Cabbies strike over GPS
May 18, 2006 gps navigation, gps tracking, misc news
Hacked off by the Philadelphia Parking Authority’s forcing them to install high-tech tracking devices in their cabs, dozens of taxi drivers struck yesterday, wheeling around City Hall, honking horns, chanting, “PPA: Don’t suck my blood!”Drivers blasted the new Global Positioning Satellite [GPS] system – which lets the Parking Authority track every cab in the city – as a massive spy device that will add an $18 monthly maintenance fee to their backbreaking fuel and cab-leasing expenses.
“Something don’t smell right,” said Ronald Blount, president of the Taxi Workers Alliance of Pennsylvania, which joined the Brotherhood of Unified Taxi Drivers and Owners for the midday rally on Dilworth Plaza.
“We didn’t ask for the GPS,” Blount told the cheering cabbies. “Owners didn’t ask for the GPS. Customers didn’t ask for the GPS. Who asked for the GPS?”
Bhatti Anjum, a driver, said the FBI should investigate the Parking Authority’s multimillion-dollar deal with GPS-maker Taxitronic.
“Asking the Parking Authority to supervise taxis,” he said, “is like preparing a very nice meal, then asking a wild dog to protect it. The wild dog will destroy the food. The Parking Authority will destroy us with this GPS.”
“I pay $40 a day in gas and $60 a day to lease the taxi and the medallion,” said David Amota, who drives the one cab owned by Isaac Coker 12 hours a day (Coker drives it the other 12).
“I make $150 on an average day, so I only take home $50 for 12 hours’ work,” he said. “What is that – a little over $4 an hour? Any GPS expenses come right out of that. And what is GPS for? What good is it?”
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