{"id":6005,"date":"2007-10-22T16:48:14","date_gmt":"2007-10-22T16:48:14","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/e-commerce\/ny-taxi-strike.html"},"modified":"2007-10-22T16:48:14","modified_gmt":"2007-10-22T16:48:14","slug":"ny-taxi-strike","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/technology\/ny-taxi-strike.html","title":{"rendered":"NY Taxi Strike"},"content":{"rendered":"<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" vspace=\"3\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/uploads\/taxi.jpg\" \/>It has been a busy day and although I tried to blog a few times today, nothing came out. It wasn&rsquo;t writer&rsquo;s block as much as there seemed nothing really interesting to cover. Many times I blog when I feel passionate about something.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">So what caught my eye today is the taxi cab strike &#8212; striking twice in 30 days, what is this France? The cab drivers are striking again because they are adverse to credit card machines and GPS. And yes as you might have guessed, I think they are all nuts.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">I was in a New York taxi last week and paid by credit card. I marveled at the convenience. The system let me know exactly what a 15% tip was. I believe it even had the option to tip 17% or 20%.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">The addition of GPS into cabs is the issue most taxi cab drivers are upset about and the largest cause for many of them to strike. Again, I think it is silly for them to strike as they just don&rsquo;t understand where technology is going.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">Even the cab drivers who understand the need for GPS don&rsquo;t see the big picture. I think I do. You see, in a matter of months, some company will announce there is a system linking the cabs with potential passengers. For the first time in New York history, potential passengers will know where the cabs are and the cabs will know where the passengers are.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">GPS-enabled mobile devices will allow passengers to see where all the empty cabs in the city are located and in what direction they are moving. They will even be able to &ndash; say it isn&rsquo;t so &ndash; request a cab to the street corner on which they are located.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">It won&rsquo;t just be GPS-enabled devices with this capability mind you. Regular phones will also have this ability as potential passengers will seamlessly be able to enter their location into a mobile application.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">Likewise, the cabs will be able to rapidly see where the potential passengers are.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\"><img decoding=\"async\" alt=\"\" hspace=\"3\" align=\"left\" vspace=\"3\" src=\"http:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/uploads\/borg.jpg\" \/>Sure the loss of privacy is an issue but credit card acceptance means more fares and likely bigger tips. GPS means less time looking for fares and more time carrying them.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">Like in so many other sectors of the economy, technology will wring efficiency out of the status quo. This is great news for all of us.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">So in all, technology will make the life of the NY taxi driver that much better. As they say on Star Trek, resistance is futile.<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">&nbsp;<\/div>\n<div style=\"MARGIN: 0in 0in 0pt\">See <a href=\"http:\/\/cityroom.blogs.nytimes.com\/2007\/10\/22\/taxi-strike-what-taxi-strike\/\">Taxi Strike? What Taxi Strike?<\/a> for more.<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It has been a busy day and although I tried to blog a few times today, nothing came out. It wasn&rsquo;t writer&rsquo;s block as much as there seemed nothing really interesting to cover. Many times I blog when I feel passionate about something. &nbsp; So what caught my eye today is the taxi cab strike<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[118,175],"tags":[],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6005"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6005\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6005"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6005"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.tmcnet.com\/blog\/rich-tehrani\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6005"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}