Page 25 - ARUBA TODAY

BUSINESS Monday 3 February 2020
A25

Task force says 'mission-driven' investors must help cabbies

By KAREN MATTHEWS said the crisis of sinking me-
Associated Press dallion values "is primarily
A task force studying New the result of Uber's expo-
York City's struggling taxi nential growth after its 2012
industry called Friday for market entry."
"mission-driven" investors to Daus said the priority for
help bail out drivers who in- any bailout should be
curred massive debt once owner-drivers who bought
the value of the medallion medallions at the three
that allows a person to op- auctions held in 2013 and
erate a yellow cab plum- 2014. "The city benefited
meted in the age of Uber from those auction sales
and Lyft. by more than $409 million,
The report also recom- and should return or find
mends upgrading taxi the money somehow," he
technology to make it easi- said.
er to summon a yellow cab An Uber spokeswoman
by smartphone so that tra- said the company has no
ditional taxis can compete comment on the report.q
with app-based services.
The 76-page report de-
tails how the value of a
taxi medallion topped $1
million in 2013 but sank to Taxis are lined up in traffic, Wednesday, Jan. 29, 2020, in New York.
less than $200,000, leaving Associated Press
many medallion owners
hundreds of thousands of ers Alliance and a mem- lion." He added, "The only make viable as soon as
dollars in debt and facing ber of the task force that way for me to survive would possible."
foreclosure or bankruptcy. produced the report, said be if we get a bailout." Asked about the medal-
"Uber, Lyft and other app- there are about 3,000 driv- Driver Augustine Tang, who lions that were auctioned
based companies were ers who need debt relief owes $498,000 on the me- during the first months of
able to come into the mar- because they owe more dallion he took over from de Blasio's administration,
ket entirely unregulated," on their loans than the me- his late father, said, "I'm Lapeyrolerie said, "Our ad-
City Councilman Stephen dallions are worth. She said hopeful that this will work. ministration came in just in
Levin, co-chairman of the the average debt is about Because if it doesn't there time for the crash. One of
task force that produced $600,000, and she suggest- are going to be a lot of lives our first actions was halt-
the report, said at a City ed that all but $150,000 of at stake." ing medallion sales, and
Hall news conference. that should be forgiven. While Uber has taken much we were one of the first
"We saw over 100,000 li- "We invested in this city," of the blame for the taxi in- and most ardent voices for
censes in the streets within Desai said. dustry's woes because of its curbing the rapid growth
just a few years. What did "We're asking you to invest rapid growth and its com- of corporations like Uber."
that do to the million-dollar in our families." bative stance toward gov- Matthew Daus, the head
medallions that the city Levin said debt collectors ernment regulation, critics of the city's Taxi and Lim-
sold? are already buying up me- have also pointed to the ousine Commission from
When the collateral for a dallion loans at discounted financial institutions that 2001 to 2010 under de Bla-
million-dollar loan is sud- prices but are not provid- steered immigrant drivers sio's predecessor, Michael
denly worth $200,000," ing any relief to the owner- toward risky loans and to Bloomberg, who is current-
Levin said, "The lender drivers. New York City officials who ly seeking the Democratic
seeks more collateral. You Task force members said promoted medallions as a presidential nomination,
put up your home, you put the size of any debt-relief safe investment.
up all of your assets, you fund is not known. The report quotes a pam-
put up your family's assets, Drivers attending the news phlet promoting a city
just to be able to hold on to conference said the res- auction of taxi medallions
the investment you saved cue plan would be the an- in 2014, two years after
for your entire adult life." swer to their prayers. the first Uber car hit the
City officials adopted a "If it goes through we're go- city's streets, that showed
moratorium on new licens- ing to have our life back," a graph of medallion sale
es for for-hire vehicles in said taxi driver Mouhama- prices under the heading,
2018 and extended it last dou Aliyu, 47, who said he "It's Better than the Stock
year, but they have not yet owes $635,000 on a medal- Market." The city made
taken action to provide re- lion that's worth a fraction $855 million on medallion
lief to the medallion owners of that. sales between 2002 and
who are buried in debt. "Every day I work 7 to 7 and 2014.
The task force is recom- every day I got home emp- Olivia Lapeyrolerie, a
mending that the city re- ty handed," said Aliyu, an spokeswoman for Demo-
cruit "mission-driven" inves- immigrant from Ivory Coast cratic Mayor Bill de Blasio,
tors who would buy the who bought his medallion who took office in January
loans, forgive the bulk of for $331,472 at a city auc- 2014, said some of the task
the money and restructure tion in 2004. force's ideas "could make
the payments. "I keep borrowing from a real difference and we're
Bhairavi Desai, the founder friends because I'm not go- already diving in to deter-
of the New York Taxi Work- ing to let go of my medal- mine which ones we can