Commission Seeks to Revoke Licenses of 633 Cabbies

By BAO ONG
NYT

Updated, 4:02 p.m. | The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission will try and revoke the licenses of 633 drivers for routinely overcharging customers as part of a scheme that cost passengers $1.1 million, it was announced on Friday.

The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission said some cab drivers routinely overcharged customers.

The commission had previously accused about 35,000 taxi drivers of overcharging riders, costing passengers a total of $8.3 million. The number of suspected drivers was subsequently reduced. New figures released on Friday show that, in all, 21,819 drivers overcharged passengers a total of 286,000 times, the commission said.

Of those, the majority — 13,315 — only overcharged riders once or twice.

But a nucleus of 633 drivers did much of the stealing, overcharging riders 50 or more times by activating a switch that charged them out-of-town rates. It is those drivers who will likely lose their licenses.

(More here.)