Taxi Driving in Downtown St Petersburg, FL

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St Petersburg's thriving bar scene fuels cabbie wars

By Claire Wiseman,  Tampa Bay Times

It's a warm Friday night, a few minutes after 8, and Douglas Osterman-Burgess is maneuvering his cab around Red Mesa Cantina. He pulls up out front, on Third Street N, where a red and white sign says "Taxi Stand."

"Look at this," he exclaims. "I've been asking for this!"

The spot looks unremarkable but for him represents a victory. He says he has been "agitating" for this kind of change for three years. With extended bar hours and the ever-increasing lure of downtown, the city's entertainment district has turned into a taxicab battleground.

As patrons spill out at closing time, those who need a ride home might have to wait 45 minutes for a cab. Despite the demand, fights for fares often erupt.

"It gets very competitive," said St. Petersburg police Lt. Gary Dukeman, who oversees the downtown entertainment district at night.

Osterman-Burgess, 55, deals with it in part by reporting his fellow cabbies if they don't follow the rules.

From the driver's seat of his white and orange van, he sips from his 7-Eleven Big Gulp and points out the many ways cabbies break the rules. They don't bother to register. They steal fares. They park illegally.

"There are rules, people," he says. "If you don't like the rules, fight to get them changed.

The city extended bar hours until 3 a.m. in 2010, setting off an expansion of the downtown bar and club scene.

The city doesn't have taxi records back to that year, but in 2011, 573 taxicabs were registered to pick up and drop off within the city. So far this year, 549 have registered.

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ObamaCare for Taxi Drivers

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"Flagging Down Taxi Drivers To Sign Up For Obamacare

Dan Ware has been driving a taxicab in Chicago for more than a decade, but he still  doesn't have what many jobs offer: health insurance.

"I'm without health coverage," he says.

And that's not unusual, says Chicago Public Health Commissioner Bechara Choucair. "What we know in Chicago is that around 70 percent of taxi drivers are uninsured," Choucair says.

That means about 8,000 cabbies could be eligible for coverage under the Affordable Care 

Act. Nationwide, there are more than 200,000 taxicab drivers, and so in a few big cities 

— including Chicago — supporters of the Affordable Care Act are working to recruit them 

to sign up before this month's open enrollment deadline.

Choucair says a couple of years ago, a study showed taxi drivers in Chicago had plenty of health problems, largely due to the long hours they spend behind the wheel.

"They don't eat as healthy, they don't exercise as much and those are definitely risk factors for diabetes, for heart disease, for strokes," Choucair says.

Add to that chronic back issues that can come from sitting and health problems caused 

by traffic accidents.

Kevin Counihan, CEO of Connecticut's health insurance exchange, hopes to be able to market

 their expertise............. "

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Restaurants Recommended By NYC Taxi Drivers

Restaurant Recommendations, Courtesy of Your Cabbie

By Aaron Rutkoff

Layne Mosler knows how to talk to cabbies about food.

She’s spent the past year asking New York taxi drivers to point her to their favorite restaurants throughout the city, following a two-year stint of doing the same in Buenos Aires. Highlights from her year of cabbie-endorsed eating in New York appeared on her blog, Taxi Gourmet, as a Top 15 list this week.

Mosler’s top five taxi-derived restaurant dishes include:

Baklava at Güllüoglu Baklava & Cafe in Brooklyn and Midtown
Burrito at Puebla’s Chula in Spanish Harlem
Tira de asado at El Gauchito in Queens
Lollipop chicken at Tangra Masala in Queens
Jojeh Kabab with Zereshk Polo at Kabul Kabob House in Queens

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Restaurants Recommended by Rome's Taxi Drivers

Where to eat in Rome – by the city's cabbies

In her popular blog, Layne Mosler seeks out good, cheap eateries recommended by the city's taxi drivers. But how would she get on with Rome's notorious cabbies?

"Are you coming to Rome for a holiday?" the snowy-haired Italian sitting next to me on the plane asked.

"Actually, no," I said. "I'm coming to write about taxi drivers. And their favourite places to eat."

The man, an engineer and hobby archaeologist who was born and raised in Rome, slapped his hand to his forehead. "Our taxi drivers," he shook his head, "are terribili!"

He was not the first person to warn me about taxi drivers in Rome. Year after year, they are voted among the worst in the world. According to a 2011 EuroTest report by 22 European automobile clubs, "Rome's taxi drivers are aggressive, do not respect speed limits and traffic lights, and take long detours off the requested route."

