Chi-Town Taxi Troubles
Just another sign of the times, I guess.
Progress, right?
Operators of the nation’s second-biggest taxi fleet are now accelerating toward their long-rumored extinction, edging towards becoming virtual dinosaurs in the era of ride-sharing monsters Uber and Lyft.
More than 2,900 of Chicago’s nearly 7,000 licensed taxis were inactive in March 2017 — meaning they had not picked up a fare in a month, according to the Cab Drivers United/AFSCME Local 2500 report. The average monthly income per active medallion — the permit that gives cabbies the exclusive right to pick up passengers who hail them on the street — has dipped from $5,276 in January 2014 to $3,206 this year.
An entire well-established industry being overrun by technology.
Leading to this:
Since April 28 alone, a New York credit union has filed five lawsuits over a total of six medallions owned by five Chicago taxi owner-operators, alleging they're in default on their loans and seeking about $1.4 million. That brings to 28 the number of lawsuits that Lomto Federal Credit Union has brought against cab companies so far this year in Cook County Circuit Court. The lender, in its lawsuits, acknowledges that tech startups have burst a bubble in the transportation industry.
How do taxicabs make themselves relevant again? Can that even be done?
Or are we nearing the end of seeing this in our metro areas?
Out for now........
Matt
