Southie Taxi Cab Boston 617-269-4444 Massachusetts,ma,mass,south boston,boston

My back and forth ongoing argument with John Moore the man who brought the $25,000 taxi to Boston. My replies in Italics

Hello Mike,

Thank you for writing me. I am sorry to see you have published attacks without first speaking to me directly. After working on this issue on and off over the last 5 years, I have met many many drivers and I have much respect for them and for their dedicated work ethic. I do not in any way want them to suffer because of hybrid vehicle taxi policy. I did try to speak to you in person when we had the rate hearing with the city at Roxbury Community college. Do you know that this rate hearing was the first time any taxi driver had heard we were going to be forced to purcahse a hybrid taxi fleet for the city of Boston? I and several other drivers went up to you during one of the breaks and tried to warn you that this was going to backfire and you basically refused to listen. I am paraphrasing here but you said ” Why are you worried its the cab owners buying it not you” I was worried because this was soemthing you did not need a crystal ball to see. Cab owners make their money from guys like me. So why wouldnt they try to get more money from guys like me to “do the right thing?” Further there is an old saying “cabbies are scum bags and cab owners are really good at being scum bags” If you need proof of this just look to the example of the cab owners ongoing court case they as I said in my last blog post have managed to now make it so they can put a non hybrid vehicle on the road and get the extra $18.00 a shift for it for a total of four years. You met Eddie Tutunjian You think they wound up owning all those cabs a dispatch association real estate all over Massachusetts and an Argentinian Vineyard by being a swell guy that gave taxi drivers a square deal or do you think he got all that by finding every opportunity to squeeze poor people for another penny? I know your not an economics professor but think hard here.. Why do I blame you for this? Because sir as you say in the youtube video none of this would have started without you. IF you give the slightest fat shit about the economic damage your “caring” has caused then you need to start reaching out to allt hose people you reached out to in the beggining and ask them to make this right pronto!

It was never my intention to hurt drivers when I first proposed the idea of hybrid taxis to the “powers that be.” I knew through experimentation, that a hybrid saved gas when driven as a Boston cab. Lots of gas. Your 10 gallon vs. 6 gallon estimate is way off. The savings over a typical used Crown Victoria is 60-70% not the 40% you purport. I am happy to show you the data.

Again with the “data” does any of your data involve actually driving a taxi in Boston? No… Im guessing it doesn’t does it perhaps even involve going to the HESS gas station on route 1a in Revere just north of Logan airport at 3a.m. and aksing Crown Vic and Hybrid drivers what they spent on gas and then finding out if they are “city” drivers or “airport” drivers? The greatest benefits of the hybrid are for drivers like myself that just work neighborhoods and very seldom get on the highway. Would you at least agree to that? If I can get you to agree to that can I further get you to stipulate that not all Boston Taxi Cab drivers work the city regularly and that your “data” may be skewed to those that do and therfor might not be that accurate? If I can not get you to agree that your data means LESS then the actual real world experience then please at least meet me this far/ Further I am guessing your “data” compared a crown Victoria run by say Green cab in Somerville (its well known that Somerville cabs are by far the worst maintained cabs in metro area) to that of a brand new perfectly maintained hybrid correct? How well do you think these hybrid cars are running now that they have been on the road for 1+ years being beat on 24/7? Do you think the air presure in the tires has been checked even one time? Most taxi garages (including your pals on Kilmonark st. ) have a policy not to fix anything that is not broken. If a wheel falls off they put it back on. If a car needs to pass inspection and the check engine light needs to go out they make it go out. Do they maintain their cars to the point that they run like the day they rolled off the showroom like the cars your “data” is based on? No they dont! It would be financially and logistically impossible for them to do so. They control 400 cabs. Imagine trying to change the oil on 400 cars at exactly 3000 miles? Now try to imagine making sure all the tires have air pressure in them 400 cars times 4 tires.

