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"disqusTitle": "How Many Ride-Share Drivers Are Hiding Status From Insurers?",
"title": "How Many Ride-Share Drivers Are Hiding Status From Insurers?",
"headTitle": "News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_118115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-118115\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/11/lyft.jpg\" alt=\"Two agents from the same insurance company gave TNC driver different answers on whether they could provide coverage. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Lyft vehicle on the streets of San Francisco. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>n November we reported on the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\" target=\"_blank\">widespread confusion over insurance\u003c/a> for ride-share drivers who work for companies such as Lyft, Sidecar and UberX. These companies use smartphone apps to connect ordinary car owners with those seeking a ride. The growing industry has \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/07/taxis-lyft-ride-service-war-on-streets-of-san-francisco\" target=\"_blank\">given the taxi industry fits\u003c/a>, siphoning off both customers and drivers. In San Francisco, where it has long been notoriously hard to find a cab, the transportation network companies, or TNCs for short, have stepped in to fill the gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One downside for both passengers and riders, however, is uncertainty over insurance coverage if a TNC driver gets into an accident, as several have in the past few weeks. Here's what we found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Ride-service companies like Lyft and Sidecar say drivers’ personal insurance policies will cover some claims. But the insurance industry says the policies won’t provide any coverage.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The insurance industry says ride-service drivers will have to buy commercial insurance to be covered when they’re driving for hire and maybe even when they’re not.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>At least some ride-service drivers are keeping their status secret from their insurance companies because they’re afraid of losing coverage.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>These issues might take on increasing urgency as more and more drivers sign up and accidents occur. A \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2014/01/elderly_pedestrian_hit_by_car.php\" target=\"_blank\">Lyft driver was involved in an accident\u003c/a> in San Francisco on Friday, and an UberX driver \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/02/122446/\" target=\"_blank\">struck and killed a 6-year-old girl\u003c/a> on New Year's Eve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"bc1da10c030fd708c761553593624a03\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One question we posed in the past: \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/can-lyft-uberx-drivers-lose-their-insurance\" target=\"_blank\">Are ride-service drivers at risk of losing their insurance?\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week on the Lyft Lounge, a Facebook meeting area for drivers, one member posted a cancellation notice she received from Geico. The termination was for \"commercial use of your 2012 Toyota Prius.\" The posting has sparked a long online discussion among Lyft drivers. Wrote one fellow Lyft driver in response:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"No one, I mean no one told me my insurance would have a problem with it. What's Lyft's response to the fact that serving for them may end up with us losing insurance and possibly our livelihood?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, journalist Josh Wolf, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfbg.com/2013/08/06/driven-take-risks\" target=\"_blank\">writing for the San Francisco Bay Guardian\u003c/a>, reported on a similar cancellation of a Lyft driver's insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lyft has not gotten back to us with a response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Keeping TNC Status a Secret\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the fear over such cancellations, at least some ride-service drivers have kept their status a secret from their insurance companies. Several Lyft drivers we spoke to previously said they did not want their names used for this reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have heard about people being denied coverage because it was discovered they were driving for Lyft, and therefore their personal insurance policy would not be renewed, or canceled,\" Lyft driver Dan told us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Said another driver: \"I don’t think I should let my insurance company know because I’ll probably get dropped.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And another: “I figure the less they know the better.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I spoke Monday to yet another Lyft driver about the issue, and again he would talk only on the condition of anonymity out of fear of having his insurance canceled. This driver said he noted one bit of advice on the Lyft Lounge recently: If you get into an accident, end your ride immediately and turn off your app, so you cannot be identified as a ride-service driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'No one, I mean no one told me my insurance would have a problem with it.'\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>He also said he displays the famous pink mustache that identifies Lyft vehicles only when picking up a passenger, then throws it in the back seat, against both Lyft rules and state regulations. He does this to lessen the risk of being identified as a TNC driver and also because he does not want to get \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/07/taxis-lyft-ride-service-war-on-streets-of-san-francisco\" target=\"_blank\">hassled by taxi drivers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There does seem to be a distinct feeling among some TNC drivers that it is bad practice to go public with your professional driver status. On the Reddit Uber Drivers subgroup, someone recently put up a post titled: \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.reddit.com/r/uberdrivers/comments/1v0lwd/do_not_mention_your_work_as_an_uber_driver_on_any/\" target=\"_blank\">Do not mention your work as an Uber Driver on any social media. Good way to get coverage denied in the case of an accident\u003c/a>.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can You Get Insurance for TNC Work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M077/K192/77192335.PDF\" target=\"_blank\">rules adopted last September\u003c/a>, the California Public Utilities Commission requires ride-service companies to carry at least $1 million in liability insurance for their drivers. But it remains unclear just when that insurance is in effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Graham Archer, the attorney for Syed Muzaffar, the UberX driver involved in the fatal accident on New Year’s Eve, says his client had driven to San Francisco with the express intent of serving UberX users and had already completed one trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But although Muzaffar was logged in and awaiting another customer, he wasn’t on a call at the moment of the accident, so UberX does not consider him covered under its policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The companies' commercial insurance won't cover the personal use of a TNC vehicle — for instance, when a driver is running personal errands or going on a road trip. There is a real question as to whether ride-service drivers can obtain personal insurance if they tell insurance companies the true nature of their intended use of the vehicle. During my reporting last year, I contacted the American Automobile Association and Allstate to see if they’d insure me for the personal use of my car if I also wanted to use it for transporting paying passengers as a TNC. Both said they wouldn't.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they discover that your car’s being used that way, then that’s going to raise the red flag for any claim,” an Allstate broker told me. “Tracking if accidents have occurred involving such vehicles is difficult, as the insurer will not always have the knowledge that the passenger paid for transport.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The recent experiences of two taxi drivers who wanted to switch to UberX also shows how hard it is for TNC drivers to get insurance coverage. Each uses Uber Taxi, a service that connects passengers with regular cabs. Each said they considered driving for UberX after learning Uber offers financing for that service's drivers to buy new vehicles. But each said their plans hit a roadblock when they found they couldn't get insurance for the new cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those drivers was John Han, who drives for Yellow Cab in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I couldn't find anybody who would insure an UberX vehicle,\" he says. \"When I talked to my personal insurance company, I was trying to be very honest. I said I had just been approved for a car loan but wanted to work for UberX. They said they can’t insure that.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Han says he was referred to a company that provides limousine insurance, but the broker said she couldn't find anyone to cover an UberX vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You can’t really insure a car as both a personal vehicle and commercial at the same time,\" says Han, who has written about taxi issues for his own blog. \"Someone might create that kind of package. But it doesn't exist now. The insurance industry is under no obligation to insure something just because the CPUC says it’s OK.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The only way I can do UberX would be to lie to my insurance company. I didn't want to do it that way.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'You can see my dilemma. It seems to me the only way to comply with Uber by getting personal insurance would be to misrepresent my use of the vehicle.'\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bill Clark drives for Luxor Cab and was also ready to try driving for UberX. He says he was part of a group of about 25 cab drivers that Uber was encouraging to convert to its ride-service platform. He says he was turned down for insurance when he tried to buy a new car for his planned UberX work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I went to Geico, filled out an application and told them I was going to transport people,\" he says. \"The application was declined as 'undesirable.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Han, he then tried to get commercial insurance, going through a broker, and couldn't find anyone to insure a TNC vehicle. \"They had never heard of TNCs,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>No Answer to Request for Advice\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark then emailed the following to a contact at Uber complaining that he couldn't obtain insurance:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>I would like to discuss some concerns that have come up in researching the insurance for TNCs. According to the law the requirements to operate a TNC vehicle are: The California PUC requires personal insurance from the driver and excess liability insurance from the TNC (UBER). However when I applied for personal insurance from Geico and I truthfully represented the use of the vehicle, they declined, stating that my use was commercial. It also seems they do not offer the type of commercial insurance I would need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can see my dilemma. It seems to me the only way to comply with Uber by getting personal insurance would be to misrepresent my use of the vehicle, which I do not feel comfortable with. My conclusion from this indicates that if there were claims against a TNC driver and the insurance company found out that the true use of the vehicle was falsified, they would deny coverage.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The Uber rep told Clark he would see what he could do. Clark then wrote a followup email saying he was still excited about working for Uber, but that the insurance matter needed to be resolved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says he never got any answers and he now assumes the other cab drivers in his group who obtained insurance for TNC work told insurance companies their new cars were for personal use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musing about his quest to leave the taxi business, Clark says, \"I could get a brand-new Prius, drive any time I wanted to, and just make money. That’s like a dream; too good to be true. In fact, it was too good to be true. You can’t get insurance on them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Obviously, many people are obtaining insurance on vehicles for TNC use. But it's unclear how many insurers, if any, know about the insured's ride-service work and would balk at coverage if they found out. Almost all personal insurance policies contain an exclusion for commercial use of vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Many insurers don’t know their customers are involved in these kinds of program,\" says Pete Moraga of the Insurance Information Network of California. \"If these drivers aren’t telling their insurers, there’s no way for them to know.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the California Department of Insurance has \u003ca href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/0300-insurers/0200-bulletins/bulletin-notices-commiss-opinion/TransNetwkDrvrs.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">issued a warning to TNC drivers\u003c/a> about possible gaps in insurance coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I sent Uber a number of questions about insurance, including one asking the company if it could name any personal insurers who were willing to insure a TNC vehicle. The company would not answer any of those questions on the record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update Jan 22:\u003c/strong> Uber now tells us it did respond to Clark in a phone conversation. Clark, however, says that while an Uber rep did call him, he merely listened to Clark's concerns, saying he would get back to him with a response. But Clark never heard back with any answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 2: \u003c/strong>Kara Cross, general counsel for the Personal Insurance Federation of California, an industry group made up of State Farm, Farmers', Progressive, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, and Mercury, contacted us with some insurance implications for TNC passengers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cross says that if you are injured as a result of riding in a TNC vehicle, you can draw on the $1 million-per-incident coverage TNCs are required to have, but only if the TNC driver is judged to be at fault. If the other vehicle is judged to be at fault, you will have to rely on that driver's insurance, which will very likely cover a much lower amount than $1 million if it is a private vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_118115\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-118115\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/11/lyft.jpg\" alt=\"Two agents from the same insurance company gave TNC driver different answers on whether they could provide coverage. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\">\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A Lyft vehicle on the streets of San Francisco. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">I\u003c/span>n November we reported on the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\" target=\"_blank\">widespread confusion over insurance\u003c/a> for ride-share drivers who work for companies such as Lyft, Sidecar and UberX. These companies use smartphone apps to connect ordinary car owners with those seeking a ride. The growing industry has \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/07/taxis-lyft-ride-service-war-on-streets-of-san-francisco\" target=\"_blank\">given the taxi industry fits\u003c/a>, siphoning off both customers and drivers. In San Francisco, where it has long been notoriously hard to find a cab, the transportation network companies, or TNCs for short, have stepped in to fill the gap.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One downside for both passengers and riders, however, is uncertainty over insurance coverage if a TNC driver gets into an accident, as several have in the past few weeks. Here's what we found:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>Ride-service companies like Lyft and Sidecar say drivers’ personal insurance policies will cover some claims. But the insurance industry says the policies won’t provide any coverage.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The insurance industry says ride-service drivers will have to buy commercial insurance to be covered when they’re driving for hire and maybe even when they’re not.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>At least some ride-service drivers are keeping their status secret from their insurance companies because they’re afraid of losing coverage.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>These issues might take on increasing urgency as more and more drivers sign up and accidents occur. A \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2014/01/elderly_pedestrian_hit_by_car.php\" target=\"_blank\">Lyft driver was involved in an accident\u003c/a> in San Francisco on Friday, and an UberX driver \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/02/122446/\" target=\"_blank\">struck and killed a 6-year-old girl\u003c/a> on New Year's Eve.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One question we posed in the past: \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/can-lyft-uberx-drivers-lose-their-insurance\" target=\"_blank\">Are ride-service drivers at risk of losing their insurance?\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last week on the Lyft Lounge, a Facebook meeting area for drivers, one member posted a cancellation notice she received from Geico. The termination was for \"commercial use of your 2012 Toyota Prius.\" The posting has sparked a long online discussion among Lyft drivers. Wrote one fellow Lyft driver in response:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"No one, I mean no one told me my insurance would have a problem with it. What's Lyft's response to the fact that serving for them may end up with us losing insurance and possibly our livelihood?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Last year, journalist Josh Wolf, \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfbg.com/2013/08/06/driven-take-risks\" target=\"_blank\">writing for the San Francisco Bay Guardian\u003c/a>, reported on a similar cancellation of a Lyft driver's insurance.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lyft has not gotten back to us with a response.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Keeping TNC Status a Secret\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Because of the fear over such cancellations, at least some ride-service drivers have kept their status a secret from their insurance companies. Several Lyft drivers we spoke to previously said they did not want their names used for this reason.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“I have heard about people being denied coverage because it was discovered they were driving for Lyft, and therefore their personal insurance policy would not be renewed, or canceled,\" Lyft driver Dan told us.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Said another driver: \"I don’t think I should let my insurance company know because I’ll probably get dropped.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And another: “I figure the less they know the better.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I spoke Monday to yet another Lyft driver about the issue, and again he would talk only on the condition of anonymity out of fear of having his insurance canceled. This driver said he noted one bit of advice on the Lyft Lounge recently: If you get into an accident, end your ride immediately and turn off your app, so you cannot be identified as a ride-service driver.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'No one, I mean no one told me my insurance would have a problem with it.'