city is regulated so that all drivers can make a living,” former cab driver and economics teacher Ken Tray said. “By charging less and taking potential customers, these illegal cab drivers make it harder for the honest drivers out there.” In San Francisco alone there are over thirty-five cab companies, all of which use a fixed rate given by the city: $3.10 for the first 1/5 mile, $.45 for each additional 1/5 mile and $.45 for each minute of waiting or traffic time delay. According to an anonymous driver, a four mile ride in a Chinese taxicab generally costs eight dollars, but the rate is flexible. “There really is no fixed rate,” junior Ian Maguire said. “I rode in it once, and although the meter said one price, the driver let me pay him cheaper because we made good conversation.” A Lowell senior, who wished to remain anonymous, also claimed that knowing the driver’s native language also helps with the rate. “Because I know and talked with the driver in Cantonese, they knocked five dollars off the price.” In a test to see whether the Chinese taxicab rates were consistent or not, we took three different rides between the same starting and ending point. In one car ride covering four miles from Point A to Point B, the fare came to eight dollars. The second ride, however, cost only five dollars. The third ride, which included a stop at a friend’s house along the way, ended up costing four dollars. Our conversations varied in each car ride, which may have been a driving factor in the rate fluctuation. Although Chinese taxicabs are cheaper, they are available only at certain times and cover only a few specific areas of the city. Chinese taxicabs only go to the Sunset, West Portal, and the Richmond districts, and usually stop running at around 2:30 a.m. to 3:00 a.m. “Bars close at two, so people stop needing us after that time,” an anonymous Chinese taxicab driver said. Chinese taxicabs are also somewhat unreliable and might not show up even when called. Unlike licensed companies, the Chinese taxicabs have no fixed headquarters and the only way to reach them is through their personal cell phone numbers. “I remember my driver telling me that he would ignore calls sometimes,” Maguire said. “If it’s not a regular customer, then they’ll ignore your call or they just won’t show up.” An anonymous senior proved the theory that familiarity increases reliability on the driver’s part. “The guy I call recognizes my number and always greets me by name,” she said. “My parents feel more comfortable with me arriving late at night in a familiar-looking car, even if they don’t know that I’m taking a Chinese taxicab.” In order to ensure reliability and efficiency, companies like the Yellow Cab Co-op and Luxor Company have Global Positioning Systems at their headquarters. Each company has one phone number, and whenever a customer calls for a taxicab, the company uses their tracking system to dispatch the nearest driver to the caller. According to Michael Resse, a former Luxor Company driver, the company’s taxicabs are very reliable and usually have a car for a customer “in less than ten minutes.” Aside from reliability issues, the Chinese taxicabs’ illegitimacy is also a cause of concern for customers. “They pick you up in a regular car, and it doesn’t say ‘taxi’ on it or anything to show it’s a cab,” junior Niki Irgens-Moller said. “It’s a little creepy.” While law enforcement officers see this merely as a violation of the law, the story that is often untold is the drivers’. One Chinese taxicab driver, who wished to remain anonymous, works at a grocery store during the day, earns a little above minimum wage and has no insurance. The tax-free money earned on the side from driving Chinese taxicabs helps with his financial situation. “I don’t do this because I like to break the law,” he said. “I do this because I need to support my family.” He has two children, one boy and one girl, who go to public schools in the district. By driving Chinese taxicabs, he is taking his children’s future into consideration. “Life in San Francisco is expensive, and although my two children are going to public schools now, they are going to go to college eventually. The extra income really helps.” However, Thigpen felt that even though the Chinese taxicab drivers might have hard lives, it is no excuse for them to break the law. “I understand that their financial situation is a burden, but that shouldn’t be encouragement for them to break the law,” she said. “If they just got a taxi permit from the city, then they could work for any cab company in the city and earn extra income in a legal way.” Attracted by the discounted fare, many students are willing to overlook the service’s disregard for the law. “If it weren’t for Chinese taxicabs, I have no idea how I would get home from parties,” Irgens-Moller said. Considered criminals by some and life-savers by others, this underground service continues to patrol our neighborhood’s streets. |
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to listen.
