The taxi drivers must navigate a process that seems like it could have changed little in the past 50 years. Unlike many private companies and an increasing number of government agencies, the TLC provides virtually no services via the Internet. Almost no procedures can be finalized through the mail. Fees and fines are not accepted in the form of cash, personal check or credit card payment. Instead, drivers must get money orders, often from a storefront check-cashing service near the office on Queens Boulevard.

While many city agencies like the Motor Vehicle Association have offices in every borough, the TLC has only one city service office in Queens. Some cab drivers believe poor conditions at the TLC reflect vulnerability of its clients, the cab drivers, who are historically immigrants and are increasingly minorities.

"Because [taxi drivers] are poor, and most of us are immigrants and colored people, we don't have much political lobby. They can do anything they want," said Javed Tariq, an organizer and activist with the Taxi Driver's Alliance, a drivers' advocacy group. "You see, it's a big political game. If you are poor, if you are black or immigrant, you have no power in the game."

The cab drivers' complaints have not gone entirely unheard. Two years ago, city officials took steps to speed up the licensing process for city cab drivers. They moved to into their current offices, leaving cramped and dilapidated office space in the same neighborhood.


 

[Partha Banerjee of NYC24.com spoke with Javed Tariq, an organizer and activist at the Taxi Drivers' Alliance]

PB: We went to the Taxi and Limousine Commission's office in Queens today. We were surprised to see the long lines the drivers were standing in—one outside the building and then a second one inside.

JT: You saw nothing. Before, cab drivers would stand in the line from 12 midnight, the whole night, then the whole day, just to get in. Even in the winter. You'd be lucky to enter. Last year, or actually in 1998, we fought very hard with the TLC so that the wait time can be reduced. It changed a bit.

PB: Where do these drivers park their cabs? Do they have any designated space at the TLC?

JT: There is no parking space for the drivers who go to TLC. Everywhere, at all government offices, motor vehicle's department, everywhere, there would be a parking space for customers. Here at TLC, we the drivers are their customers. But they have no parking space for us. And this part of the town is a bad area.

PB: What do you do?

JT: Sometimes, we drive around for two to three hours just to find parking. Sometimes, we use metered parking for hours. And then you spend your whole day there. You lose $200 of earning easily. Out of the 10 or 12 teller windows at the TLC, most of the time, only three or four are open, seven closed. That makes the cab drivers wait much longer.

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