\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>He also said he displays the famous pink mustache that identifies Lyft vehicles only when picking up a passenger, then throws it in the back seat, against both Lyft rules and state regulations. He does this to lessen the risk of being identified as a TNC driver and also because he does not want to get \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/07/taxis-lyft-ride-service-war-on-streets-of-san-francisco\" target=\"_blank\">hassled by taxi drivers\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>There does seem to be a distinct feeling among some TNC drivers that it is bad practice to go public with your professional driver status. On the Reddit Uber Drivers subgroup, someone recently put up a post titled: \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.reddit.com/r/uberdrivers/comments/1v0lwd/do_not_mention_your_work_as_an_uber_driver_on_any/\" target=\"_blank\">Do not mention your work as an Uber Driver on any social media. Good way to get coverage denied in the case of an accident\u003c/a>.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Can You Get Insurance for TNC Work?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M077/K192/77192335.PDF\" target=\"_blank\">rules adopted last September\u003c/a>, the California Public Utilities Commission requires ride-service companies to carry at least $1 million in liability insurance for their drivers. But it remains unclear just when that insurance is in effect.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Graham Archer, the attorney for Syed Muzaffar, the UberX driver involved in the fatal accident on New Year’s Eve, says his client had driven to San Francisco with the express intent of serving UberX users and had already completed one trip.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But although Muzaffar was logged in and awaiting another customer, he wasn’t on a call at the moment of the accident, so UberX does not consider him covered under its policy.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The companies' commercial insurance won't cover the personal use of a TNC vehicle — for instance, when a driver is running personal errands or going on a road trip. There is a real question as to whether ride-service drivers can obtain personal insurance if they tell insurance companies the true nature of their intended use of the vehicle. During my reporting last year, I contacted the American Automobile Association and Allstate to see if they’d insure me for the personal use of my car if I also wanted to use it for transporting paying passengers as a TNC. Both said they wouldn't.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“If they discover that your car’s being used that way, then that’s going to raise the red flag for any claim,” an Allstate broker told me. “Tracking if accidents have occurred involving such vehicles is difficult, as the insurer will not always have the knowledge that the passenger paid for transport.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The recent experiences of two taxi drivers who wanted to switch to UberX also shows how hard it is for TNC drivers to get insurance coverage. Each uses Uber Taxi, a service that connects passengers with regular cabs. Each said they considered driving for UberX after learning Uber offers financing for that service's drivers to buy new vehicles. But each said their plans hit a roadblock when they found they couldn't get insurance for the new cars.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of those drivers was John Han, who drives for Yellow Cab in San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I couldn't find anybody who would insure an UberX vehicle,\" he says. \"When I talked to my personal insurance company, I was trying to be very honest. I said I had just been approved for a car loan but wanted to work for UberX. They said they can’t insure that.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Han says he was referred to a company that provides limousine insurance, but the broker said she couldn't find anyone to cover an UberX vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"You can’t really insure a car as both a personal vehicle and commercial at the same time,\" says Han, who has written about taxi issues for his own blog. \"Someone might create that kind of package. But it doesn't exist now. The insurance industry is under no obligation to insure something just because the CPUC says it’s OK.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The only way I can do UberX would be to lie to my insurance company. I didn't want to do it that way.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'You can see my dilemma. It seems to me the only way to comply with Uber by getting personal insurance would be to misrepresent my use of the vehicle.'\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Bill Clark drives for Luxor Cab and was also ready to try driving for UberX. He says he was part of a group of about 25 cab drivers that Uber was encouraging to convert to its ride-service platform. He says he was turned down for insurance when he tried to buy a new car for his planned UberX work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I went to Geico, filled out an application and told them I was going to transport people,\" he says. \"The application was declined as 'undesirable.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Like Han, he then tried to get commercial insurance, going through a broker, and couldn't find anyone to insure a TNC vehicle. \"They had never heard of TNCs,\" he said.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>No Answer to Request for Advice\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Clark then emailed the following to a contact at Uber complaining that he couldn't obtain insurance:\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>I would like to discuss some concerns that have come up in researching the insurance for TNCs. According to the law the requirements to operate a TNC vehicle are: The California PUC requires personal insurance from the driver and excess liability insurance from the TNC (UBER). However when I applied for personal insurance from Geico and I truthfully represented the use of the vehicle, they declined, stating that my use was commercial. It also seems they do not offer the type of commercial insurance I would need.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>You can see my dilemma. It seems to me the only way to comply with Uber by getting personal insurance would be to misrepresent my use of the vehicle, which I do not feel comfortable with. My conclusion from this indicates that if there were claims against a TNC driver and the insurance company found out that the true use of the vehicle was falsified, they would deny coverage.\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The Uber rep told Clark he would see what he could do. Clark then wrote a followup email saying he was still excited about working for Uber, but that the insurance matter needed to be resolved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says he never got any answers and he now assumes the other cab drivers in his group who obtained insurance for TNC work told insurance companies their new cars were for personal use.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Musing about his quest to leave the taxi business, Clark says, \"I could get a brand-new Prius, drive any time I wanted to, and just make money. That’s like a dream; too good to be true. In fact, it was too good to be true. You can’t get insurance on them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Obviously, many people are obtaining insurance on vehicles for TNC use. But it's unclear how many insurers, if any, know about the insured's ride-service work and would balk at coverage if they found out. Almost all personal insurance policies contain an exclusion for commercial use of vehicles.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Many insurers don’t know their customers are involved in these kinds of program,\" says Pete Moraga of the Insurance Information Network of California. \"If these drivers aren’t telling their insurers, there’s no way for them to know.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Meanwhile, the California Department of Insurance has \u003ca href=\"http://www.insurance.ca.gov/0250-insurers/0300-insurers/0200-bulletins/bulletin-notices-commiss-opinion/TransNetwkDrvrs.cfm\" target=\"_blank\">issued a warning to TNC drivers\u003c/a> about possible gaps in insurance coverage.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I sent Uber a number of questions about insurance, including one asking the company if it could name any personal insurers who were willing to insure a TNC vehicle. The company would not answer any of those questions on the record.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update Jan 22:\u003c/strong> Uber now tells us it did respond to Clark in a phone conversation. Clark, however, says that while an Uber rep did call him, he merely listened to Clark's concerns, saying he would get back to him with a response. But Clark never heard back with any answers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Update 2: \u003c/strong>Kara Cross, general counsel for the Personal Insurance Federation of California, an industry group made up of State Farm, Farmers', Progressive, Allstate, Liberty Mutual, and Mercury, contacted us with some insurance implications for TNC passengers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cross says that if you are injured as a result of riding in a TNC vehicle, you can draw on the $1 million-per-incident coverage TNCs are required to have, but only if the TNC driver is judged to be at fault. If the other vehicle is judged to be at fault, you will have to rely on that driver's insurance, which will very likely cover a much lower amount than $1 million if it is a private vehicle.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Taxi Drivers Want San Francisco to Crack Down on 'Ride Share' Insurance ",
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"content": "\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_122545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/02/news-pix-tenderloin-pedestrian-memorial-anti-gentrification-protest-and-new-years-traditions/n-of-polk-and-ellis-streets-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-122545\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-122545\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/01/ped-memorial2-640x450.jpg\" alt=\"A memorial at the intersection of Polk and Ellis streets in San Francisco, where a 6-year-old girl was struck by a car and killed on New Year’s Eve. (Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A memorial at the intersection of Polk and Ellis streets in San Francisco, where a 6-year-old girl was struck by a car and killed on New Year’s Eve. (Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/02/122446/\" target=\"_blank\">told you last week \u003c/a>about the repercussions from a New Year's Eve tragedy in which a driver for smartphone ride service UberX struck a mother and two children in a San Francisco crosswalk. One of the children, Sophia Liu, 6, was killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[contextly_sidebar id=\"d8f086c14fb86d9f3f640b0a4d443e29\"]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UberX acknowledged the driver, whom police identified as Syed Muzzafar of Union City, was a \"partner,\" though it said he was not making a trip for the company at the time of the incident. Police arrested Muzzafar on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, and he was later released after posting bail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The death highlighted an issue that both taxi companies and their drivers have been raising as the ride services — including Lyft, Sidecar, UberX and others — become more popular. Namely: Are the services adequately insured?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later today, we're going to hear that question asked very loudly at City Hall. Members of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfcda.org/\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Cab Drivers Association\u003c/a> promise to appear at \u003ca href=\"http://sf-police.org/index.aspx?page=4444\" target=\"_blank\">this evening's meeting of the Police Commission\u003c/a> to demand the city enforce its insurance requirements on drivers and vehicles operating as part of the smartphone ride services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utility Commission requires the ride services, which it has dubbed transportation network companies(TNCs), to carry policies that provide $1 million in liability coverage per incident. But as KQED's \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Brooks has reported\u003c/a>, a lot is unknown about the TNC insurance policies. For instance:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The TNCs provide \"excess\" instead of \"primary\" insurance coverage. The policies are designed to pay for claims uncovered by other insurance -- say, a driver's personal auto insurance policy.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The TNCs have said drivers' personal insurance policies will cover some claims if there's an accident; the insurance industry says those policies won't provide any coverage.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The insurance industry says ride-service drivers will have to buy commercial insurance to be covered when they're driving for hire and maybe even when they're not.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>As a result of the uncertainty surrounding the insurance policies, some TNC drivers say they keep their status secret from their insurers. The taxi industry says the situation leaves the public unprotected. Barry Korengold, president of the cab drivers association, said in a statement today, \"If this practice is knowingly allowed to continue, the city of San Francisco must bear financial responsibility for accidents such as the tragedy that occurred this past New Year's Eve.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For their part, the ride-service companies say their insurance is adequate and that drivers and passengers are protected.\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_122545\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\" style=\"max-width: 640px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/02/news-pix-tenderloin-pedestrian-memorial-anti-gentrification-protest-and-new-years-traditions/n-of-polk-and-ellis-streets-2/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-122545\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-122545\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/01/ped-memorial2-640x450.jpg\" alt=\"A memorial at the intersection of Polk and Ellis streets in San Francisco, where a 6-year-old girl was struck by a car and killed on New Year’s Eve. (Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\" width=\"640\" height=\"450\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">A memorial at the intersection of Polk and Ellis streets in San Francisco, where a 6-year-old girl was struck by a car and killed on New Year’s Eve. (Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>We \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/01/02/122446/\" target=\"_blank\">told you last week \u003c/a>about the repercussions from a New Year's Eve tragedy in which a driver for smartphone ride service UberX struck a mother and two children in a San Francisco crosswalk. One of the children, Sophia Liu, 6, was killed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>UberX acknowledged the driver, whom police identified as Syed Muzzafar of Union City, was a \"partner,\" though it said he was not making a trip for the company at the time of the incident. Police arrested Muzzafar on suspicion of vehicular manslaughter, and he was later released after posting bail.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The death highlighted an issue that both taxi companies and their drivers have been raising as the ride services — including Lyft, Sidecar, UberX and others — become more popular. Namely: Are the services adequately insured?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Later today, we're going to hear that question asked very loudly at City Hall. Members of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfcda.org/\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Cab Drivers Association\u003c/a> promise to appear at \u003ca href=\"http://sf-police.org/index.aspx?page=4444\" target=\"_blank\">this evening's meeting of the Police Commission\u003c/a> to demand the city enforce its insurance requirements on drivers and vehicles operating as part of the smartphone ride services.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The California Public Utility Commission requires the ride services, which it has dubbed transportation network companies(TNCs), to carry policies that provide $1 million in liability coverage per incident. But as KQED's \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\" target=\"_blank\">Jon Brooks has reported\u003c/a>, a lot is unknown about the TNC insurance policies. For instance:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>The TNCs provide \"excess\" instead of \"primary\" insurance coverage. The policies are designed to pay for claims uncovered by other insurance -- say, a driver's personal auto insurance policy.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The TNCs have said drivers' personal insurance policies will cover some claims if there's an accident; the insurance industry says those policies won't provide any coverage.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>The insurance industry says ride-service drivers will have to buy commercial insurance to be covered when they're driving for hire and maybe even when they're not.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003cp>As a result of the uncertainty surrounding the insurance policies, some TNC drivers say they keep their status secret from their insurers. The taxi industry says the situation leaves the public unprotected. Barry Korengold, president of the cab drivers association, said in a statement today, \"If this practice is knowingly allowed to continue, the city of San Francisco must bear financial responsibility for accidents such as the tragedy that occurred this past New Year's Eve.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>For their part, the ride-service companies say their insurance is adequate and that drivers and passengers are protected.\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Tip or Bribe? Taxi Drivers Say Illegal Payments to Dispatchers Are Routine",
"title": "Tip or Bribe? Taxi Drivers Say Illegal Payments to Dispatchers Are Routine",
