After five years of crashing NYC taxi medallion prices, leading to a number of taxi suicides that we have documented exhaustively, taxi drivers with insurmountable medallion debt (secured by medallions) have been crushed by the virus pandemic.
With the travel and tourism industry in a deep bust cycle, many Manhattan offices empty, sporting and cultural events canceled, restaurant restrictions, scared consumers, economic depression, and city-dwellers exiting the metro area for suburban life, drivers have struggled to find customers this summer, making it nearly impossible for thousands of yellow taxi driver-owners to service their monthly debt payments. Uber, Lyft, and other ride-hailing apps haven’t made the situation better for taxi drivers.
Data from the Taxi and Limousine Commission revealed Yellow Cab handled 92% fewer rides in June versus the same month in 2019, with as many as 82% of the city’s 13,500 yellow taxi medallions not operational as there are no customers to pick up.
One glance of Times Square on Friday morning (Sept. 18), around 1015 ET, revealed parts of the city still resemble a ‘ghost town’.
With no “V”-shaped recovery for the taxi industry, thousands of drivers are broke, have no income, insurmountable debts, can’t pay rent or service their mortgage, nevertheless feed their family or pay for their children’s education – as it appears Thursday was the breaking point for hundreds of cabbies who shut down two NYC bridges and halted traffic on several streets, begging for debt forgiveness…
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