Text size:

Taxicab confessions: Riding with a non-striking driver

By Justin Rocket Silverman, amNewYork Staff Writer
More stories | jsilverman@am-ny.com

October 23, 2007

amNewYork shadowed cab drivers Monday -- one who joined the strike and another who decided to go to work. Here are their stories:

Jim Collura, 60, of College Point, Queens, has been driving a yellow cab since 1974, and Monday made the decision to go to work as usual, despite calls for a citywide taxi strike.

His usual take-home pay varies greatly, but it is generally about $150 for a Monday, a traditionally slow day for cabbies.

During the strike, he ironically found he was making much less, possibly because so many drivers decided to cash in on a strike day.

Jim Collura, 60, of College Point, Queens, has been driving a yellow cab since 1974, and Monday made the decision to go to work as usual, despite calls for a citywide taxi strike. His usual take home varies greatly, but it is generally about $150 a day. During the strike, he ironically found he was making much less, mainly because there were so many yellow cabs on the road.

10:00 a.m. -- Collura leaves the Team Systems garage in Long Island City, where he leases one of the 300 cabs dispatched from that site. Almost all are in service Monday around the city. 'It's a no-win situation," he says, "they are going to put the systems in the cars no matter what. So why should I stay home and lose a day's pay?"

10:25 a.m. -- Crossing the Queensboro Bridge into Manhattan, Collura immediately notices hundreds of other cabs cruising the streets in search of fares. "Supposedly you've got 15,000 taxis off the streets today, but apparently those drivers are not even missed out here. If it was a major strike you wouldn't see an empty cab anywhere, you would see multiple passengers, group riding, the whole thing."

10:45 a.m. -- Gustavo Dolfino, a financial services headhunter, flags down the cab on Sutton Place and takes a $9 ride to midtown. He heard about the strike on the radio, but hadn't given it much thought. Asked how he likes the GPS system, Dolfino says, "Honestly, I can't stand the thing. It annoys the heck out of me."

11:05 a.m. -- Collura drives by Grand Central Terminal and observes, "a line almost a half -block long of empty cabs, waiting for passengers."

11:20 a.m. -- Two elderly tourists who decline to give their names flag down the cab on Fifth Avenue and ask for a short, $5 ride to a Madison Avenue restaurant. This is the first they've heard of a taxi strike.

11:55 a.m. -- Frustrated by the lack of fares on a traditionally soft Monday, Collura decides to head back to the garage.

"I've been doing this job long enough to know one thing for certain," he says. "No matter what happens, the cab driver never comes out on top."