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"content": "\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">B\u003c/span>rad Newsham drove a cab in San Francisco for nearly three decades and says he loved nearly everything about the job from the first day he got behind the wheel: the people, the city's beauty, the independence, the sense of experiencing something new every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.bradnewsham.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Newsham\u003c/a> quit the business this year because he was down to earning a net income of five bucks an hour. Newsham's experience isn't unique — others in San Francisco's taxicab industry say they know drivers who are only netting $5 to $10 an hour. A big part of the tough economics for drivers has to do with ride-service companies like Sidecar, Uber and Lyft siphoning off business from the traditional cab companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright noborder\">\u003cimg src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/12/18/tip.jpg\" alt=\"Money\">\n\u003ch3>When drivers pay dispatchers, is it a tip? Or a bribe? \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/the-fine-line-between-a-taxi-drivers-tip-and-a-bribe/\" target=\"_blank\">Read more.\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>But part of the money problem for the great majority of taxi drivers, those who rent their vehicles, is the way the business is structured. They start out in the hole every day, needing to make $100 or more just to pay the \"gate,\" or rental fee, for a 10-hour shift. They pay gas on top of that, which could easily come to $20 or $30 a shift or more. You can do the math yourself: To clear San Francisco's minimum wage of $10.55 an hour, they've got to bring in something north of $200, and probably significantly more than that, during their 10 hours on the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drivers get no benefits, and may be held responsible for their gate fees when they're too sick to drive. Sometimes they must pay insurance deductibles and they face fines from city taxi regulators when they violate rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you wonder how they survive, well, lots of them are just scraping by. Richard Hybels, owner of San Francisco's Metro Cab, says, \"Cab drivers can’t even get their teeth fixed. They’re poor people. It’s not an easy way to make a living by any stretch of the imagination.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the financial odds against drivers aren't long enough already, they face another daily cost that industry veterans like Newsham alternatively call \"the tip\" or \"the bribe.\" That’s the unofficial, and illegal, five to ten bucks or more that many drivers say they pay cab company dispatchers and gas attendants every shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whoever bribes the dispatcher the most tends to get the best shifts,\" says Newsham. “I’ve been in situations at companies where if you don’t tip, the dispatcher says, 'Nice to see you ... I don’t have any cabs right now ... why don’t you sit on the bench for awhile until I get one?' I have sat there for three hours waiting for him to find me a cab when I have seen people walk in, give him 20 bucks and walk right out. It’s just a fact of life in the cab world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Longtime San Francisco \u003ca href=\"http://phantomcabdriverphites.blogspot.com/\" target=\"_blank\">cab driver Ed Healy\u003c/a> says the practice is standard throughout the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignleft\">\n\u003ch3>More in KQED's series\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This is the third part in our series on the risks and benefits to those who sign up with networked ride services like Lyft, Sidecar and UberX, versus those who work for the traditional taxicab industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/07/taxis-lyft-ride-service-war-on-streets-of-san-francisco\">\u003cstrong>Part One\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> describes the growing tensions between ride services and taxi companies.\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\">Part Two\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> examines the insurance risks facing drivers for the ride services.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\"I once had a dispatcher come out there and I gave him $3 and he threw it back in my face and said, ‘That’s not a tip,'\" says Healy. \"I stopped tipping them completely, and I regularly got cars without any brakes or (that) broke down in various ways. I had one where a huge pipe dropped out of the cab and onto the ground. I had so many breakdowns, and I wondered why I had to wait three hours for somebody to come and tow. So I would say that pretty much enforced tipping is the rule.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Han, who drives for Yellow Cab, breaks down his tipping routine: $1 to the gas guy, $5 to the dispatcher in charge of issuing cabs when he goes out and $1 more when he returns to file his paperwork. That's somewhat lower than a lot of drivers, he says. \"Many drivers say $5 going out and $5 coming in to dispatchers and cashiers.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emil Lawrence, a driver since 1996 who wrote the popular \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/NIGHT-CABBIE-A-lesson-in-Chinese-relations-2805327.php\" target=\"_blank\">Night Cabbie\u003c/a> column in the old San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, lays out basically the same scenario in terms of pressure to make these payments:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If you don't want to piss off anybody that can cause you problems, you have to pay it,\" he says. \"The system that’s pervasive is tips and payola before you get your taxi.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawrence says radio dispatchers will also sometimes demand money for sending lucrative airport calls a driver's way. He says at one company he used to work for, the radio dispatcher had a black book. \"He came up to me ... and said, 'Emil, I looked at my book, you owe me for two airports.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever you call it, this kind of payment, voluntary or involuntary, is against the law in San Francisco, and each violation carries a $633 fine for firms that allow it. Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that when you talk to San Francisco taxi companies, virtually all of them say that they don't allow tipping (six of the biggest companies — Yellow, Luxor, DeSoto, Metro, Royal and Town told me tipping is prohibited in their shops; two other companies, Arrow Checker and NationalVeterans, didn't return my calls).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gillespie, general manager at Yellow Cab, said any reports of tipping at the company aren't true. \"It's not happening at Yellow Cab. If that happens I would fire the employees.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Has it ever happened? \"Not to my knowledge,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'I have sat there for three hours waiting for him to find me a cab when I have seen people walk in, give him 20 bucks and walk right out.'\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>—Brad Newsham, cab driver\u003c/cite>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Charles Rathbone, assistant manager at Luxor, told me, \"Nobody is forced to tip.\" He says the company has signs up saying tipping isn't allowed. \"Nobody has to tip to get a better shift or cab. The cashiers and the dispatchers know we’d come down on them like a ton of bricks. If you know of somebody who says there is (a tipping requirement) please tell them to come in and see me and I promise no retaliation for complaints. Absolutely.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What about voluntary tipping, which is also prohibited?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's the kind of thing that is almost impossible to stop\" he says. \"How do you prevent somebody from passing somebody else a dollar? It’s a very difficult thing to prevent from happening. I’m not going to say categorically that there is no tipping, but it’s certainly not anything the company gets any money from.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/125668303&color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tipping is an Expensive Reality\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Hara has little doubt that these payments are a reality in San Francisco cab companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He's an economist whose firm, Hara Associates, compiled \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/Draft%20SF%20DriverSurvey%2037%20Web%20version04042013.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a report\u003c/a> last year on the city's taxi industry for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, or SFMTA. The firm's survey of 621 San Francisco cab drivers found that 61 percent said they always pay daily tips to other company employees. More than half of that group, 55 percent, said they pay those tips because they have to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the companies for which more than 30 drivers were surveyed, the reported tips ranged from an average of $4.47 for a non-Friday or non-Saturday night shift to $8.95 for a Friday or Saturday night shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"640\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?containerId=googft-gviz-canvas&q=select+col0%2C+col1%2C+col2%2C+col3+from+10EWOm6XOitK40qidzUUyuF6ng84o_bUsO5jQnZg+order+by+col2+desc+limit+10&viz=GVIZ&t=COLUMN&uiversion=2&gco_forceIFrame=true&gco_hasLabelsColumn=true&gco_vAxes=%5B%7B%22title%22%3A%22Respondents%22%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3Anull%2C+%22min%22%3Anull%7D%2C+%22logScale%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%7B%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3Anull%2C+%22min%22%3Anull%7D%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22logScale%22%3Afalse%7D%5D&gco_useFirstColumnAsDomain=true&gco_isStacked=true&gco_booleanRole=certainty&gco_hAxis=%7B%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3Anull%2C+%22viewWindowMode%22%3Anull%7D&gco_legend=right&gco_title=How+often+do+you+pay+tips+to+dispatchers%2C+gas+attendants+or+other+taxi+companies%3F&gco_fontName=Arial&att=true&width=640&height=300\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping can be expensive, the report added, with 21 percent of drivers reporting they gave daily tips of between $10 and $20 and another 8 percent saying the gave more than $20 per shift. The highest tips came from those working lucrative weekend night shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone who drives a cab and tips dispatchers and gas attendants see that as a problem. One longtime driver who asked to remain anonymous recalls a variation on the usual practice of tipping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We would have to go into a lottery, put our names in a hat, and they’d pull out these numbers, and your number would determine your chances [of getting a cab],\" he says. \"Your chances would be better if you decided to give money to the dispatcher. If you tipped, your chances are much greater to get out.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this driver says he thinks that kind of tipping is OK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think most people realize they should tip at least 10 to 15 percent if they like the service,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\"> 'It's not happening at Yellow Cab. If that happens I would fire the employees.'\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>— Jim Gillespie, Yellow Cab general manager\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Barry Korengold, the president of the San Francisco Cab Drivers Association, says there are worse things happening in the industry right now than pressure to give dispatcher and gas attendants a tip. \"It’s not one of my big issues,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Korengold and one other driver told me that because drivers live in part on tips, it would be hypocritical not to do the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emil Lawrence, for one, says he currently tips because he wants to, but that's only because he owns a cab medallion (which is essentially a license to drive a cab in the city) and has greater leverage. He also said he doesn't blame all cab company employees for taking tips, as they make very little money. \"They have no benefits whatsoever, so this is the way they get their income up.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Law and How It's Enforced\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I asked Christiane Hayashi, director of taxis and accessible services for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, whether drivers tipping taxi company employees was legal, she read from the \u003ca href=\"http://transportation.sanfranciscocode.org/downloads/code-text/II._1105.txt\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Transportation Code, Section 1105, sub-section A10,\u003c/a> in effect since 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“No Permit Holder or agent of a Permit Holder may accept or solicit gifts and/or gratuities or anything of value from any Driver, other than Gate Fees, Lease Fees, payments for goods actually received, or other payments authorized by this Article. A Permit Holder or agent of a Permit Holder shall issue a receipt for any payment received from a Driver.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The ordinance covers voluntary payments, too. That means all tipping is illegal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That absolute ban notwithstanding, Hayashi says she's aware tipping is happening and thinks the practice varies widely from company to company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, she adds, \"The salary structure set up by the companies relies on tipping — it is my understanding that many taxi company employees receive San Francisco's minimum wage and are required to rely on tips to make an adequate salary. ... So it is a deeply ingrained institutional issue that has proven difficult to root out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some companies, drivers tip because they genuinely have a relationship with the dispatcher and it’s no big deal,\" Hayashi notes. \"In other companies, it’s definitely more of a culture where you’ve got to do this or else. And the driver who doesn’t tip might find himself having consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_120383\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 320px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/12/12/San+Francisco-taxi-bribes-tips/rs7183_taxis_22oct2013_0125_web-hpf/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-120383\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-120383\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/10/RS7183_Taxis_22oct2013_0125_web-hpf.jpg\" alt=\"Taxis in downtown San Francisco. (Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\" width=\"320\" height=\"213\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taxis in downtown San Francisco. (Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But to do something about those \"consequences,\" Hayashi says, a driver would have to file a formal report with the SFMTA. To date, she says, no one has ever been cited for violating Section 1105, sub-section A10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The drivers may complain to us, but it’s quite another matter to ask them to sign a declaration and go to an administrative hearing,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veteran driver Brad Newsham says that kind of reasoning is akin to expecting victims of the system to enforce the law. \"You’re going to blame the cab driver who makes a paltry wage for not taking down the system that has been winked at by every regulator that’s ever been,\" he asks, \"and who has thrown up their hands and says, 'There’s nothing we can do'?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other drivers say blowing the whistle would be risky. “A driver would be afraid because they’d get fired,\" says Ed Healey, who drives for DeSoto Cab. \"Nobody could survive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Han, a Yellow Cab driver, agrees. “I wouldn’t want to go through that process,\" he says. \"I basically would be going on the record with something that does not look very good for the people who I depend upon to issue me a cab every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>Does Tipping Happen? What the Taxi Companies Say\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"http://transportation.sanfranciscocode.org/downloads/code-text/II._1105.txt\" target=\"_blank\">a San Francisco ordinance\u003c/a>, the taxi industry practice of requiring or allowing drivers to tip dispatchers or other employees is illegal. We asked major San Francisco cab companies whether tipping takes place in their shops. Here's what they told us:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://yellowcabsf.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Yellow Cab\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Jim Gillespie, general manager: \"It's not happening at Yellow Cab. If that happens I would fire the employees.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.luxorcab.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Luxor Cabs\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Charles Rathbone, assistant manager: \"Nobody is forced to tip.\" What about voluntary tipping? \"It's the kind of thing that it's almost impossible to stop. ... but it’s certainly not anything the company gets any money from.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.desotosf.com/\" target=\"_blank\">DeSoto Cab\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Hansu Kim, owner: Says compulsory tipping is “almost nonexistent now,” though he acknowledges voluntary tipping continues. \"We have a lot of drivers who don’t tip, so I have to make sure there’s no consequence whether you tip or not. But how do I stop a guy who says, ‘Hey thanks for giving me the orders, here’s five bucks’?\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/take-taxi/taxi-companies/metro-cab\" target=\"_blank\">Metro Cab\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Richard Hybels, owner: \"I want it on my headstone: I’ve never taken a penny from a cabdriver as a tip.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/take-taxi/taxi-companies/royal-taxi\" target=\"_blank\">Royal Taxi\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Christopher Sweis, CEO: He says the company's preset schedule for drivers makes tipping unnecessary in terms of being assigned a cab. As for voluntary tipping, he says: \"It's a practice that we can try our best to enforce and ask our dispatchers not to take tips or ask our drivers not to tip the dispatchers. We can't control every single driver. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://sftowntaxi.com/\" target=\"_blank\">SF Town Taxi\u003c/a>:\u003c/strong> Jacob Mayzel, manager: \"It doesn't happen with Town Taxi.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmta.com/vi/getting-around/take-taxi/taxi-companies/arrow-checker-cab\" target=\"_blank\">Arrow Checker\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Did not respond.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://sfnationalcab.sftaxischool.com/\">\u003cstrong>National Veterans Cab\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> Did not respond.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Luxor driver Jeremiah Cushing says filing a formal complaint would be like asking, \"Who will step forward so [they] can be shot first? Why don’t I just emboss a scarlet T on my chest? I would just be a total outcast.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bucking the System\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cushing's got another solution to the tipping problem, though: Just refuse to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Most people do five dollars in, five dollars out,\" he says, citing what a company cashier told him, i.e., tipping $5 both at the beginning and end of their shifts. \"I started doing the math on it. ... At the end of the year, it was a lot of money in my pocket going to the unknown ... I said, 'Screw this, I'm not paying any of these guys. ... Other drivers have told me, 'You’re going to need these cashiers, they’re going to provide you a car.' I said, 'No — I do not need them, they need me.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cushing said he hasn't been tipping anyone but the gas guys for more than a year. \"If you ask me why I tip the gas guys, I can't give you a logical answer,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I asked him if there had been any consequences to his one-man rebellion. He said there had been some minor incidents, including one in which he was assigned a spare cab, typically the vehicle in the worst condition on the lot. He refused to drive it and went home, he said, but there were no other repercussions. \"They have such a shortage of drivers now, I don’t get messed with.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray of Hope for Drivers?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>Metro Cab and Green Cab are two taxi outfits drivers routinely mention as prohibiting tipping. When I asked Metro owner Richard Hybels what's behind his policy, he said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Most of the people who work for me are supporting families, or supporting families in another country. It’s a tough business as it is. I make enough money in the normal parts of the business; I don’t need to squeeze any more out of them. ... I want it on my headstone: I’ve never taken a penny from a cabdriver as a tip.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former \"Night Cabbie\" columnist Emil Lawrence says many gas-and-gate cab drivers are on the economic margins and that he knows drivers who are living in \u003ca href=\"http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/housing_choice_voucher_program_section_8\" target=\"_blank\">Section 8 housing\u003c/a> and receiving food stamps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They pay the cab company nonstop, they pay everybody tips nonstop,\" Lawrence says. \"They don't even make minimum wage on some nights, and if they don't pay, they don't have gas, they don't have a job the next day. ... What they make after paying the SFMTA and cab companies, you couldn't make a decent living in downtown Baghdad today.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I've been in that situation,\" he says. \"It's like quicksand.