In other words, if there was any city where taxi drivers were going to take me for a ride, it was Rome. But however naive it might have sounded to the Roman I met on the plane, I believed that some of the capital's 8,000 tassisti would show me where to find good things to eat in their city.

I based this belief on a steak. Five years ago I decided to climb into a random cab in Buenos Aires and ask the driver to take me to his favourite restaurant. After the taxista delivered me to a transcendent bife de lomo at a side-street steakhouse called Parrilla Peña, I started hopping into cabs in Buenos Aires, Berlin and New York, asking drivers where to eat and documenting my discoveries on a blog called taxigourmet.com.

In New York, I met two female cab drivers who showed me the way to Jamaican curried goat and Puerto Rican mofongo – and convinced me that I could drive a yellow taxi, too, which I did, for a year, chauffeuring everyone from hysterical brides to ex-New Yorkers searching for pastrami.

No one, my colleagues taught me, knows a city better than a cabbie. And four trips to Italy had taught me that few people know food better than Italians. What would happen if I tested these two truths in Rome – a city with some of the greatest food, and some of the most notorious taxi drivers, in the world?

"Buona sera," I said to the tassista who was parked, along with six of his colleagues, next to the Esso station on Piazza Albania. He winced at my accent and started rolling a cigarette.

"I'm looking for a cheap restaurant not too far from here," I continued.

"I never eat at restaurants around here," he said.................

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Are All Taxi Drivers Crooks?

By JC

For some, thinking of taxi drivers will conjure up images of crooked swindlers and professional con artists.  People think of characters like Louie De Palma and Danny DeVito's Character from the TV show “Taxi” and, imagine that any person in this profession must be just like them; an opportunistic, greedy, and completely self-serving thief who has no issues with stealing the money off weary travelers.  A few trips through a big city like New York can easily make this stereotype seem like fact.  The problem is the stereotype fails when you ask a single question; if all taxi drivers are crooks, why do people still use their services?

The Scams

People who live in cities rarely have issues with local cabbies that tourists and business people do, simply because the locals know the layout of their home.  In New York for example, the use of cab drivers is practically a tradition; it’s hard to swindle someone who knows what the quickest route is and, knows when their driver has suddenly opted for a longer trip.

What visitors rarely realize is that they often stand out as a tourist.  This makes them attractive customers to the few drivers who are looking for an easy target.  It gives “cabbies” the option to take longer routes that eat the meter, or to “assume” that they were supposed to keep the change as a tip and drive off before the mistake can be corrected.

Do Some Research

With scams like these, it's no wonder that some people regard taxi drivers with such suspicion.  Many drivers, however, are friendly, honest, and forthright.  Often, the problem is that tourists and business professionals who use taxi services unknowingly communicate that they're easy marks.  Some research can go a long way in making sure you get honest cabbies and thwart the couple of sneaks you might come across.

In any area where you’ll be spending a lot of time, do research on the taxi licenses that drivers should have.  Know what they should look like and know where the important information should be displayed upon them.  If the Taxi doesn't have a license don't use their service, most of the more dangerous and threatening cons are pulled off by unlicensed cabs!  Once you determine your cab driver has the right papers and permits write down the name and license numbers, the simple act of recording this information will show any dishonest drivers you may be dealing with that you're paying careful attention to what is going on; many tricks require oblivious or unaware customers.

If you have a smart-phone, use a GPS application to track the route they're taking.  When the driver diverts from the most efficient route promptly ask why.  You don't need to be suspicious right away as there can be completely legitimate reasons (such as closed roads) to change routes.  While you can use a paper map for the same thing, a cell phone is less obtrusive and maps kind of defeat the object of not drawing attention to yourself.

These few steps will help you thwart the handful of dishonest drivers you may come across on your travels.  Just pay attention to any red flags that come up during

Crashing Cabbies: Las Vegas, Nevada by Sasha

Taxi Cab Crashes into Garage at Fashion Show Mall

Stories and news articles on taxicabs are about awkward passengers, sticky situations; For the most part, it is rare that taxi drivers make headline news for their indiscretions or odd behavior. However, one taxicab driver in Las Vegas, Nevada managed to change the way in which people look at the expectations of a cab driver.
Shopping malls across America are filled with people shuffling around looking for the best bargains or the newest trends to hit the market. The parking lot is filled with cars smashed into tiny spaces; or taxi cabs lurking around searching for a passenger, picking up lunch, or simply running the meter while their customer is inside exchanging an expensive ugly sweater they got as a gift.

