Outer Borough Street Hail Proposal Need Not Destroy the Prearranged Service

LONG ISLAND CITY, N.Y., June 7, 2011 /PRNewswire/ -- The Livery Round Table (LRT), the City's most broad-based and geographically diverse Livery Community Car Service industry representative strenuously opposes the portrayal of the livery industry by some segments of the industry as if the only service provided by the livery industry is street hails. In fact, unlike Manhattan where the demand for street hail is high, in the boroughs outside Manhattan it is the prearrange service that is in much higher demand than street hails.

In the past 30 years the majority of the livery bases have developed a reliable, law abiding, prearrange service with high customer satisfaction and a loyal customer base. Although there is a need for some street hail capability, claiming that the 22,000 livery vehicles that comprise the entire New York City livery industry is needed to service the street hail need of the boroughs outside Manhattan is a major overstatement.

The LRT was established as a forum for the Livery Industry to air its differences in an effort to seek consensus on issues of importance to the industry.  To that end, the LRT proved instrumental in solving a 35 year problem of providing driver's with workers compensation coverage by partnering with Albany and creating the Independent Livery Drivers Benefit Fund (Workers Compensation Fund). This Fund is paid for by the prearrange bases and provides workers compensation coverage to affiliated drivers while providing prearranged trips.  

Similarly, since January, the LRT has been working with all stakeholders to devise a five borough street hail program.  After much conversation, the LRT has developed a proposal that synthesizes the best elements of many of the other proposals while rejecting those elements that would devastate the legitimate prearranged For Hire Vehicle (FHV) service or, equally important, provide livery drivers little opportunity to participate in an owner capacity.

While the LRT supports the Mayor's goal of providing legal street hail service in boroughs outside Manhattan, the LRT rejects the notion of 'dual use' of livery cabs, where pre-arranged service and street hail service are permitted by one vehicle.

NO DUAL USE VEHICLE:  The financial viability of the prearranged services which hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers rely on throughout the City for critical transportation service, is dependent on the ability to reliably and timely honor reservations. In fact, for many New Yorkers who do not live near a commercial corridor or transportation hub, including the elderly and disabled New Yorkers, pre-arranged service is a critical transportation service and is often their only physical connection to the rest of the City. In order to maintain the reliability of this service, it is essential that when a base dispatches a vehicle, it be certain that the car will not be stopping en route to pick up a street hail fare. Similarly, a New Yorker should be able to reliably street hail a vehicle with confidence that the vehicle will stop and not refuse to pick them up for whatever reason claiming to be in route to a pre-arranged call.  Allowing dual use by a single vehicle that is allowed to both pick-up prearranged customers as well as street hails, will undoubtedly bring about the demise of the prearranged FHV sector and negatively impact the needs of hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers.

We agree with Mayor Bloomberg what is good for Manhattan should be good for the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens, and Staten Island. In Manhattan, street hails are performed by one sector and prearrange is offered by a different sector. For companies that already have been serving the outer boroughs with service through phone calls and pre-arranged pickups, this would be tantamount to destroying our well established industry. Additionally, it would increase hard-fought workers compensation coverage for 22,000 drivers by increasing liability or the discontinuation of the Livery Workers Compensation Fund.

The LRT is sharing its proposal with the city as well as with Albany believing it to be the most practical, legal, and responsible solution that answers the need for street hail in boroughs outside Manhattan, preserves the existing prearrange structure with all of its contributions to the community, and protects the ability of the drivers and bases to participate in the establishment of the new street hail cab service.

SOURCE Livery Round Table