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the balance of power between cab drivers and cab companies may be starting to tilt in the drivers' favor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFMTA consultant Dan Hara says a downturn in the cab business brought about by the rise of ride-service companies has at least temporarily reduced the pressure to tip, because cab companies are having problems filling shifts, a reality confirmed by others in the industry. (Though I recently asked three different drivers during cab rides if they currently tipped taxi company employees, and they all said they did.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many cab drivers are irate about Sidecar, Lyft and Uber \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/07/taxis-lyft-ride-service-war-on-streets-of-san-francisco\" target=\"_blank\">cutting into their business\u003c/a>, many others are quitting the cab business to drive with what regulators call \"transportation network companies (TNCs)\" — the very ride-service companies that compete with their cabs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Before TNCs, some drivers tipped extensively to get out faster in nicer cars,\" says John Han. \"Now, I'm guessing some of those drivers have gone to TNCs.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, one of my recent cab drivers cited the requirement to tip as a major reason he was quitting to go work for Uber. (\"If you get an airport call, the guys ask you for money after and if you don't give you won't get another airport call,\" he said.)\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\"> 'The drivers may complain to us but it’s quite another matter to ask them to sign a declaration...'\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>— Christiane Hayashi, Director of Taxis at SFMTA\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>I kept asking the drivers if the Lyfts and Sidecars of the world could actually end up \u003cem>helping\u003c/em> them, as they potentially give drivers more leverage in dealing with the cab companies. John Han, for instance, says Yellow recently lowered its Saturday night gate fee for drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some scoffed at the notion that anything good could result from the competition or that they would ever switch to a TNC, citing the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\" target=\"_blank\">insurance risk\u003c/a>, among other reasons. But not everyone felt that way. Brad Newsham said if he were giving advice to a young would-be driver today, he'd tell them to skip traditional taxis and go to work for a ride-service company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emil Lawrence told me there might be something for the average driver to gain from going to work for a ride-service firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I know drivers right now who work for cab companies at the same time they work for Uber,\" he says. \"Radio calls are down probably 70 percent now. They’re down on Friday even more. You’re talking about 10-15 minutes sometimes with no call at all. It’s all on the apps. If you’re a cab driver with a taxi, at the same time you have an Uber setup, that may be the new industry. But you can (also) do that same business in your own car at your own hours without paying the taxi company one dime.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View SF Taxi Driver Survey on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/192372483/SF-Taxi-Driver-Survey\">SF Taxi Driver Survey\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe id=\"doc_39345\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/192372483/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED's Lisa Pickoff-White, Bryan Goebel and Katrina Schwartz contributed reporting to this article.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">B\u003c/span>rad Newsham drove a cab in San Francisco for nearly three decades and says he loved nearly everything about the job from the first day he got behind the wheel: the people, the city's beauty, the independence, the sense of experiencing something new every day.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003ca href=\"http://www.bradnewsham.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Newsham\u003c/a> quit the business this year because he was down to earning a net income of five bucks an hour. Newsham's experience isn't unique — others in San Francisco's taxicab industry say they know drivers who are only netting $5 to $10 an hour. A big part of the tough economics for drivers has to do with ride-service companies like Sidecar, Uber and Lyft siphoning off business from the traditional cab companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright noborder\">\u003cimg src=\"http://u.s.kqed.net/2013/12/18/tip.jpg\" alt=\"Money\">\n\u003ch3>When drivers pay dispatchers, is it a tip? Or a bribe? \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/the-fine-line-between-a-taxi-drivers-tip-and-a-bribe/\" target=\"_blank\">Read more.\u003c/a>\u003c/h3>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>But part of the money problem for the great majority of taxi drivers, those who rent their vehicles, is the way the business is structured. They start out in the hole every day, needing to make $100 or more just to pay the \"gate,\" or rental fee, for a 10-hour shift. They pay gas on top of that, which could easily come to $20 or $30 a shift or more. You can do the math yourself: To clear San Francisco's minimum wage of $10.55 an hour, they've got to bring in something north of $200, and probably significantly more than that, during their 10 hours on the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Drivers get no benefits, and may be held responsible for their gate fees when they're too sick to drive. Sometimes they must pay insurance deductibles and they face fines from city taxi regulators when they violate rules.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If you wonder how they survive, well, lots of them are just scraping by. Richard Hybels, owner of San Francisco's Metro Cab, says, \"Cab drivers can’t even get their teeth fixed. They’re poor people. It’s not an easy way to make a living by any stretch of the imagination.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If the financial odds against drivers aren't long enough already, they face another daily cost that industry veterans like Newsham alternatively call \"the tip\" or \"the bribe.\" That’s the unofficial, and illegal, five to ten bucks or more that many drivers say they pay cab company dispatchers and gas attendants every shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Whoever bribes the dispatcher the most tends to get the best shifts,\" says Newsham. “I’ve been in situations at companies where if you don’t tip, the dispatcher says, 'Nice to see you ... I don’t have any cabs right now ... why don’t you sit on the bench for awhile until I get one?' I have sat there for three hours waiting for him to find me a cab when I have seen people walk in, give him 20 bucks and walk right out. It’s just a fact of life in the cab world.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Longtime San Francisco \u003ca href=\"http://phantomcabdriverphites.blogspot.com/\" target=\"_blank\">cab driver Ed Healy\u003c/a> says the practice is standard throughout the industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignleft\">\n\u003ch3>More in KQED's series\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>This is the third part in our series on the risks and benefits to those who sign up with networked ride services like Lyft, Sidecar and UberX, versus those who work for the traditional taxicab industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/07/taxis-lyft-ride-service-war-on-streets-of-san-francisco\">\u003cstrong>Part One\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> describes the growing tensions between ride services and taxi companies.\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\">Part Two\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> examines the insurance risks facing drivers for the ride services.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>\"I once had a dispatcher come out there and I gave him $3 and he threw it back in my face and said, ‘That’s not a tip,'\" says Healy. \"I stopped tipping them completely, and I regularly got cars without any brakes or (that) broke down in various ways. I had one where a huge pipe dropped out of the cab and onto the ground. I had so many breakdowns, and I wondered why I had to wait three hours for somebody to come and tow. So I would say that pretty much enforced tipping is the rule.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Han, who drives for Yellow Cab, breaks down his tipping routine: $1 to the gas guy, $5 to the dispatcher in charge of issuing cabs when he goes out and $1 more when he returns to file his paperwork. That's somewhat lower than a lot of drivers, he says. \"Many drivers say $5 going out and $5 coming in to dispatchers and cashiers.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emil Lawrence, a driver since 1996 who wrote the popular \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfgate.com/entertainment/article/NIGHT-CABBIE-A-lesson-in-Chinese-relations-2805327.php\" target=\"_blank\">Night Cabbie\u003c/a> column in the old San Francisco Examiner and the San Francisco Chronicle, lays out basically the same scenario in terms of pressure to make these payments:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If you don't want to piss off anybody that can cause you problems, you have to pay it,\" he says. \"The system that’s pervasive is tips and payola before you get your taxi.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lawrence says radio dispatchers will also sometimes demand money for sending lucrative airport calls a driver's way. He says at one company he used to work for, the radio dispatcher had a black book. \"He came up to me ... and said, 'Emil, I looked at my book, you owe me for two airports.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Whatever you call it, this kind of payment, voluntary or involuntary, is against the law in San Francisco, and each violation carries a $633 fine for firms that allow it. Perhaps it's not surprising, then, that when you talk to San Francisco taxi companies, virtually all of them say that they don't allow tipping (six of the biggest companies — Yellow, Luxor, DeSoto, Metro, Royal and Town told me tipping is prohibited in their shops; two other companies, Arrow Checker and NationalVeterans, didn't return my calls).\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Jim Gillespie, general manager at Yellow Cab, said any reports of tipping at the company aren't true. \"It's not happening at Yellow Cab. If that happens I would fire the employees.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Has it ever happened? \"Not to my knowledge,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'I have sat there for three hours waiting for him to find me a cab when I have seen people walk in, give him 20 bucks and walk right out.'\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>—Brad Newsham, cab driver\u003c/cite>\u003cbr>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Charles Rathbone, assistant manager at Luxor, told me, \"Nobody is forced to tip.\" He says the company has signs up saying tipping isn't allowed. \"Nobody has to tip to get a better shift or cab. The cashiers and the dispatchers know we’d come down on them like a ton of bricks. If you know of somebody who says there is (a tipping requirement) please tell them to come in and see me and I promise no retaliation for complaints. Absolutely.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>What about voluntary tipping, which is also prohibited?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"It's the kind of thing that is almost impossible to stop\" he says. \"How do you prevent somebody from passing somebody else a dollar? It’s a very difficult thing to prevent from happening. I’m not going to say categorically that there is no tipping, but it’s certainly not anything the company gets any money from.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"100%\" height=\"166\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://w.soundcloud.com/player/?url=https%3A//api.soundcloud.com/tracks/125668303&color=ff6600&auto_play=false&show_artwork=true\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Tipping is an Expensive Reality\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan Hara has little doubt that these payments are a reality in San Francisco cab companies.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He's an economist whose firm, Hara Associates, compiled \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmta.com/sites/default/files/Draft%20SF%20DriverSurvey%2037%20Web%20version04042013.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">a report\u003c/a> last year on the city's taxi industry for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, or SFMTA. The firm's survey of 621 San Francisco cab drivers found that 61 percent said they always pay daily tips to other company employees. More than half of that group, 55 percent, said they pay those tips because they have to.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Of the companies for which more than 30 drivers were surveyed, the reported tips ranged from an average of $4.47 for a non-Friday or non-Saturday night shift to $8.95 for a Friday or Saturday night shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe width=\"640\" height=\"300\" scrolling=\"no\" frameborder=\"no\" src=\"https://www.google.com/fusiontables/embedviz?containerId=googft-gviz-canvas&q=select+col0%2C+col1%2C+col2%2C+col3+from+10EWOm6XOitK40qidzUUyuF6ng84o_bUsO5jQnZg+order+by+col2+desc+limit+10&viz=GVIZ&t=COLUMN&uiversion=2&gco_forceIFrame=true&gco_hasLabelsColumn=true&gco_vAxes=%5B%7B%22title%22%3A%22Respondents%22%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3Anull%2C+%22min%22%3Anull%7D%2C+%22logScale%22%3Afalse%7D%2C%7B%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3A%7B%22max%22%3Anull%2C+%22min%22%3Anull%7D%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22logScale%22%3Afalse%7D%5D&gco_useFirstColumnAsDomain=true&gco_isStacked=true&gco_booleanRole=certainty&gco_hAxis=%7B%22useFormatFromData%22%3Atrue%2C+%22minValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22maxValue%22%3Anull%2C+%22viewWindow%22%3Anull%2C+%22viewWindowMode%22%3Anull%7D&gco_legend=right&gco_title=How+often+do+you+pay+tips+to+dispatchers%2C+gas+attendants+or+other+taxi+companies%3F&gco_fontName=Arial&att=true&width=640&height=300\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Tipping can be expensive, the report added, with 21 percent of drivers reporting they gave daily tips of between $10 and $20 and another 8 percent saying the gave more than $20 per shift. The highest tips came from those working lucrative weekend night shifts.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not everyone who drives a cab and tips dispatchers and gas attendants see that as a problem. One longtime driver who asked to remain anonymous recalls a variation on the usual practice of tipping.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We would have to go into a lottery, put our names in a hat, and they’d pull out these numbers, and your number would determine your chances [of getting a cab],\" he says. \"Your chances would be better if you decided to give money to the dispatcher. If you tipped, your chances are much greater to get out.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But this driver says he thinks that kind of tipping is OK.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I think most people realize they should tip at least 10 to 15 percent if they like the service,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\"> 'It's not happening at Yellow Cab. If that happens I would fire the employees.'\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>— Jim Gillespie, Yellow Cab general manager\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Barry Korengold, the president of the San Francisco Cab Drivers Association, says there are worse things happening in the industry right now than pressure to give dispatcher and gas attendants a tip. \"It’s not one of my big issues,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Korengold and one other driver told me that because drivers live in part on tips, it would be hypocritical not to do the same.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emil Lawrence, for one, says he currently tips because he wants to, but that's only because he owns a cab medallion (which is essentially a license to drive a cab in the city) and has greater leverage. He also said he doesn't blame all cab company employees for taking tips, as they make very little money. \"They have no benefits whatsoever, so this is the way they get their income up.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>The Law and How It's Enforced\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>When I asked Christiane Hayashi, director of taxis and accessible services for the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency, whether drivers tipping taxi company employees was legal, she read from the \u003ca href=\"http://transportation.sanfranciscocode.org/downloads/code-text/II._1105.txt\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Transportation Code, Section 1105, sub-section A10,\u003c/a> in effect since 2011.\u003c/p>\n\u003cblockquote>\u003cp>“No Permit Holder or agent of a Permit Holder may accept or solicit gifts and/or gratuities or anything of value from any Driver, other than Gate Fees, Lease Fees, payments for goods actually received, or other payments authorized by this Article. A Permit Holder or agent of a Permit Holder shall issue a receipt for any payment received from a Driver.\"\u003c/p>\u003c/blockquote>\n\u003cp>The ordinance covers voluntary payments, too. That means all tipping is illegal.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That absolute ban notwithstanding, Hayashi says she's aware tipping is happening and thinks the practice varies widely from company to company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In addition, she adds, \"The salary structure set up by the companies relies on tipping — it is my understanding that many taxi company employees receive San Francisco's minimum wage and are required to rely on tips to make an adequate salary. ... So it is a deeply ingrained institutional issue that has proven difficult to root out.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“In some companies, drivers tip because they genuinely have a relationship with the dispatcher and it’s no big deal,\" Hayashi notes. \"In other companies, it’s definitely more of a culture where you’ve got to do this or else. And the driver who doesn’t tip might find himself having consequences.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_120383\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 320px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/12/12/San+Francisco-taxi-bribes-tips/rs7183_taxis_22oct2013_0125_web-hpf/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-120383\">\u003cimg class=\"size-full wp-image-120383\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2014/10/RS7183_Taxis_22oct2013_0125_web-hpf.jpg\" alt=\"Taxis in downtown San Francisco. (Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\" width=\"320\" height=\"213\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Taxis in downtown San Francisco. (Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>But to do something about those \"consequences,\" Hayashi says, a driver would have to file a formal report with the SFMTA. To date, she says, no one has ever been cited for violating Section 1105, sub-section A10.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“The drivers may complain to us, but it’s quite another matter to ask them to sign a declaration and go to an administrative hearing,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Veteran driver Brad Newsham says that kind of reasoning is akin to expecting victims of the system to enforce the law. \"You’re going to blame the cab driver who makes a paltry wage for not taking down the system that has been winked at by every regulator that’s ever been,\" he asks, \"and who has thrown up their hands and says, 'There’s nothing we can do'?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Other drivers say blowing the whistle would be risky. “A driver would be afraid because they’d get fired,\" says Ed Healey, who drives for DeSoto Cab. \"Nobody could survive.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Han, a Yellow Cab driver, agrees. “I wouldn’t want to go through that process,\" he says. \"I basically would be going on the record with something that does not look very good for the people who I depend upon to issue me a cab every day.