Tag Archives: gate

Driving Bay to Breakers

This weekend the City hosted its annual Bay to Breakers run. Bay to Breakers (B2B) is a 7 mile run through the heart of San Francisco. B2B starts from the east (bay) side of the City at the Embarcadero and … Continue reading

Posted in taxi, work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Cab earnings update: seasonal rise in demand for taxis offsets increased fuel and gate costs.

San Francisco cab drivers face two recent cost pressures: a recent gate fee increase combined with the recent climb in gas prices. Fortunately, these cost pressures come at a time when aggregate demand for taxis in the City is increasing. … Continue reading

Posted in econ, politics, taxi, transit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

Website highlights financial stress of driving a taxi in the City

I point your temporary attention to a Flash website produced by UC Berkeley j-school grad students Eric Zassenhaus and Amy Jeffries. The video clips thumbnailed along the bottom are accurate and colorful paintings of a typical taxi shift. Well worth … Continue reading

Posted in econ, politics, taxi, transit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Driving highlights

I drove 3 shifts in the past 3 days. One of them starts early at 5 am, the other two are graveyard shifts starting at 1 am. Each lasts 11 hours. During my shifts I picked up two young, professional … Continue reading

Posted in taxi, work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

The headline should read, “Mayor signs taxi gate fee increase, lowering pay for City workers.”

Mayor Newsom signed a bill last week that increases gate fees for most cab drivers by $5 (effectively a $.50/hr paycut) and increases the gate fee for Compressed Natural Gas and hybrid cab drivers by $13.50 (effectively a $1.35/hr paycut). … Continue reading

Posted in politics, taxi, transit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 1 Comment

My taxi earnings begin to increase. Is it temporary?

December and January were tough months. Holidays meant many people left the City. There was very little tourism and few, if any, special events that draw large numbers into the City. This weekend and last weekend produced relatively high earning … Continue reading

Posted in econ, taxi, work | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Update: Supes badger over taxi gate fee increase

The Examiner has an update on the saga of supervisor Alioto-Pier’s original proposal to considerably increase gate fees. (A gate fee is the rental price of a taxicab charged to cab drivers.) A much more reasonable $5 increase (compared to … Continue reading

Posted in politics, taxi, transit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

Should the City allow cab companies to charge higher gate fees to taxi drivers?

In some ways, blogs are great. They present frequently updated writing with a nice user interface that emphasizes recent postings first. But, most blog interfaces (including this one) bury old postings even if new, interesting and worthy comments are posted. … Continue reading

Posted in econ, politics, taxi | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | Leave a comment

San Francisco Supe proposes taxi gate fee increase. Drivers need gradual implementation.

The Examiner reports Supervisor Michela Alioto-Pier recently proposed a significant increase in taxi gate fees charged to cab drivers. (Quick background: A ‘gate fee’ is the rental fee charged to a taxi driver for a shift. Taxi drivers pay the … Continue reading

Posted in econ, taxi, transit | Tagged , , , , , , , , , , , | 7 Comments