My intention has always been to figure out the savings and propose to split it between driver and owner. That way, both driver and owner would benefit. At the time of my original proposal, gas prices were over $3 per gallon and my data showed average savings of $25 per shift.
You were aware that the owners do not actually pay for the gas right? Why would they care how much we spend on gas? I hate to keep beating this into you but it really seems like your having trouble grasping it still. Do you think the cab owners those “swell guys” like E. Tutunjian went out and got hybrids because it was the right thing to do or because they saw it as an opportunity to further get in our pockets? Here is a fun fact for you. Do you know if you want to rent one of his cabs on top of the $95.00 a shift and the $3.00 insurance and the sales tax etc. he charges drivers a $200.00 deposit that he keeps for the entire time the driver works there and DOES NOT pay them any interest on their money? Think of it 400 cabs 3 drivers per cab times 200.00 Im guessing if you bring that chunk of Cash to fidelity you get a decent interest rate. I again wish you to know that I understand you had the best intentions on saving taxi drivers $ and helping the enviroment I am just trying to get you to understand that your plan completely backfired because you totally lacked any experience in the industry and when given the opportunity refused to listen to the people who did. You have not saved us a penny but instead cost us millions.

Mike, you should know I proposed a lease rate hike much smaller than the $18 eventually adopted by the City. I proposed a hike which adjusted as the vehicle aged ($15 for the first year, $12 for the second, and $10 thereafter.) Much less than the rates eventually adopted.

I was surprised by the aggressive rate hikes that were eventually passed, but I of course had no control or influence over this process. The rates were arrived at through analysis prepared for the City by others. The complications of the meter increase, owner’s insurance costs, and other factors were frankly beyond my expertise.

I am glad you finally admit that a large chunk of this was completely beyond your experience. There is a political process that you witnessed a bit of at that summer meeting at Roxcom. We ask for a meter rate increase. The owners say they want one too. We get the city to grant us a hearing. They hire a consultant who doesn’t know a fucking thing about the cab business (but is politically connected) to do an economic impact study of the rate increase. Some fat asshole city councilor stands up and says “what about the poor and elderly in my district how will they afford cabs” The herald and globe run articles complaining that Boston Taxi rates are the highest in the country and completely ignore the fact that we are the cheapest in Eastern Massachusetts (the towns with cheaper published rates I.E. Milton are actually higher because they tack on fees when the cabs leave the city or charge flat rates when they go to the airport making them more expensive overall). The owners put in overblow estimates for what their insurance will cost to buy full coverage on the hybrids even though none of them actually bought it and Mr. Tutunjians entire fleet is self insured. Did you know that ? Imagine having so much money its a better business decision for you to not buy insurance because you can cover any eventuality out of pocket?

I have to agree with you that the lease rate increase seems too high. I think it should be lower and adjusted with gas prices through a simple formula. I have been out of touch with this issue for a couple of years, but I am happy to make my opinion known to those I have met at City Hall or through other means you may suggest.

Really? Oh thank you sir.. since you can single handily claim the credit for allowing the biggest ass raping of Boston Taxi cab drivers to get off the ground even though you were specifically warned it would happen it means ever so much to me that your willing to help correct it. You need to immediately start making phone calls to reporters politicians all those people you convinced that this was a great idea and tell them how shocked you are that your fabulous idea has been allowed to be perverted by filthy rich millionaires in order to fleece the working poor out of their hard earned money I dont even mind if you leave out the part where a bunch of cabbies tried to warn you this would happen and you chose to ignore us.

I am also happy to meet with you sometime to discuss all of this. Maybe we could be joined by Andrew Hebert- someone I have found to be experienced and objective on this matter.

I would love to meet you and ill give you that Andy Herbert is experienced. Objective? I will copy him on this if you like but to the best of my knowledge he is as objective to this as any man making money of the hybrid boondogle can be. Andy owns/manages cabs so his income is directly tied to what a cab owner can make off of a driver to rent him a cab. Also if I remember to correctly he donated money to this ongoing lawsuit and encouraged others to donate to it. I still dont understand why the owners are fighting ahead. They get to charge $18.00 extra per shift for a car that doesnt save $18.00 worth of gas and they get to charge the money for 3 years past the date that the car is paid for. IT has been a huge win for the Daddy Warbucks crowd. Also to the best of my knowledge Andy has sold out his newspaper and taken a step back from trying to effect policy due to an illness but if you like I will copy this to him and see if he is willing to be involved.

I really believe that through hybrid technology (and proper policy-making) drivers, owners, and the public at large can ALL benefit. I want to thank you for spending so much time on this issue. Your work is important to achieve a proper balance.

My goal is to get you to