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"alignright\">\n\u003ch3>Does Tipping Happen? What the Taxi Companies Say\u003c/h3>\n\u003cp>Under \u003ca href=\"http://transportation.sanfranciscocode.org/downloads/code-text/II._1105.txt\" target=\"_blank\">a San Francisco ordinance\u003c/a>, the taxi industry practice of requiring or allowing drivers to tip dispatchers or other employees is illegal. We asked major San Francisco cab companies whether tipping takes place in their shops. Here's what they told us:\u003c/p>\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://yellowcabsf.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Yellow Cab\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Jim Gillespie, general manager: \"It's not happening at Yellow Cab. If that happens I would fire the employees.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.luxorcab.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Luxor Cabs\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Charles Rathbone, assistant manager: \"Nobody is forced to tip.\" What about voluntary tipping? \"It's the kind of thing that it's almost impossible to stop. ... but it’s certainly not anything the company gets any money from.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.desotosf.com/\" target=\"_blank\">DeSoto Cab\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Hansu Kim, owner: Says compulsory tipping is “almost nonexistent now,” though he acknowledges voluntary tipping continues. \"We have a lot of drivers who don’t tip, so I have to make sure there’s no consequence whether you tip or not. But how do I stop a guy who says, ‘Hey thanks for giving me the orders, here’s five bucks’?\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/take-taxi/taxi-companies/metro-cab\" target=\"_blank\">Metro Cab\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Richard Hybels, owner: \"I want it on my headstone: I’ve never taken a penny from a cabdriver as a tip.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"https://www.sfmta.com/getting-around/take-taxi/taxi-companies/royal-taxi\" target=\"_blank\">Royal Taxi\u003c/a>\u003c/strong>: Christopher Sweis, CEO: He says the company's preset schedule for drivers makes tipping unnecessary in terms of being assigned a cab. As for voluntary tipping, he says: \"It's a practice that we can try our best to enforce and ask our dispatchers not to take tips or ask our drivers not to tip the dispatchers. We can't control every single driver. If it's going to happen, it's going to happen.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://sftowntaxi.com/\" target=\"_blank\">SF Town Taxi\u003c/a>:\u003c/strong> Jacob Mayzel, manager: \"It doesn't happen with Town Taxi.\"\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>\u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmta.com/vi/getting-around/take-taxi/taxi-companies/arrow-checker-cab\" target=\"_blank\">Arrow Checker\u003c/a>\u003c/strong> Did not respond.\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003ca href=\"http://sfnationalcab.sftaxischool.com/\">\u003cstrong>National Veterans Cab\u003c/strong>\u003c/a> Did not respond.\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Luxor driver Jeremiah Cushing says filing a formal complaint would be like asking, \"Who will step forward so [they] can be shot first? Why don’t I just emboss a scarlet T on my chest? I would just be a total outcast.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Bucking the System\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cushing's got another solution to the tipping problem, though: Just refuse to do it.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Most people do five dollars in, five dollars out,\" he says, citing what a company cashier told him, i.e., tipping $5 both at the beginning and end of their shifts. \"I started doing the math on it. ... At the end of the year, it was a lot of money in my pocket going to the unknown ... I said, 'Screw this, I'm not paying any of these guys. ... Other drivers have told me, 'You’re going to need these cashiers, they’re going to provide you a car.' I said, 'No — I do not need them, they need me.'\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Cushing said he hasn't been tipping anyone but the gas guys for more than a year. \"If you ask me why I tip the gas guys, I can't give you a logical answer,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I asked him if there had been any consequences to his one-man rebellion. He said there had been some minor incidents, including one in which he was assigned a spare cab, typically the vehicle in the worst condition on the lot. He refused to drive it and went home, he said, but there were no other repercussions. \"They have such a shortage of drivers now, I don’t get messed with.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ray of Hope for Drivers?\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>Metro Cab and Green Cab are two taxi outfits drivers routinely mention as prohibiting tipping. When I asked Metro owner Richard Hybels what's behind his policy, he said:\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Most of the people who work for me are supporting families, or supporting families in another country. It’s a tough business as it is. I make enough money in the normal parts of the business; I don’t need to squeeze any more out of them. ... I want it on my headstone: I’ve never taken a penny from a cabdriver as a tip.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Former \"Night Cabbie\" columnist Emil Lawrence says many gas-and-gate cab drivers are on the economic margins and that he knows drivers who are living in \u003ca href=\"http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/topics/housing_choice_voucher_program_section_8\" target=\"_blank\">Section 8 housing\u003c/a> and receiving food stamps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They pay the cab company nonstop, they pay everybody tips nonstop,\" Lawrence says. \"They don't even make minimum wage on some nights, and if they don't pay, they don't have gas, they don't have a job the next day. ... What they make after paying the SFMTA and cab companies, you couldn't make a decent living in downtown Baghdad today.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I've been in that situation,\" he says. \"It's like quicksand.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But the balance of power between cab drivers and cab companies may be starting to tilt in the drivers' favor.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>SFMTA consultant Dan Hara says a downturn in the cab business brought about by the rise of ride-service companies has at least temporarily reduced the pressure to tip, because cab companies are having problems filling shifts, a reality confirmed by others in the industry. (Though I recently asked three different drivers during cab rides if they currently tipped taxi company employees, and they all said they did.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>While many cab drivers are irate about Sidecar, Lyft and Uber \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/07/taxis-lyft-ride-service-war-on-streets-of-san-francisco\" target=\"_blank\">cutting into their business\u003c/a>, many others are quitting the cab business to drive with what regulators call \"transportation network companies (TNCs)\" — the very ride-service companies that compete with their cabs.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Before TNCs, some drivers tipped extensively to get out faster in nicer cars,\" says John Han. \"Now, I'm guessing some of those drivers have gone to TNCs.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Indeed, one of my recent cab drivers cited the requirement to tip as a major reason he was quitting to go work for Uber. (\"If you get an airport call, the guys ask you for money after and if you don't give you won't get another airport call,\" he said.)\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\"> 'The drivers may complain to us but it’s quite another matter to ask them to sign a declaration...'\u003cbr>\n\u003ccite>— Christiane Hayashi, Director of Taxis at SFMTA\u003c/cite>\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>I kept asking the drivers if the Lyfts and Sidecars of the world could actually end up \u003cem>helping\u003c/em> them, as they potentially give drivers more leverage in dealing with the cab companies. John Han, for instance, says Yellow recently lowered its Saturday night gate fee for drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some scoffed at the notion that anything good could result from the competition or that they would ever switch to a TNC, citing the \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\" target=\"_blank\">insurance risk\u003c/a>, among other reasons. But not everyone felt that way. Brad Newsham said if he were giving advice to a young would-be driver today, he'd tell them to skip traditional taxis and go to work for a ride-service company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Emil Lawrence told me there might be something for the average driver to gain from going to work for a ride-service firm.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I know drivers right now who work for cab companies at the same time they work for Uber,\" he says. \"Radio calls are down probably 70 percent now. They’re down on Friday even more. You’re talking about 10-15 minutes sometimes with no call at all. It’s all on the apps. If you’re a cab driver with a taxi, at the same time you have an Uber setup, that may be the new industry. But you can (also) do that same business in your own car at your own hours without paying the taxi company one dime.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp style=\"margin: 12px auto 6px auto;font-family: Helvetica,Arial,Sans-serif;font-style: normal;font-variant: normal;font-weight: normal;font-size: 14px;line-height: normal\">\u003ca style=\"text-decoration: underline\" title=\"View SF Taxi Driver Survey on Scribd\" href=\"http://www.scribd.com/doc/192372483/SF-Taxi-Driver-Survey\">SF Taxi Driver Survey\u003c/a>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c!-- iframe plugin v.4.3 wordpress.org/plugins/iframe/ -->\u003cbr>\n\u003ciframe id=\"doc_39345\" src=\"//www.scribd.com/embeds/192372483/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&show_recommendations=true\" frameborder=\"0\" scrolling=\"no\" width=\"100%\" height=\"600\" class=\"iframe-class\">\u003c/iframe>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>KQED's Lisa Pickoff-White, Bryan Goebel and Katrina Schwartz contributed reporting to this article.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"disqusTitle": "Will 'Ride Sharing' Kill San Francisco's Taxi Industry? ",
"title": "Will 'Ride Sharing' Kill San Francisco's Taxi Industry? ",
"headTitle": "News Fix | KQED News",
"content": "\u003cp>\u003cem>With the rise of what some call the “sharing economy” — or shared access to goods, services, data and talent — many industries are facing disruption. One of those is the taxi industry, where app-based ride-service startups threaten the taxis’ entrenched business model. In the first installment of a three-part series, KQED’s Jon Brooks looks at the shakeout, assessing the risks and benefits to those who sign up as ride-service drivers vs. traditional cab drivers, and uncovers some startling signs of trouble in San Francisco.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">O\u003c/span>n the streets of San Francisco, what might be called the “Mustache War” has begun, pitting the traditional taxi industry against the networked ride services like \u003ca href=\"http://www.lyft.me/\" target=\"_blank\">Lyft\u003c/a> (of the pink mustache), \u003ca href=\"http://www.side.cr/\" target=\"_blank\">Sidecar\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.uber.com/\" target=\"_blank\">UberX\u003c/a>. In September, the California Public Utilities Commission approved \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M077/K112/77112285.PDF\" target=\"_blank\">regulations\u003c/a> to oversee the ride-service startups, which allow passengers to hire private drivers through smartphone apps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nascent business model has been widely called “ride-sharing,” but the CPUC said that term is a misnomer. The companies are now officially referred to as “Transportation Network Companies,” or TNCs, a term with a much less altruistic ring.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'Mustache Wars' — the conflict between the traditional taxi industry and smartphone-based ride services:\n\u003cdiv style=\"font-size: 12pt\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Part Two: \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\" target=\"_blank\">Confusion Over Insurance for ‘Ride-Sharing’ Drivers\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Sidebar:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/can-lyft-uberx-drivers-lose-their-insurance\" target=\"_blank\">Are Ride-Service Drivers at Risk of Losing Their Insurance?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Part Three:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/12/11/taxi-drivers-and-whos-taking-money-out-of-their-pockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tip or Bribe? Taxi Drivers Say Illegal Payments to Dispatchers Are Routine\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Sidebar:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/the-fine-line-between-a-taxi-drivers-tip-and-a-bribe/\" target=\"_blank\">The Fine Line Between a Tip And a Bribe For Those Who Drive S.F. Taxis\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Though the TNCs may have lost the connotative battle, they think they’ve won the war. While the new regulations require the companies to run background checks and institute training programs, offer a higher level of insurance and accommodate disabled passengers and low-income neighborhoods, they have also given the companies official legal sanction to operate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a far cry from a year ago, when the CPUC hit TNCs with cease-and-desist letters and fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad fullwidth]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If these high-tech ride-for-hire matchmakers are the big winners in the regulatory conflict, the traditional taxi industry sees itself as decidedly on the short end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, while the new services have helped mitigate the notoriously difficult task of finding a cab during peak hours, they have also prompted bitter protests from licensed companies and drivers, who view them as unregulated competition that has taken a big bite out of the taxi market. Before the CPUC issued its proposal in July, \u003ca href=\"http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/07/30/cab-drivers-hold-noisy-rally-at-san-francisco-city-hall-to-protest-rideshare/\" target=\"_blank\">hundreds of protesting drivers circled San Francisco City Hall in their taxis\u003c/a>, honking horns and calling on Mayor Ed Lee, despite his lack of jurisdiction, to kick the companies out of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cab Industry: Personal Vehicles for Hire 'Outrageous'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hansu Kim, the owner of San Francisco's DeSoto Cab and a board member of the trade group \u003ca href=\"http://tpac-ca.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Taxicab Paratransit Association of California\u003c/a>, acknowledges the CPUC’s regulations might go some way in leveling the playing field in terms of competition between the ride services and the tightly regulated cab industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he says the rules don’t go far enough to stop the bleeding in the taxi business or to protect public safety. TPAC has \u003ca href=\"http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/10/uber-lyft-sidecar-taxicab-puc.html\" target=\"_blank\">filed\u003c/a> an \u003ca href=\"http://www.taxi-library.org/cpuc-2013/rehearing-application-tpac.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">appeal\u003c/a> with the CPUC over its decision, and Kim says the industry will most likely \u003ca href=\"http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/10/uberx-lyft-sidecar-andreessen-horowitz.html?page=all\" target=\"_blank\">sue\u003c/a> over its declining fortunes.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\"The cab industry will disappear. There will be no cab industry if this isn’t addressed.\" \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I think the industry has no choice but to monetize their losses and take it to the courts,\" he says. \"I’m tightly regulated — what I can charge, the number of vehicles I can put out. They can charge what they want and put out the number of vehicles they want.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Kim concludes: \"The idea of taking a personal car and acting like a commercial vehicle for hire is outrageous.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is the same service competing for the same customers,\" says Barry Korengold, president of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfcda.org/\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Cab Drivers Association\u003c/a>. But he complains the new companies are allowed to bypass city regulations on the rates they charge, insurance, permit fees and the like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brad Newsham, who drove a cab in the city for 28 years and was also a chair of the United Taxicab Workers, says what's particularly galling is the low barrier to entry for the newbies compared to \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmta.com/services/taxi-industry/become-taxi-driver\" target=\"_blank\">what the city requires cab drivers to go through\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They didn’t have to go to cab school, didn’t have to pay for an A-card,\" Newsham says, referring to a cab-specific license that costs about $100 a year. \"They didn’t have to do all the stuff we have to do. ... I worked 20 years to get a medallion and these people walk in there and suddenly they’ve got everything I’ve got.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its rule-making, the CPUC rejected arguments charging the TNCs with unfair competition and dismissed warnings the new services will result in a \"race toward the bottom with negative impact on safety and service.\" In fact, the commission said its rules were similar to what the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency already requires of cab operators\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way Brad Newsham sees it, regulations or not, the TNCs could finish off the cab industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In my estimation, it's on the verge of being wiped out,\" he says. And he thinks the Internet's so-called \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/23/airbnb-and-the-unstoppable-rise-of-the-share-economy/\" target=\"_blank\">sharing economy\u003c/a>,\" allowing all sorts of people to transform themselves into instant entrepreneurs by \u003ca href=\"http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21573104-internet-everything-hire-rise-sharing-economy\" target=\"_blank\">leveraging personal assets like a car or a home\u003c/a>, might put an end to the driving profession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Maybe the cab driver as an institution is dead,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's not the only time I heard taxi industry stakeholders describe the ride services as an existential threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The cab industry will disappear,\" says Barry Korengold of the cab drivers association. \"There will be no cab industry if this isn’t addressed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Giving Them the Finger\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides engaging in \u003ca href=\"http://sftaxischool.com/1/post/2013/07/the-end-of-rideshare-trevor-johnson.html\" target=\"_blank\">heated rhetoric\u003c/a>, cab drivers have also taken out their frustrations on their ride-service counterparts in the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the Lyft drivers I spoke to said cab drivers have given him his \"fair share of the one-finger salute.\" Said another: \"I have never been harassed, but I'll admit, after reading some of the crap fellow drivers go through, I often take my mustache down when I don't have any passengers.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_117323\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS7192_IMG_9674.