How City of New York Sold Out Taxi Drivers and their Families to Uber

40% of New York City medallions are owned by independent owner / drivers who support their families by driving full-time and following the rules.

After auctioning these medallions for hundreds of thousands of dollars, the city has allowed Uber and other app-based services to run unruly and rampant throughout the city, decimating the value of the very same medallions the city sold to hardworking New Yorkers.

For more information, visit http://nyeta.org.

With music by Tears for Fears – http://tearsforfears.com/

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Comment (105)

  1. It's too bad the medallions were so expensive in the first place. There are things that created value for the passengers, like gas, the car, the driver's labor, but for me it defied common sense that the medallion could be worth 40x what the car was worth. I can see a parallel with Uber and Lyft coming in to airline deregulation. In the late 1970's airline capacity was set by the government and fares were regulated. When things were deregulated, the airlines had to adjust capacity and figure things out.

  2. I REMEMBER TIME AFTER TIME THOSE YELLOW CABS WOULD NOT STOP FOR  BLACK PEOPLE AND LEAVE THEM STANDING THERE. RACIST BASTERDS SO GUESS WHAT FUCK EM. THE CHICKENS HAVE COME HOME TO ROOST.

  3. It's sad to watch people cry about making bad investments and expect other people to feel bad and help them. The candle makers try to block the light bulb. Medallion owners got screwed by timing…nothing else.

  4. What are they bitching about, Manhatan is not enough for ya? When they say they operate with no rules thats false. Uber drivers can't pick up on the street only pre-arranged rides. Not only that they pay TLC the same fees and follow the same regulations. These yellow cabbies need to wake up and compete with Uber or keep crying and bitching.

  5. Bullshit! Why should anyone have to pay a million dollars for the privedge of driving someone somewhere. This is a monopoly. I'm an Uber driver and I pretty much make minimum wage. Why can't it be legal for people to take passengers on rides on their own accord? Bot systems are insane.

  6. Uber are nothing more than snakes in the grass, they are Satan's offspring http://uberpeople.net , go check out the complaints section, or your city section or the news section, or the ridiculous driver turnover section. I've does nothing but take advantage of low IQ desperate people, it sucker's them into a bottomless pit with false promises.

  7. These drivers trying to fight civilization and innovative progress, same shit happened in the early 1900's when machines started replacing workers in factories. Humanity isn't going to cease its advance towards the future just for you to keep a job, so dumb.

  8. Bad for taxi drivers. Great for riders like myself. I recall one of the worst taxi situations that happened on Christmas eve 2014. I was leaving work and headed to a walmart 5 minutes away. The driver charged me 20$. The walmart was closing down for Christmas eve as we pulled in and I didn't know they were closing. So I said, "how much to go home?" Another 5 minute drive. He told me $40 total. I wasn't going to pay that and gave him a 20 and walked home in the dark & freezing rain. Thank god for Uber. That scenario with Uber will cost me roughly 8$. Good riddance to taxi's.

  9. I live in England and if I want to go anywhere I drive myself, taxi drivers here are 1: Mostly foreign. 2. Have no respect for other road users. 3. Think they have a law of their own and can do whatever they want. 4. They can be expensive (especially black cabs in city centres) 5. And private hire are unreliable.

  10. The Medallion is your license to Operate legally as a Taxi driver. Which I think is a rip off, so many middle man making money from the same taxi car, the city, the taxi company, the Feds, the tech industry by equipping those taxis with all the gadgets. Etc. and guess who used to pay for all of that? Yeah you guess right! The passengers, the customers were paying for all of that, like I said a rip off. This people were making a hundred thousand or more by scamming the citizens with those expensive taxi rides.

  11. Another story about failed industry regulation. NYC has no-one to blame but themselves for monopolizing the industry, regulating prices, and then blaming the consumer for choosing the cheaper option instead of innovating and competing. What a shame.

  12. Wow This video is so one side it is not even funny. So many wrong statements in this video. Uber drivers have to go through the same application process and payments of fees. They have to play the same TLC Rules. The only thing is they don't have to pay that over over over over price medallion.

  13. people like convenience.. a few cab drivers suffer but alot of new yorkers benefit.they can now get a cab at anytime anywhere. and they wont be turned down because they are going to brooklyn or bx. theres a reason why people prefer uber/lyft.. while these people are making less money on the other side there are alot of uber/lyft drivers making a living.. i dont feel sorry for this monopoly at all.. competition is good. now cabs even started to treat their passengers better finally

  14. thats my friend placeda on the video the female driver ..one love girl i missed you ..yes im a yellow cab driver but these cab drivers bougbt their medallions to early before uber conquered now its the time to buy but it is still on shaky grounds cause no one knows the future outcome of the medallions but one thing I've heard lately from david pollack the taxi insider news guy that by next year 2017 the meters on yellows wlill be replaced with a tablet device on the dashboard making payments electronically and a new app called hookah …wow thats a dream cone true but if all works well watch out uber cause the yellows might make a comeback and a smack to your faces ..on another note this might send all hack drivers back to tlc school to learn the new system..

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