Long Hauling: Treble Damages RICO claim. Desert Cabs.

A disgruntled driver has filed an action in the US District Court alleging forced long hauling, improver driver sanctions, negligent maintenance, etc. by Desert Cabs.
Serota v. Desert Cab, Inc. et.al., 2:11-cv-01969-LRH-RJJ

Interesting. I think I should sue my employer also - they often make me do stuff I don't want to do.
I thought, that's why they call it "work" (if it was all fun, they'd just call it that), but turns out, it's racketeering!

It might be racketeering if they ask you do do stuff that is ILLEGAL, rather than just stuff you don't want to do.

I dunno about that actually. In my book "racketeering", and "ask you" do not usually go in the same sentence ;)
Thing about employers is - you can always quit, if you don't like what you have to do there. Unless, of course, you are in a socialist country ... then you can also sue :)
To me, it sounds more like racketeering what the employees do to their employers nowadays. "We will do this and that, but not that and this, and you have to pay us so much, and give us these benefits, or we'll sue you and you'll go bankrupt". Now, this is racketeering.

There has been considerable interest in the civil action amongst the cab companies, cab drivers and cab union officials. I imagine the major hotels don't much care what the final result will be. Many hotels do deal with arriving guests whose first comment relates to the taxi fare. Disputes are often arbitrated by doormen but supposedly on Taxi Authority personnel, not Metro, are to respond to fare disputes unaccompanied by violence.

I don't think its a major issue but its not good business to have hotel guests arriving totally pissed off and then try to tell them to relax and go lose your money like there is no tomorrow.

Quote: FleaStiff

A disgruntled driver has filed an action in the US District Court alleging forced long hauling, improver driver sanctions, negligent maintenance, etc. by Desert Cabs.
Serota v. Desert Cab, Inc. et.al., 2:11-cv-01969-LRH-RJJ

The best answer to that is more cab medallions.

I will say taxi drivers do get screwed over a lot of times. I remember for the 2004 (maybe 2008?) Democrat National Convention they were foing to try to fix the price of a ride lower than conventional rate when they presented some kind of coupon or voucher. Naturally the driver was expected to eat the difference. I don't know what the outcome was but some drivers were going to say "screw this" and park for the week, which they had all right to do.

I did courrior work for a short time, hauling items insteaed of people, and it is a hard life. You hope for a good haul, sitting in a lineup waiting for your turn to work.

Yeah, after waiting to get to the head of a line at some hotel's taxi stand, some cabbies don't want to take a short haul to the adjacent hotel but often a doorman will tell him come right back to the head of the line.

I think the problem is Vegas has no Driver-Owned medalions.

Quote: FleaStiff

Yeah, after waiting to get to the head of a line at some hotel's taxi stand, some cabbies don't want to take a short haul to the adjacent hotel but often a doorman will tell him come right back to the head of the line.

I think the problem is Vegas has no Driver-Owned medalions.

I think even in NYC most drivers have to rent the medallion because investors own them. Saw one immigrant from somewhere bought two for around $100K when he first could, dude put everything he had and then some on the line to do it. He was smiling in the article because the price went to $250K+. It is a problem of limited supply and if you drive the cab you probably don't have the cash for the medallion but when you have the cash you have better employment opps.

Not sure if it is a local term, but in Pittsburgh they have a thing called "jitneys." Completely unlicensed, unmarked car services, usually in black neighborhoods where people need a less expensive ride and the cabs don't want to go to anyways due to short hauls and long trip to get to the fare from downtown. Wouldn't work in Vegas, but solves the medallion problem.

Jitneys are common. Often a motel will have an airport pickup van but not want to pay the fees and do the paperwork, so you call the motel and they tell you to look for a white van with no markings.

Some taxi drivers in NYC would not go to black areas and often white women would be asked to flag down a cab for a black couple that was lurking out of sight. This lead to non-medalion "taxis" in the ghetto areas and often taxi drivers who did drive in a black neighborhood were viewed as trespassers. Of course these unlicensed cabs had no background checks or insurance or stuff like that.

The Mexican Limousine Service can be the cheapest way to travel. An old car crams people in and drives from one farm workers center to another for a flat rate.

Many cab drivers think a flat rate is the solution rather than a mileage rate. So anywhere on the Strip would be a flat fee. Some people used to call cab drivers directly in Vegas rather than cab companies if they were staying at some cheap off-strip motel that lacked a cab stand.

Quote: FleaStiff

Some taxi drivers in NYC would not go to black areas

I owned a small cab co in the 80's. The problem
is not getting robbed in black areas, its not getting
paid. They have a tendency to run out on the fare.
Not all of them by any means, but enough. Even
the black drivers didn't like their own areas at night.