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-117323\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS7192_IMG_9674-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Brad Newsham, a former cab driver of 28 years who was also a chair of the United Taxicab Workers. (Courtesy David Kidd)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brad Newsham, a former cab driver of 28 years who was also a chair of the United Taxicab Workers. (Courtesy David Kidd)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another driver said that in the course of the four months he's been working for Lyft, there have been maybe five incidents in which cab drivers have taken him on, calling him a \"whore,\" boxing in his vehicle, and taking a picture of his license plate, accompanied by a threat to send it to his insurance company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That last tactic — outing ride-service drivers as commercial-vehicle operators to their insurers — is actually an official policy of the San Francisco Cab Drivers Association, says Barry Korengold. \"We're supplying [the insurance companies] with factual evidence,\" he says. “We collect the license plate numbers.\" He says so far, his group has logged 1,300 or 1,400 plates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even Newsham, an author who was once \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1124175\" target=\"_blank\">featured on NPR\u003c/a> and comes across as relatively even-tempered, says he couldn't control himself when it came to the pink mustaches. \"I’m not a guy who flips the bird. But the last few months I was driving a cab, every time I saw one ... my hand went up. I just couldn’t stop it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In talking to longtime cab drivers like Newsham and Korengold, I thought there might be something other than just financial self-interest involved in their extreme animosity toward ride-service drivers. I suggested to Korengold, who has been driving for 30 years, that he sounded downright \"offended\" by the newcomers, who have set up shop as professional drivers so quickly and with an almost total absence of bureaucratic hassle. He jumped on that word.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I’m \u003cem>totally\u003c/em> offended. It’s disrespectful to the occupation. It’s a dangerous occupation. Not only do you have to worry about unruly passengers, drunk drivers, it’s a backbreaking job. It’s very disrespectful to the people who are doing this for years and it makes a mockery of the occupation, and of the regulations.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cab Industry 'Shot Itself in the Foot' \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some in the San Francisco taxi community admit the industry's failure to solve well-known problems, like the unavailability of cabs, have given the ride services an opening. \"I think it’s pretty clear that these new services popped up because the taxi industry did not provide service here,\" says Hansu Kim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I gotta say, it’s a good thing for the people of San Francisco that they can get a cab more easily now,\" says Newsham. \"The one good thing about this whole thing that has happened in the past years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\"I think it’s pretty clear that these new services popped up because the taxi industry did not provide service here.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Addressing that issue in a blog post, KQED Pop's Lizzy Acker wrote about a \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/pop/2013/08/13/behind-the-pink-mustache-is-lyft-good-evil-or-something-else-entirely/\">Lyft ride she took to the airport\u003c/a> in August: \"It’s convenient and personal and I actually got a timely, affordable ride, which no taxi company in SF seemed able to provide for me on a Thursday afternoon for any price.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham criticizes the industry for not figuring out how to offer that kind of easy access to taxis. \"The cab industry here shot itself in the foot,\" he says. \"...It has refused to deploy dispatching innovations. It has refused to keep up with the times and the times have moved right past them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham says cab drivers have been asking for something called \"centralized dispatch\" for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christiane Hayashi, the SFMTA's director of Taxis and Accessible Services, elaborates: \"I think it was initially raised in the 1980s. They said, 'Geez – wouldn’t it be nice if you could call one number and access every taxi.' The powers that be have resisted that for many years now.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hayashi says cab companies don't want to give customers to their competitors. \"To some extent it’s legitimate,\" she says. \"It’s an understandable response from businesses. But unfortunately it’s not serving the public.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hayashi says the two smartphone apps that now dispatch taxis in San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://taximagic.com/en_US\" target=\"_blank\">TaxiMagic\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.flywheel.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Flywheel\u003c/a>, \"only recently have signed up sufficient numbers of taxis to be really effective.\" She says the SFMTA is \"working as fast as we can\" to expand the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I believe that if we can make all taxis available through the smartphone applications then we will be able to provide the same kind of reliability and easy electronic access that has made Lyft and Sidecar attractive to consumers,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ride-Service Drivers Dig Their Jobs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driving a taxi has traditionally been a way to supplement an income or earn a living while avoiding the 9-to-5 world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham characterizes those who gravitate to the job as \"people who don’t quite fit in regular mainstream culture. The first thing you notice is you don't have a boss in your presence all the time, someone telling you what to do. That's really attractive.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with the advent of TNCs, in which drivers can use their own vehicles as opposed to having to own or rent a licensed taxi, the profession is open to all comers. We spoke to seven of them — six from Lyft, one from Sidecar. They \u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>were all highly positive about their experiences, citing good money and the freedom to work whenever they want. The Lyft drivers were particularly enthusiastic about what they called \"Power Hours,\" peak times when they get to keep 100 percent of their earnings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We're not using the last names of these drivers, for reasons we'll get to in Part 2, when we talk about the uncertainties around insurance for TNC drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_114940\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS6938_Lyft_9oct2013_0024_web-hpf.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-114940\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS6938_Lyft_9oct2013_0024_web-hpf-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"James Lee fist bumps Lyft driver Alice before she takes him to work. Lee says he uses Lyft every day and prefers its convenience and reliability to public transportation.(Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Lee fist bumps Lyft driver Alice before she takes him to work. Lee says he uses Lyft every day and prefers its convenience and reliability to public transportation.(Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One Lyft driver, Mike, says he makes an average of $25-$30 per hour on weekdays, $40 on weekends. “It is very lucrative,” he says. Like all the Lyft drivers we spoke to, he had no previous experience transporting customers, but really enjoys the job. “I sit out here for six to eight hours on a shift and I drive around and I talk to people and basically have fun. I learn all the new venues to go to, I hear about restaurants I’ve never tried, I meet all kinds of interesting people. I’m basically talking all night and listening to music.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says he’s given well over 1,000 rides since he started driving for Lyft. Any problems? “We rank all our passengers on a scale of one to five based on the experience that we have with them. ... And I’ve never given anyone less than a five.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason Mike might like his clientele so much: He can decline to pick up passengers based on how other drivers have rated them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He can also bypass passengers that don’t typically tip at a certain percentage of Lyft’s suggested “donation” for each ride. That functionality helps weed out the stiffs, he says. “If you have a passenger out there that never (tips), eventually they’ll request a ride and never get one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alice has been driving for Lyft since April. After seeing the company’s ad on Facebook, she filled out an online request for information, got a call and went for an interview. After a background check — “to make sure you’re a normal human being” — she was approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says she was then given a one-hour orientation, and that was that — she was up and running as a professional driver. (Lyft has recently become more stringent about whom they take on, instituting a mentor system in which experienced drivers assess prospective candidates and make recommendations as to their hire. And per CPUC regulations, all TNCs will have to start training programs.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alice says she works about 20 hours per week and makes $25-$35 per hour, depending on the time of day she goes out. After 1,200 rides, she’s a big fan of Lyft, her fellow drivers, the passengers — everything. “Lyft is a great, positive community made up of a lot of good-hearted people,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan says he's been a Lyft driver since April, and his boyfriend also goes out on calls. He has a full-time job as a teacher and doesn't want to be held down to another commitment, which makes ride-service work attractive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If I have some spare time, I’ll log into the app and get some hours,\" he says. \"I can start driving on a whim.\" Dan reports he makes anywhere from $22 to $35 an hour over the course of a four-hour shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Many Lyft drivers say they make anywhere from $22 to $35 an hour.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jason is 26 and says he's been driving for Lyft for four months. He was unemployed when he saw the company's Facebook ad and signed up. He is pretty much working full time and estimates his earnings at $30-$35 per hour. He loves the job: \"I think it’s really fun, I meet a whole bunch of people and have great conversations every day.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One driver, who didn't want us to use even his first name, says he was one of Lyft's first 50 drivers, starting back when the company paid a flat rate of $18 per hour. He makes more than that now, no less than $25 an hour during a slow shift and always more than $30 on the weekend. He has another business, but it's not going well, and Lyft is now his main source of income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He's fiercely pro-Lyft: \"For me, Lyft is a company that’s really good. They take care of their employees and their passengers. It is kind of a community.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I ask if it bothers him that he works 30 to 40 hours a week but gets no health care, workers' comp or other benefits. (\u003ca href=\"http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2013/09/lyft_sued_for_unfair_competiti.php\" target=\"_blank\">Lyft\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfbg.com/2013/08/27/uber-sued-denying-drivers-tips\" target=\"_blank\">Uber\u003c/a> have both been named in lawsuits that allege the companies incorrectly classify workers as independent contractors.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We’re hoping there will be something like that in the future,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Except for workers' comp, cab drivers are in the same boat. When I asked Brad Newsham if taxi drivers get benefits like health care and vacation time, his answer was, \"Ha ha ha ha ha.\")\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A driver for Sidecar, Jeremy, has been on the job since last Christmas. He says he makes an average of $30 an hour, driving 20-25 hours per week. He is also a big fan of this gig. \"I just had my 1,000th ride this year and I love it,\" he says. \"I meet really nice people; most of them are from the tech industry, I believe, from talking to them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's not surprising that these newbies to the business are excited about their jobs, Newsham says. \"I loved cab driving from the first day, period,\" he said. \"Driving around the world's prettiest city, talking to people. ... Every day, even after 28 years, I saw something new, something that took my breath away. And in the beginning it was more money than I had ever made in my life. I just fell in love with it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for those TNC drivers who are thinking of permanently strapping on the 'stache, Newsham has a warning: This is the honeymoon period. Driving year in and year out takes its toll. \"I worked a year-and-a-half in an underground mine. That was hard labor. I put cab driving right up there with it.\" Newsham says being wary of \"not killing somebody, not killing yourself,\" while also trying to make enough to pay the rent is extremely stressful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Taxi Drivers See Income Decline\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That last part — paying the rent — explains why taxi drivers are so worried about the TNCs. Because if ride-service drivers express an almost universal sense of happiness about the money they can make, that is coming at the expense of the traditional taxi business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Han, who's been driving a cab for 11 years, says he currently makes between $20-$35 per hour, but that pay can vary widely from driver to driver. He says one driver he recently spoke to, someone whose English wasn't great, told him that after gas and gate fees, he took home $10 \u003cem>total\u003c/em> over a Saturday and Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Han says that, anecdotally at least, $15-$19 per hour is more the norm for taxi drivers now. And that pay rate is going down, according to drivers who say they've taken a sharp financial hit since the surfeit of new vehicles-for-hire has hit the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Anecdotally at least, $15-$19 per hour is more the norm for taxi drivers now.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Ed Healy has been driving a cab for 30 years, and he blogs about the industry and his contempt for the ride services at \u003ca href=\"http://phantomcabdriverphites.blogspot.com/\" target=\"_blank\">The Phantom Cab Driver Phites Back\u003c/a>. Healy estimates taxi driver earnings are off about 25 percent as a result of all the additional competition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham says he’s heard that figure from other drivers, too. Hansu Kim, owner of San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.desotosf.com/\" target=\"_blank\">DeSoto Cab\u003c/a>, puts the drop in all taxi business citywide in the same range — anywhere from 25 to 33 percent in the past year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham says the “bandit cabs,” as he calls them, were the final straw in his own decision to quit the business this year. In his best years as a driver, he made $30,000 to $35,000 a year driving 20 to 30 hours a week. By the time he pocketed his last tip, he was making next to nothing — about $5 an hour — which he attributes to all the new competition. That big drop in income prompted him to sell his medallion, the permit that allows cab owners to lease out their vehicles to drivers and companies. The sale netted him $150,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seems like there was no choice. I had to take that 150K while it was still there,” he says, referring to the declining value of taxi ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some Passengers 'Have Sworn Off Cabs Forever'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I asked some of the ride-service drivers if they felt bad about the financial blow cab drivers have absorbed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not really, says Alice. So many of her passengers are using Lyft because they cannot get a taxi to take them to the outer areas of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Most of my passengers say they cannot get a cab ride to the Outer Sunset,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"People [tell me] they've gotten kicked out of cabs, the driver says 'No, I'm about to go home so get out of my car,' or they say, 'My tire's flat, I can’t drive that way now.' I’ve heard many, many cab horror stories about how they cannot get a cab. So it's hard for me to feel sympathy for an industry that is still excluding a lot of passengers. Most of Lyft's passengers have sworn off cabs forever.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_117413\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS6006_008.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-117413\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS6006_008-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"TNC drivers say their passengers have sworn off cabs forever. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">TNC drivers say their passengers have sworn off cabs forever. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>DeSoto Cab's Hansu Kim responds that, \"That's happened on occasion, but it's really not that common now.\" The SFMTA's Christiane Hayashi says the agency has adopted regulations requiring dispatch permit holders to meet minimum requirements to \"increase responsiveness to neighborhood dispatch requests,\" and that any company that fails to comply with those standards will be shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lyft driver Mike says he is sympathetic to cab drivers, but doesn't appreciate all the flak coming his way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There’s some great cab drivers out there that are suffering from this, and I really hope that can come to a better place for them,\" he says. \"And for the drivers that are out there bad-mouthing us, find out the truth. They’re all out there saying we’re all uninsured and this, that and the other, and we’re horrible people and we don’t go through any training. I just tell people to do a little research before you believe everything that you read.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brad Newsham says that while he understands the appeal of the new services, and that passengers are frustrated with the taxi industry, there is still a real human cost to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/23/airbnb-and-the-unstoppable-rise-of-the-share-economy/\" target=\"_blank\">dislocation\u003c/a> that is occurring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Nobody knows who these people are, the cab drivers who are getting the shaft here,\" he says. \"Nobody knows their stories. Nobody knows what they’ve been through. If you’re coming in here and you’re all gaga about your new job, you don’t know whose career you’ve just put a bullet through the head of. You get all caught up in the technology. Technology is hip, technology is cool, tech is the future. (But) what about the people?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wanna Drive a Cab? 'Not Even.'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I asked some of our ride-service drivers if they'd ever thought of driving a cab, which would entail a much more involved process than signing up for ride-service work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Not even,\" said one, which seemed to sum up the attitude of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK, but what about the reverse? If things are so bad in the cab industry, why don't more cab drivers, instead of protesting, make the switch to ride-service gigs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, they are, actually, says DeSoto Cab's Kim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"My biggest concern is the shortage of (cab) drivers. A lot of the drivers are leaving the business. There’s no doubt some drivers have decided to do it on their own.