Fashion Show Malls

Fashion Show mall is another typical shopping mall in Las Vegas, Nevada and on April 11th, 2013, the stores were filled with people, cars were parked like sardines in the lot, and cab drivers did their normal run. However, an unidentified cabbie drove his taxi into the wall of the parking garage instead of fulfilling. According to investigators, the driver was taken to the hospital with serious injuries and yet there was no particular reason reported for the single-car crash.
Although the story is quite disturbing, it leads to the question of whether or not taxi drivers are held to a different standard because they are supposed to be the levelheaded ringleader. Whether or not the driver intentionally drove his (or her) car into the wall is irrelevant. In specific professions, there are standards that allow no room for human error. For example, patients in the medical profession hold their doctors and nurses to the highest regards, and students in a classroom think their teachers know everything and they expect to learn everything their teacher knows.
When these professionals make a mistake, it does not stop people from going to the doctor or to school; it just makes them more cautious. Is this accident going to make people at Fashion Show mall stop riding in a taxicab? Probably not, however, it will allow them to make a change in how they perceive their driver. It does not matter what their ethnicity, race, religion, or gender is. What matters is that they can drive and they know the difference between a cement wall and a paved road.

Taxi Drivers: Easy Targets

Taxi Drivers: Easy Targets
by Sasha Brown

Taxi cab driver Annuel Delicieux shot during robbery speaks to 10 News

For cab drivers, there is always this one unforgettable ride at least in a day’s work; but for Annuel Delicieux, it was the unforgettable ride of his lifetime. At around 3 am on Dec 18, 2012 in Tampa Florida, two assailants aimed a gun at a cab driver, took his money and shot him. The two shooters, although now sitting in jail have changed his life significantly because the father of three who was just trying to make a living, who fortunately survived the shooting, now has to undergo therapy and could not work for at least a year because of the incident.

According to other cab drivers, Tampa is considered a safe place for taxi drivers. In fact, the city’s crime rate has gone down 46% for the past 6 years. Nevertheless, it does not make it any safer for cabbies working late nights to the wee hours of the morning from robberies or senseless shootings. They may have safety procedures to follow in such circumstances but readings from articles show that most of the taxi related crimes are not solely based on the intent to rob. More than half of taxi driver killings are showing an act of senseless murders due to the assailant acting out for his/her self-esteem. In the case of Mr. Delicieux for example, he already gave the robbers the money they demanded but they still shot him brutally. For wanting to create chaos from the situation, the suspects in this case still killed him even when he followed orders quickly and without a fight.

These taxi drivers working round the clock face risk factors everyday such as being defenseless working alone, late at night with cash in public and high-risk areas.

Taxi Business In Boston

For Boston cabbies, a losing battle against the numbers

Boston’s cabbies can be a surly lot, but consider what they endure. A Globe investigation finds a taxi trade where fleet owners get rich, drivers are frequently fleeced, and the city does little about it.

First of three parts. This article was reported by the Globe Spotlight Team: reporters Bob Hohler, Marcella Bombardieri, and Jonathan Saltzman and editor Thomas Farragher. It was written by Farragher and Hohler.
In the belly of Boston’s biggest taxi garage, cabbies shuffle toward a scratched and grimy dispatcher’s window knowing the cost of doing business. If you want to drive, especially on a busy night, you often have to pay the man a little extra to get the keys.
One by one they troop to the window, and in an exchange witnessed repeatedly by a Globe reporter who was himself newly licensed to drive, pass along a bribe and are assigned a car for a 12-hour shift.

These payments, drivers said, commonly range from $5 to $20.
It’s a small-sounding sum unless you are a cabbie struggling to get by. Or until you do the math — hundreds of cabbies, thousands of shifts each year, adding up to hundreds of thousands in illegal tribute........

Cabbie shortage in Australia

Check this out

Up to 1000 Greek Taxi Drivers Will be Hired to Ease Melbourne’s Cabbie Shortage

.The Australian government plans to invite taxi-drivers from the economically ravaged nation of Greece, promising them guaranteed jobs and an attractive lifestyle in Melbourne, according to a recent article from the Herald Sun online newspaper.

That will radically change Melbourne’s image as history will be repeated. There was a period when Greek cabbies were a feature in the big Australian city and that is about to be revived.

Many candidates will attend a circle of seminars in Athens where they will be familiarized with the needs of Melbourne, as well as the relevant legal frame.