High fuel prices impoverish New York City taxi drivers

Despite the recent fall in gas prices, New York City taxi drivers find themselves with an increase over the past two years of $1,000 in monthly costs to operate their cabs. This is a crippling burden for these workers. According to the Bhairavi Desai, co-founder of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (TWA), New Yorks cabbies normally work 60 to 70 hours a week and take home between $27,000 and $33,000 a year.

At a protest outside the offices of citys Taxi and Limousine Commission over the high fuel prices in July, drivers demanded that the city impose a surcharge of $1.00 a ride when gas costs more than $3.50 a gallon and $1.50 when gas costs above $5.00 a gallon.

As of last Friday, average gas prices in the city stood at about $3.85. A month earlier, the average was $4.20.

One driver at the rally, which was organized by the TWA, told the New York Times: To fill up the gas tank, I spend almost $80 per shift. My shift now is about 14 hours. I have to work more hours to compensate. I work six shifts a week. Actually its more like six and a half, because on my day off, I have to go out.