Taxis drive past discarded umbrellas on a wet street in New York City
© AFP/Getty Images/File Spencer Platt

NEW YORK (AFP) - "It is getting to the point where you work for twelve hours just to pay for your expenses and there is not much income coming in return," Bharavi Desai, head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, told AFP.

His organization, which represents some 10,000 of the city's 42,000 taxi drivers, is still in talks with the city authorities which have so far denied the request to boost the fares.

"I don't think that at this point you need a fuel surcharge on taxis," Mayor Michael Bloomberg has said. In 2004 he approved a 26 percent increase in fares, and two years later agreed that prices could be doubled when standing in traffic.

But with gas prices now at an average of four dollars a gallon, car drivers are finding it increasingly difficult to cover their costs.

Companies which own a large fleet of taxis are finding it easier to ride out the storm than those drivers who own their vehicles. But the hardest hit appears to be the large number of people, mainly recent immigrants, who rent their vehicles.

Some 82 percent of New York cabbies are immigrants who provide a cheap labor, and daily have to navigate traffic-choked streets.

Many cabs make thier way across 42nd Street in New York
© AFP/File Stan Honda

"Everyday we have to spend a little more money. When I started I was spending about 30 bucks for the gas, now I spend about 45 or 50 for the gas," said Navneet Singh, who has been a taxi driver for 22 years, and plies the route from Grand Central station.

Before gas prices started soaring, a driver would make about 80 dollars for a 12-hour day. But Singh said: "If we want to make money we have to work harder and to run around.

"It is a nice job and I would like to keep it, but because of the gas they should give us a fair increase, a dollar extra on each trip. I don't think that will affect the customers, people are gonna take cabs anyway."

David Pollack, spokesman for the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission, however questioned the usefulness of authorizing an increase in fares as in Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Miami or Chicago.

"There has to be a balance between what is best for the public, best for the driver," he said, adding that the rising prices might push drivers to think green.

Out of the 13,000 taxis currently circulating in New York, some 1,100 are hybrids combining gas and electricity.

"When the driver is spending 60 dollars a day to fill his gas tank, the hybrid driver is probably spending 35 dollars a day," he said.

©AFP