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Han, who drives for Yellow Cab, says he thinks cab companies are having a hard time filling shifts, and that a dispatcher recently told him he could work extra days without having to go through the company's lottery system. Han says he thinks \"a fair share of taxi drivers have moved to Lyft, Sidecar and UberX.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>But some longtime taxi drivers who know the business inside and out think there is a serious risk that the ride-service drivers are overlooking. “I wouldn’t ever drive in one because of the insurance issue,” said Ed Healy. “I actually signed up at (Lyft and Sidecar) ... but I decided not to drive the cars after I read the terms and conditions of the contract, because I wasn’t going to leave my car exposed to an accident.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>[ad floatright]\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>We'll take a closer look at the insurance issues in Part Two of our series next week.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003cp>\u003cem>With the rise of what some call the “sharing economy” — or shared access to goods, services, data and talent — many industries are facing disruption. One of those is the taxi industry, where app-based ride-service startups threaten the taxis’ entrenched business model. In the first installment of a three-part series, KQED’s Jon Brooks looks at the shakeout, assessing the risks and benefits to those who sign up as ride-service drivers vs. traditional cab drivers, and uncovers some startling signs of trouble in San Francisco.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cspan style=\"font-size: 4.6875em;float: left;line-height: 0.733em;padding: 0.05em 0.1em 0 0;font-family: times, serif, georgia\">O\u003c/span>n the streets of San Francisco, what might be called the “Mustache War” has begun, pitting the traditional taxi industry against the networked ride services like \u003ca href=\"http://www.lyft.me/\" target=\"_blank\">Lyft\u003c/a> (of the pink mustache), \u003ca href=\"http://www.side.cr/\" target=\"_blank\">Sidecar\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"https://www.uber.com/\" target=\"_blank\">UberX\u003c/a>. In September, the California Public Utilities Commission approved \u003ca href=\"http://docs.cpuc.ca.gov/PublishedDocs/Published/G000/M077/K112/77112285.PDF\" target=\"_blank\">regulations\u003c/a> to oversee the ride-service startups, which allow passengers to hire private drivers through smartphone apps.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The nascent business model has been widely called “ride-sharing,” but the CPUC said that term is a misnomer. The companies are now officially referred to as “Transportation Network Companies,” or TNCs, a term with a much less altruistic ring.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">'Mustache Wars' — the conflict between the traditional taxi industry and smartphone-based ride services:\n\u003cdiv style=\"font-size: 12pt\">\n\u003cul>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Part Two: \u003c/strong>\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/who-pays-when-ride-share-driver-crashes\" target=\"_blank\">Confusion Over Insurance for ‘Ride-Sharing’ Drivers\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Sidebar:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/11/14/can-lyft-uberx-drivers-lose-their-insurance\" target=\"_blank\">Are Ride-Service Drivers at Risk of Losing Their Insurance?\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Part Three:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2013/12/11/taxi-drivers-and-whos-taking-money-out-of-their-pockets\" target=\"_blank\">Tip or Bribe? Taxi Drivers Say Illegal Payments to Dispatchers Are Routine\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003cli>\u003cstrong>Sidebar:\u003c/strong> \u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/2014/12/13/the-fine-line-between-a-taxi-drivers-tip-and-a-bribe/\" target=\"_blank\">The Fine Line Between a Tip And a Bribe For Those Who Drive S.F. Taxis\u003c/a>\u003c/li>\n\u003c/ul>\n\u003c/div>\n\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Though the TNCs may have lost the connotative battle, they think they’ve won the war. While the new regulations require the companies to run background checks and institute training programs, offer a higher level of insurance and accommodate disabled passengers and low-income neighborhoods, they have also given the companies official legal sanction to operate.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That’s a far cry from a year ago, when the CPUC hit TNCs with cease-and-desist letters and fines.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>If these high-tech ride-for-hire matchmakers are the big winners in the regulatory conflict, the traditional taxi industry sees itself as decidedly on the short end.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In San Francisco, while the new services have helped mitigate the notoriously difficult task of finding a cab during peak hours, they have also prompted bitter protests from licensed companies and drivers, who view them as unregulated competition that has taken a big bite out of the taxi market. Before the CPUC issued its proposal in July, \u003ca href=\"http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2013/07/30/cab-drivers-hold-noisy-rally-at-san-francisco-city-hall-to-protest-rideshare/\" target=\"_blank\">hundreds of protesting drivers circled San Francisco City Hall in their taxis\u003c/a>, honking horns and calling on Mayor Ed Lee, despite his lack of jurisdiction, to kick the companies out of San Francisco.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cab Industry: Personal Vehicles for Hire 'Outrageous'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hansu Kim, the owner of San Francisco's DeSoto Cab and a board member of the trade group \u003ca href=\"http://tpac-ca.org/\" target=\"_blank\">Taxicab Paratransit Association of California\u003c/a>, acknowledges the CPUC’s regulations might go some way in leveling the playing field in terms of competition between the ride services and the tightly regulated cab industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But he says the rules don’t go far enough to stop the bleeding in the taxi business or to protect public safety. TPAC has \u003ca href=\"http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/10/uber-lyft-sidecar-taxicab-puc.html\" target=\"_blank\">filed\u003c/a> an \u003ca href=\"http://www.taxi-library.org/cpuc-2013/rehearing-application-tpac.pdf\" target=\"_blank\">appeal\u003c/a> with the CPUC over its decision, and Kim says the industry will most likely \u003ca href=\"http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/blog/2013/10/uberx-lyft-sidecar-andreessen-horowitz.html?page=all\" target=\"_blank\">sue\u003c/a> over its declining fortunes.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\"The cab industry will disappear. There will be no cab industry if this isn’t addressed.\" \u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>“I think the industry has no choice but to monetize their losses and take it to the courts,\" he says. \"I’m tightly regulated — what I can charge, the number of vehicles I can put out. They can charge what they want and put out the number of vehicles they want.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>And Kim concludes: \"The idea of taking a personal car and acting like a commercial vehicle for hire is outrageous.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"This is the same service competing for the same customers,\" says Barry Korengold, president of the \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfcda.org/\" target=\"_blank\">San Francisco Cab Drivers Association\u003c/a>. But he complains the new companies are allowed to bypass city regulations on the rates they charge, insurance, permit fees and the like.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brad Newsham, who drove a cab in the city for 28 years and was also a chair of the United Taxicab Workers, says what's particularly galling is the low barrier to entry for the newbies compared to \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfmta.com/services/taxi-industry/become-taxi-driver\" target=\"_blank\">what the city requires cab drivers to go through\u003c/a>.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"They didn’t have to go to cab school, didn’t have to pay for an A-card,\" Newsham says, referring to a cab-specific license that costs about $100 a year. \"They didn’t have to do all the stuff we have to do. ... I worked 20 years to get a medallion and these people walk in there and suddenly they’ve got everything I’ve got.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In its rule-making, the CPUC rejected arguments charging the TNCs with unfair competition and dismissed warnings the new services will result in a \"race toward the bottom with negative impact on safety and service.\" In fact, the commission said its rules were similar to what the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency already requires of cab operators\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>The way Brad Newsham sees it, regulations or not, the TNCs could finish off the cab industry.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"In my estimation, it's on the verge of being wiped out,\" he says. And he thinks the Internet's so-called \"\u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/23/airbnb-and-the-unstoppable-rise-of-the-share-economy/\" target=\"_blank\">sharing economy\u003c/a>,\" allowing all sorts of people to transform themselves into instant entrepreneurs by \u003ca href=\"http://www.economist.com/news/leaders/21573104-internet-everything-hire-rise-sharing-economy\" target=\"_blank\">leveraging personal assets like a car or a home\u003c/a>, might put an end to the driving profession.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Maybe the cab driver as an institution is dead,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That's not the only time I heard taxi industry stakeholders describe the ride services as an existential threat.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"The cab industry will disappear,\" says Barry Korengold of the cab drivers association. \"There will be no cab industry if this isn’t addressed.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Giving Them the Finger\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Besides engaging in \u003ca href=\"http://sftaxischool.com/1/post/2013/07/the-end-of-rideshare-trevor-johnson.html\" target=\"_blank\">heated rhetoric\u003c/a>, cab drivers have also taken out their frustrations on their ride-service counterparts in the street.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One of the Lyft drivers I spoke to said cab drivers have given him his \"fair share of the one-finger salute.\" Said another: \"I have never been harassed, but I'll admit, after reading some of the crap fellow drivers go through, I often take my mustache down when I don't have any passengers.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_117323\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS7192_IMG_9674.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-117323\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS7192_IMG_9674-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"Brad Newsham, a former cab driver of 28 years who was also a chair of the United Taxicab Workers. (Courtesy David Kidd)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">Brad Newsham, a former cab driver of 28 years who was also a chair of the United Taxicab Workers. (Courtesy David Kidd)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>Another driver said that in the course of the four months he's been working for Lyft, there have been maybe five incidents in which cab drivers have taken him on, calling him a \"whore,\" boxing in his vehicle, and taking a picture of his license plate, accompanied by a threat to send it to his insurance company.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That last tactic — outing ride-service drivers as commercial-vehicle operators to their insurers — is actually an official policy of the San Francisco Cab Drivers Association, says Barry Korengold. \"We're supplying [the insurance companies] with factual evidence,\" he says. “We collect the license plate numbers.\" He says so far, his group has logged 1,300 or 1,400 plates.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Even Newsham, an author who was once \u003ca href=\"http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=1124175\" target=\"_blank\">featured on NPR\u003c/a> and comes across as relatively even-tempered, says he couldn't control himself when it came to the pink mustaches. \"I’m not a guy who flips the bird. But the last few months I was driving a cab, every time I saw one ... my hand went up. I just couldn’t stop it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>In talking to longtime cab drivers like Newsham and Korengold, I thought there might be something other than just financial self-interest involved in their extreme animosity toward ride-service drivers. I suggested to Korengold, who has been driving for 30 years, that he sounded downright \"offended\" by the newcomers, who have set up shop as professional drivers so quickly and with an almost total absence of bureaucratic hassle. He jumped on that word.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I’m \u003cem>totally\u003c/em> offended. It’s disrespectful to the occupation. It’s a dangerous occupation. Not only do you have to worry about unruly passengers, drunk drivers, it’s a backbreaking job. It’s very disrespectful to the people who are doing this for years and it makes a mockery of the occupation, and of the regulations.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Cab Industry 'Shot Itself in the Foot' \u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Some in the San Francisco taxi community admit the industry's failure to solve well-known problems, like the unavailability of cabs, have given the ride services an opening. \"I think it’s pretty clear that these new services popped up because the taxi industry did not provide service here,\" says Hansu Kim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I gotta say, it’s a good thing for the people of San Francisco that they can get a cab more easily now,\" says Newsham. \"The one good thing about this whole thing that has happened in the past years.”\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">\"I think it’s pretty clear that these new services popped up because the taxi industry did not provide service here.\"\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Addressing that issue in a blog post, KQED Pop's Lizzy Acker wrote about a \u003ca href=\"http://blogs.kqed.org/pop/2013/08/13/behind-the-pink-mustache-is-lyft-good-evil-or-something-else-entirely/\">Lyft ride she took to the airport\u003c/a> in August: \"It’s convenient and personal and I actually got a timely, affordable ride, which no taxi company in SF seemed able to provide for me on a Thursday afternoon for any price.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham criticizes the industry for not figuring out how to offer that kind of easy access to taxis. \"The cab industry here shot itself in the foot,\" he says. \"...It has refused to deploy dispatching innovations. It has refused to keep up with the times and the times have moved right past them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham says cab drivers have been asking for something called \"centralized dispatch\" for decades.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Christiane Hayashi, the SFMTA's director of Taxis and Accessible Services, elaborates: \"I think it was initially raised in the 1980s. They said, 'Geez – wouldn’t it be nice if you could call one number and access every taxi.' The powers that be have resisted that for many years now.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Why?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hayashi says cab companies don't want to give customers to their competitors. \"To some extent it’s legitimate,\" she says. \"It’s an understandable response from businesses. But unfortunately it’s not serving the public.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Hayashi says the two smartphone apps that now dispatch taxis in San Francisco, \u003ca href=\"https://taximagic.com/en_US\" target=\"_blank\">TaxiMagic\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.flywheel.com/\" target=\"_blank\">Flywheel\u003c/a>, \"only recently have signed up sufficient numbers of taxis to be really effective.\" She says the SFMTA is \"working as fast as we can\" to expand the system.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"I believe that if we can make all taxis available through the smartphone applications then we will be able to provide the same kind of reliability and easy electronic access that has made Lyft and Sidecar attractive to consumers,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Ride-Service Drivers Dig Their Jobs\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Driving a taxi has traditionally been a way to supplement an income or earn a living while avoiding the 9-to-5 world.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham characterizes those who gravitate to the job as \"people who don’t quite fit in regular mainstream culture. The first thing you notice is you don't have a boss in your presence all the time, someone telling you what to do. That's really attractive.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Now, with the advent of TNCs, in which drivers can use their own vehicles as opposed to having to own or rent a licensed taxi, the profession is open to all comers. We spoke to seven of them — six from Lyft, one from Sidecar. They \u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>were all highly positive about their experiences, citing good money and the freedom to work whenever they want. The Lyft drivers were particularly enthusiastic about what they called \"Power Hours,\" peak times when they get to keep 100 percent of their earnings.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>We're not using the last names of these drivers, for reasons we'll get to in Part 2, when we talk about the uncertainties around insurance for TNC drivers.\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_114940\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS6938_Lyft_9oct2013_0024_web-hpf.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-114940\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS6938_Lyft_9oct2013_0024_web-hpf-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"James Lee fist bumps Lyft driver Alice before she takes him to work. Lee says he uses Lyft every day and prefers its convenience and reliability to public transportation.(Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">James Lee fist bumps Lyft driver Alice before she takes him to work. Lee says he uses Lyft every day and prefers its convenience and reliability to public transportation.(Sara Bloomberg/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>One Lyft driver, Mike, says he makes an average of $25-$30 per hour on weekdays, $40 on weekends. “It is very lucrative,” he says. Like all the Lyft drivers we spoke to, he had no previous experience transporting customers, but really enjoys the job. “I sit out here for six to eight hours on a shift and I drive around and I talk to people and basically have fun. I learn all the new venues to go to, I hear about restaurants I’ve never tried, I meet all kinds of interesting people. I’m basically talking all night and listening to music.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He says he’s given well over 1,000 rides since he started driving for Lyft. Any problems? “We rank all our passengers on a scale of one to five based on the experience that we have with them. ... And I’ve never given anyone less than a five.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One reason Mike might like his clientele so much: He can decline to pick up passengers based on how other drivers have rated them.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He can also bypass passengers that don’t typically tip at a certain percentage of Lyft’s suggested “donation” for each ride. That functionality helps weed out the stiffs, he says. “If you have a passenger out there that never (tips), eventually they’ll request a ride and never get one.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alice has been driving for Lyft since April. After seeing the company’s ad on Facebook, she filled out an online request for information, got a call and went for an interview. After a background check — “to make sure you’re a normal human being” — she was approved.