RIDEGURU
Happened so quickly. New York City’s struggling yellow cabbies are being shattered. From NY Post:
A record 139 taxi medallions will be offered for sale in bankruptcy auction this month — the latest sign that a deluge of ride-sharing apps like Uber are squeezing cabbies out of business and deeper into debt, as well as pinching the incomes of for-hire drivers, according to analysts.
The medallions will be auctioned for a fraction of their original value — some likely having cost their owners as much as $1 million or more apiece.
A minimum of 20 will be sold, the auctioneers say. The collection is part of the 13,587 licensed medallions required to operate New York City’s fleet of iconic yellow cabs. Back in 2013, a medallion fetched a whopping $1.3 million.
Today, prices have plunged to between $160,000 to $250,000 each, as a wave of ride-sharing vehicles floods the market.
Last year, 46 medallions were reportedly sold at an auction in Queens for an average price of $186,000, snatched up by Connecticut-based MGPE, a hedge fund presumably seeking yield on a distressed asset.
For-hire vehicles on New York’s congested streets have surged from 50,000 in 2011, when Uber entered the New York market, to about 130,000 today.
Not surprisingly, earnings for yellow cabbies have fallen off the cliff — full-time average annual earnings, before taxes, are down from $45,000 as recently as 2013, to as low as $29,000 today, according to some estimates.
Uber drivers, who number about 60,000 on New York’s streets at any given time, are also taking a hit from increasing competition.
Their estimated average annual earnings, p…
Happened so quickly. New York City’s struggling yellow cabbies are being shattered. From NY Post:
A record 139 taxi medallions will be offered for sale in bankruptcy auction this month — the latest sign that a deluge of ride-sharing apps like Uber are squeezing cabbies out of business and deeper into debt, as well as pinching the incomes of for-hire drivers, according to analysts.
The medallions will be auctioned for a fraction of their original value — some likely having cost their owners as much as $1 million or more apiece.
A minimum of 20 will be sold, the auctioneers say. The collection is part of the 13,587 licensed medallions required to operate New York City’s fleet of iconic yellow cabs. Back in 2013, a medallion fetched a whopping $1.3 million.
Today, prices have plunged to between $160,000 to $250,000 each, as a wave of ride-sharing vehicles floods the market.
Last year, 46 medallions were reportedly sold at an auction in Queens for an average price of $186,000, snatched up by Connecticut-based MGPE, a hedge fund presumably seeking yield on a distressed asset.
For-hire vehicles on New York’s congested streets have surged from 50,000 in 2011, when Uber entered the New York market, to about 130,000 today.
Not surprisingly, earnings for yellow cabbies have fallen off the cliff — full-time average annual earnings, before taxes, are down from $45,000 as recently as 2013, to as low as $29,000 today, according to some estimates.
Uber drivers, who number about 60,000 on New York’s streets at any given time, are also taking a hit from increasing competition.
Their estimated average annual earnings, pre-tax, today hover between $30,000 and $34,000. Many individual for-hire drivers earn less than an hourly worker at McDonald’s.
“Uber has worked hard to grow the transportation pie, ensuring that all New Yorkers can get a ride in minutes, particularly in neighborhoods outside of Manhattan that have been long ignored by yellow taxis and underserved by public transit,” said Uber in a statement. “The majority of our trips are happening in the Bronx, Staten Island, Queens and Brooklyn.”
https://nypost.com/2018/06/09/139-taxi-medallions-will-be-offered-at-bankruptcy-auction/
Comments
Oh, gosh. This just ruined my morning. I am an avid Uber person now, but I always sympathized for taxi drivers. I think I decided to look away and ignored the situation. Kept hoping that they will be ok. (I am being serious.) ...or that they had more time.
It's so easy to ignore. For Real. we all knew they were in trouble, but we never heard their cries for help. and now we finally hear about it in the form of bankruptcy and medallions being given away. so many lives were ruined by how Uber played the game.
Uber and Lyft are great, so I commend them for that, but I agree that the way they bullied and played the game was just not right. Didn't bother to follow the regulations knowing that people would look away and figured it'd take the market years to react or do anything about it (they were right).
sad really.
Here. Apologize to this man and his family.
I hope he is successfully driving an Uber now.
Driving for Uber or any app full time is slow suicide. Hang in there buddy we are all waiting for Mayor Jerkoff to depart and things will improve
Just to add fuel to your guilt, here's a picture of a man who killed himself because of Uber.
Doug Schifter, a New York livery driver, said he killed himself to illuminate how ride hailing services have devastated taxi workers financially.
I hope that good still supersedes evil and that you will find a moment of prayer because one day a prayer may lift you up.
This Useless Mayor makes former mayor Dickens look like Bloomberg. Two long years from now when moron departs the new mayor will act and the medallion will rise .
Two years from now, everything will be too late. Perhap some resitutions need to be paid out to the medallion owners.
who'd buy them at this point?
I Think you actually get that metal medallion. You know those things pasted to the back of the trunk.
I would use it as a mantle. or a hood ornament of my Uber. LOL. I am such an ass.