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>She says she was then given a one-hour orientation, and that was that — she was up and running as a professional driver. (Lyft has recently become more stringent about whom they take on, instituting a mentor system in which experienced drivers assess prospective candidates and make recommendations as to their hire. And per CPUC regulations, all TNCs will have to start training programs.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Alice says she works about 20 hours per week and makes $25-$35 per hour, depending on the time of day she goes out. After 1,200 rides, she’s a big fan of Lyft, her fellow drivers, the passengers — everything. “Lyft is a great, positive community made up of a lot of good-hearted people,” she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Dan says he's been a Lyft driver since April, and his boyfriend also goes out on calls. He has a full-time job as a teacher and doesn't want to be held down to another commitment, which makes ride-service work attractive.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"If I have some spare time, I’ll log into the app and get some hours,\" he says. \"I can start driving on a whim.\" Dan reports he makes anywhere from $22 to $35 an hour over the course of a four-hour shift.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignleft\">Many Lyft drivers say they make anywhere from $22 to $35 an hour.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Jason is 26 and says he's been driving for Lyft for four months. He was unemployed when he saw the company's Facebook ad and signed up. He is pretty much working full time and estimates his earnings at $30-$35 per hour. He loves the job: \"I think it’s really fun, I meet a whole bunch of people and have great conversations every day.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>One driver, who didn't want us to use even his first name, says he was one of Lyft's first 50 drivers, starting back when the company paid a flat rate of $18 per hour. He makes more than that now, no less than $25 an hour during a slow shift and always more than $30 on the weekend. He has another business, but it's not going well, and Lyft is now his main source of income.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>He's fiercely pro-Lyft: \"For me, Lyft is a company that’s really good. They take care of their employees and their passengers. It is kind of a community.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I ask if it bothers him that he works 30 to 40 hours a week but gets no health care, workers' comp or other benefits. (\u003ca href=\"http://blogs.sfweekly.com/thesnitch/2013/09/lyft_sued_for_unfair_competiti.php\" target=\"_blank\">Lyft\u003c/a> and \u003ca href=\"http://www.sfbg.com/2013/08/27/uber-sued-denying-drivers-tips\" target=\"_blank\">Uber\u003c/a> have both been named in lawsuits that allege the companies incorrectly classify workers as independent contractors.)\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"We’re hoping there will be something like that in the future,\" he says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>(Except for workers' comp, cab drivers are in the same boat. When I asked Brad Newsham if taxi drivers get benefits like health care and vacation time, his answer was, \"Ha ha ha ha ha.\")\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>A driver for Sidecar, Jeremy, has been on the job since last Christmas. He says he makes an average of $30 an hour, driving 20-25 hours per week. He is also a big fan of this gig. \"I just had my 1,000th ride this year and I love it,\" he says. \"I meet really nice people; most of them are from the tech industry, I believe, from talking to them.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>It's not surprising that these newbies to the business are excited about their jobs, Newsham says. \"I loved cab driving from the first day, period,\" he said. \"Driving around the world's prettiest city, talking to people. ... Every day, even after 28 years, I saw something new, something that took my breath away. And in the beginning it was more money than I had ever made in my life. I just fell in love with it.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>But for those TNC drivers who are thinking of permanently strapping on the 'stache, Newsham has a warning: This is the honeymoon period. Driving year in and year out takes its toll. \"I worked a year-and-a-half in an underground mine. That was hard labor. I put cab driving right up there with it.\" Newsham says being wary of \"not killing somebody, not killing yourself,\" while also trying to make enough to pay the rent is extremely stressful.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Taxi Drivers See Income Decline\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>That last part — paying the rent — explains why taxi drivers are so worried about the TNCs. Because if ride-service drivers express an almost universal sense of happiness about the money they can make, that is coming at the expense of the traditional taxi business.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Han, who's been driving a cab for 11 years, says he currently makes between $20-$35 per hour, but that pay can vary widely from driver to driver. He says one driver he recently spoke to, someone whose English wasn't great, told him that after gas and gate fees, he took home $10 \u003cem>total\u003c/em> over a Saturday and Sunday.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Han says that, anecdotally at least, $15-$19 per hour is more the norm for taxi drivers now. And that pay rate is going down, according to drivers who say they've taken a sharp financial hit since the surfeit of new vehicles-for-hire has hit the road.\u003c/p>\n\u003caside class=\"pullquote alignright\">Anecdotally at least, $15-$19 per hour is more the norm for taxi drivers now.\u003c/aside>\n\u003cp>Ed Healy has been driving a cab for 30 years, and he blogs about the industry and his contempt for the ride services at \u003ca href=\"http://phantomcabdriverphites.blogspot.com/\" target=\"_blank\">The Phantom Cab Driver Phites Back\u003c/a>. Healy estimates taxi driver earnings are off about 25 percent as a result of all the additional competition.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham says he’s heard that figure from other drivers, too. Hansu Kim, owner of San Francisco’s \u003ca href=\"http://www.desotosf.com/\" target=\"_blank\">DeSoto Cab\u003c/a>, puts the drop in all taxi business citywide in the same range — anywhere from 25 to 33 percent in the past year.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Newsham says the “bandit cabs,” as he calls them, were the final straw in his own decision to quit the business this year. In his best years as a driver, he made $30,000 to $35,000 a year driving 20 to 30 hours a week. By the time he pocketed his last tip, he was making next to nothing — about $5 an hour — which he attributes to all the new competition. That big drop in income prompted him to sell his medallion, the permit that allows cab owners to lease out their vehicles to drivers and companies. The sale netted him $150,000.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>“Seems like there was no choice. I had to take that 150K while it was still there,” he says, referring to the declining value of taxi ownership.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Some Passengers 'Have Sworn Off Cabs Forever'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I asked some of the ride-service drivers if they felt bad about the financial blow cab drivers have absorbed.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Not really, says Alice. So many of her passengers are using Lyft because they cannot get a taxi to take them to the outer areas of the city.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Most of my passengers say they cannot get a cab ride to the Outer Sunset,\" she says.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"People [tell me] they've gotten kicked out of cabs, the driver says 'No, I'm about to go home so get out of my car,' or they say, 'My tire's flat, I can’t drive that way now.' I’ve heard many, many cab horror stories about how they cannot get a cab. So it's hard for me to feel sympathy for an industry that is still excluding a lot of passengers. Most of Lyft's passengers have sworn off cabs forever.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cfigure id=\"attachment_117413\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\" style=\"max-width: 300px\">\u003ca href=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS6006_008.jpg\">\u003cimg class=\"size-medium wp-image-117413\" src=\"http://ww2.kqed.org/news/wp-content/uploads/sites/10/2016/10/RS6006_008-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"TNC drivers say their passengers have sworn off cabs forever. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\">\u003c/a>\u003cfigcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\">TNC drivers say their passengers have sworn off cabs forever. (Deborah Svoboda/KQED)\u003c/figcaption>\u003c/figure>\n\u003cp>DeSoto Cab's Hansu Kim responds that, \"That's happened on occasion, but it's really not that common now.\" The SFMTA's Christiane Hayashi says the agency has adopted regulations requiring dispatch permit holders to meet minimum requirements to \"increase responsiveness to neighborhood dispatch requests,\" and that any company that fails to comply with those standards will be shut down.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Lyft driver Mike says he is sympathetic to cab drivers, but doesn't appreciate all the flak coming his way.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"There’s some great cab drivers out there that are suffering from this, and I really hope that can come to a better place for them,\" he says. \"And for the drivers that are out there bad-mouthing us, find out the truth. They’re all out there saying we’re all uninsured and this, that and the other, and we’re horrible people and we don’t go through any training. I just tell people to do a little research before you believe everything that you read.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Brad Newsham says that while he understands the appeal of the new services, and that passengers are frustrated with the taxi industry, there is still a real human cost to the \u003ca href=\"http://www.forbes.com/sites/tomiogeron/2013/01/23/airbnb-and-the-unstoppable-rise-of-the-share-economy/\" target=\"_blank\">dislocation\u003c/a> that is occurring.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Nobody knows who these people are, the cab drivers who are getting the shaft here,\" he says. \"Nobody knows their stories. Nobody knows what they’ve been through. If you’re coming in here and you’re all gaga about your new job, you don’t know whose career you’ve just put a bullet through the head of. You get all caught up in the technology. Technology is hip, technology is cool, tech is the future. (But) what about the people?\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>Wanna Drive a Cab? 'Not Even.'\u003c/strong>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>I asked some of our ride-service drivers if they'd ever thought of driving a cab, which would entail a much more involved process than signing up for ride-service work.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"Not even,\" said one, which seemed to sum up the attitude of the group.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>OK, but what about the reverse? If things are so bad in the cab industry, why don't more cab drivers, instead of protesting, make the switch to ride-service gigs?\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>Well, they are, actually, says DeSoto Cab's Kim.\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\"My biggest concern is the shortage of (cab) drivers. A lot of the drivers are leaving the business. There’s no doubt some drivers have decided to do it on their own.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>John Han, who drives for Yellow Cab, says he thinks cab companies are having a hard time filling shifts, and that a dispatcher recently told him he could work extra days without having to go through the company's lottery system. Han says he thinks \"a fair share of taxi drivers have moved to Lyft, Sidecar and UberX.\"\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cstrong>\u003c/strong>But some longtime taxi drivers who know the business inside and out think there is a serious risk that the ride-service drivers are overlooking. “I wouldn’t ever drive in one because of the insurance issue,” said Ed Healy. “I actually signed up at (Lyft and Sidecar) ... but I decided not to drive the cars after I read the terms and conditions of the contract, because I wasn’t going to leave my car exposed to an accident.”\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003c/p>\u003c/div>",
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"content": "\u003cdiv class=\"post-body\">\u003cp>\u003c/p>\n\u003cp>\u003cem>We'll take a closer look at the insurance issues in Part Two of our series next week.\u003c/em>\u003c/p>\n\n\u003c/div>\u003c/p>",
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"info": "What kind of no sabo word is Hyphenación? For us, it’s about living within a hyphenation. Like being a third-gen Mexican-American from the Texas border now living that Bay Area Chicano life. Like Xorje! Each week we bring together a couple of hyphenated Latinos to talk all about personal life choices: family, careers, relationships, belonging … everything is on the table. ",
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"info": "The Political Mind of Jerry Brown brings listeners the wisdom of the former Governor, Mayor, and presidential candidate. Scott Shafer interviewed Brown for more than 40 hours, covering the former governor's life and half-century in the political game – and Brown has some lessons he'd like to share. ",
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"marketplace": {
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"info": "Our flagship program, helmed by Kai Ryssdal, examines what the day in money delivered, through stories, conversations, newsworthy numbers and more. Updated Monday through Friday at about 3:30 p.m. PT.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 4pm-4:30pm, MON-WED 6:30pm-7pm",
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"mindshift": {
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"info": "The MindShift podcast explores the innovations in education that are shaping how kids learn. Hosts Ki Sung and Katrina Schwartz introduce listeners to educators, researchers, parents and students who are developing effective ways to improve how kids learn. We cover topics like how fed-up administrators are developing surprising tactics to deal with classroom disruptions; how listening to podcasts are helping kids develop reading skills; the consequences of overparenting; and why interdisciplinary learning can engage students on all ends of the traditional achievement spectrum. This podcast is part of the MindShift education site, a division of KQED News. KQED is an NPR/PBS member station based in San Francisco. You can also visit the MindShift website for episodes and supplemental blog posts or tweet us \u003ca href=\"https://twitter.com/MindShiftKQED\">@MindShiftKQED\u003c/a> or visit us at \u003ca href=\"/mindshift\">MindShift.KQED.org\u003c/a>",
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"order": 12
},
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"google": "https://podcasts.google.com/feed/aHR0cHM6Ly9mZWVkcy5tZWdhcGhvbmUuZm0vS1FJTkM1NzY0NjAwNDI5",
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"info": "\u003cem>Morning Edition\u003c/em> takes listeners around the country and the world with multi-faceted stories and commentaries every weekday. Hosts Steve Inskeep, David Greene and Rachel Martin bring you the latest breaking news and features to prepare you for the day.",
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"onourwatch": {
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"tagline": "Deeply-reported investigative journalism",
"info": "For decades, the process for how police police themselves has been inconsistent – if not opaque. In some states, like California, these proceedings were completely hidden. After a new police transparency law unsealed scores of internal affairs files, our reporters set out to examine these cases and the shadow world of police discipline. On Our Watch brings listeners into the rooms where officers are questioned and witnesses are interrogated to find out who this system is really protecting. Is it the officers, or the public they've sworn to serve?",
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"perspectives": {
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"planet-money": {
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"info": "The economy explained. Imagine you could call up a friend and say, Meet me at the bar and tell me what's going on with the economy. Now imagine that's actually a fun evening.",
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"title": "Political Breakdown",
"tagline": "Politics from a personal perspective",
"info": "Political Breakdown is a new series that explores the political intersection of California and the nation. Each week hosts Scott Shafer and Marisa Lagos are joined with a new special guest to unpack politics -- with personality — and offer an insider’s glimpse at how politics happens.",
"airtime": "THU 6:30pm-7pm",
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"possible": {
"id": "possible",
"title": "Possible",
"info": "Possible is hosted by entrepreneur Reid Hoffman and writer Aria Finger. Together in Possible, Hoffman and Finger lead enlightening discussions about building a brighter collective future. The show features interviews with visionary guests like Trevor Noah, Sam Altman and Janette Sadik-Khan. Possible paints an optimistic portrait of the world we can create through science, policy, business, art and our shared humanity. It asks: What if everything goes right for once? How can we get there? Each episode also includes a short fiction story generated by advanced AI GPT-4, serving as a thought-provoking springboard to speculate how humanity could leverage technology for good.",
"airtime": "SUN 2pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/Possible-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.possible.fm/",
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"source": "Possible"
},
"link": "/radio/program/possible",
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},
"pri-the-world": {
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"title": "PRI's The World: Latest Edition",
"info": "Each weekday, host Marco Werman and his team of producers bring you the world's most interesting stories in an hour of radio that reminds us just how small our planet really is.",
"airtime": "MON-FRI 2pm-3pm",
"imageSrc": "https://cdn.kqed.org/wp-content/uploads/2024/04/The-World-Podcast-Tile-360x360-1.jpg",
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},
"radiolab": {
"id": "radiolab",
"title": "Radiolab",
"info": "A two-time Peabody Award-winner, Radiolab is an investigation told through sounds and stories, and centered around one big idea. In the Radiolab world, information sounds like music and science and culture collide. Hosted by Jad Abumrad and Robert Krulwich, the show is designed for listeners who demand skepticism, but appreciate wonder. WNYC Studios is the producer of other leading podcasts including Freakonomics Radio, Death, Sex & Money, On the Media and many more.",
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},
"reveal": {
"id": "reveal",
"title": "Reveal",
"info": "Created by The Center for Investigative Reporting and PRX, Reveal is public radios first one-hour weekly radio show and podcast dedicated to investigative reporting. Credible, fact based and without a partisan agenda, Reveal combines the power and artistry of driveway moment storytelling with data-rich reporting on critically important issues. The result is stories that inform and inspire, arming our listeners with information to right injustices, hold the powerful accountable and improve lives.Reveal is hosted by Al Letson and showcases the award-winning work of CIR and newsrooms large and small across the nation. In a radio and podcast market crowded with choices, Reveal focuses on important and often surprising stories that illuminate the world for our listeners.",
"airtime": "SAT 4pm-5pm",
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"officialWebsiteLink": "https://www.revealnews.org/episodes/",
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},
"link": "/radio/program/reveal",
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"rss": "http://feeds.revealradio.org/revealpodcast"
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