tileg, aieli gashan, mohammad offshart, eng ho. >> my name is padavid pasada. my comment is this. this is capitalism at its worst. look at the faces of the people who have spoken here. can you imagine if they say to their homeland that capitalism is not being practiced by san francisco? they come from all over the continent of africa, the middle

east, india, south america. these people will cry out to their homeland, telling their relatives and friends that capitalism does not exist in san francisco. i am an action man. this is a hard-earned dollar. i am donating $20 to my mother. [applause] >> mohamad offshart, eng ho, rashad ahmed. >> good afternoon. i have been driving taxis about 15 years. as i see it, we cabdrivers are a

wonderful, a key service for the city. but i don't know that the city administration -- you don't see us like that. we are very valuable as an asset here. i do not see any city bodies seen that way. if you're seen that way, 15 years driving -- some cabdrivers have to under 50,000 -- 250,000. i do not believe that has ever happened. >> eng ho, rashad ahmed, jamal

anshasi, alud nemezee, mayint fan, john han, sato to. albert ma, mary mcguire, ashak agautam, john gallardo. chairperson nolan: we will give them time to get here. >> john gallardo. if i call your name, if you would stand up. chairperson nolan: we have a few. good afternoon, sir. >> how are you doing? i dry yellow. we are coming here every

meeting. we have been coming here every meeting, and you guys don't do nothing. you just listen to us. a warning might sound a little bit funny, but we mean it. if you don't do anything about this 5% electronic waybill, we are going to go on strike. [applause] we're going to go on strike. we are going to go on strike. that includes airports, hospitals, parks, union square, and fisherman's wharf. you have to do something. i don't understand. are we living in castro's cuba here? the head of the division tells me everything that comes out of my mouth is wrong. that is what she tells me. it is embarrassing. do something.

[applause] >> rashad ahmed. chairperson nolan: several speakers i have come in. >> good afternoon. i want to congratulate you guys for treating us like secondhand citizens. despite% you want us to pay is not fair. -- this 5% you want us to pay is not fair. push the taxi driver to the count all the time. nobody likes this job. we get killed. we get hurt. nobody addresses that. all of the many drivers i know, they get benefits. i get nothing. we deserve to be treated like

citizens. thank you very much. chairperson nolan: we have several further names. >> good afternoon. my name is albert ma. i was a u.s. navy for 20 years. i want to mention basic common sense. mta, if you want your taxi driver like an employee, you have to give them benefits. if green cabbage -- cab, you need a lot of the caps that are empty. that is not a real green cab. we have never raised the matter for seven years. that is ridiculous. 5% on this credit card is nonsense.

they charge the passenger or the credit card owner. i would like to mention the robbery of cabdrivers. their safety is important. thank you, your honors. >> good afternoon. i am a cabdriver. i have been driving for 26 years. i want to say that this whole thing is an industry of exploitation, mainly on the shoulders of the non-owner cabdriver. all of us are being exploited. i am on the list. no fair-minded panel of people would ever, if they could see this and this was news, allow this system for 85%. these people have to pay the benefits of the 15% of medallion

holders. either we are employees or we are not. we would jump for joy if we had half the benefits that they knew the driver has. -- back 8 munich driver has -- that a muni driver has. >> i took a day off like so many people and sacrificed pay to get my word in. john heim, san francisco cab driver. i got statistics from a survey done on 22,000 riders in new york on taxi tv's. that is related to the 5% credit card fee. that is required of cab companies. the survey is saying that over 30% of those writers in new york city said that was the most annoying and worst experience of taking a taxi cab, second only to the high price of taking a cab.

the other thing i have here is the city justification on charging as 5% to subsidize the cost on the equipment installations and the maintenance. this is saying we are only getting about 18% on average from tip prompters. taxi tv are the ones making the money. >> gas prices are killing us. we are paying $10, $15 a ship, a lot of money. we are being hit by very high credit card fees. everybody can go on the market -- bank of america, so many companies. you pay 2.5%. why is it 5% for us? who is making the profit? i have kids. we want to put our kids in good schools. we want to put we are family pe.

why are you not on our side? beyond the side of the family people that are working hard and fighting for their families. [applause] >> if i could read a few names. [reading names] >> it is the same survey that john talked about. it will bounce right back on to

me about the millions of dollars being given to the bank of omaha. i saw the hundreds of cabs and circling. hundreds of drivers downstairs hall lined up and waiting to speak. you need to talk to john martin. ask him how it felt to have this airport shut down for five days in september of 2002. i have no doubt that these drivers have the power. it is the same reason. unilateral decisions coming from the top and not listening to people that do the work. talk to him. [applause] director nolan: good afternoon. >> i'm a yellow driver. i want to just say that i think

there are alternatives to the 5% credit-card charges. all of those drivers -- to buy some gas from the company and get the best price you can. i don't think they are behind this or in collusion with the company. we're lucky to have someone of her caliber working for us. she may have just been surprised by the 5%.

[applause] >> we have everything we have, [unintelligible] thank you. >> good afternoon, sir. and i have been driving over 20 years. it would give good service to our community.

everybody has three kids, for kids. we're helping our community. and think he should support it. and thank you. >> [reading names]

>> and amos solomon and i am a cabdriver. where you save the meeting will be on may 11. [unintelligible] during the license they give us for cabdrivers, we don't have to fill out the column. it is not their business to know how much we are making. from now, when it is not federal law or state law. when it doesn't come from the supervisors or the mayor. the wrong amount of how much we

are making proposed and not from us. there is a correct way of getting this information. to start with, the figure you get which is what is on the middle of how much it costs will not be correct. cab driving being a very stressful job is so common for the drivers. you get people that don't want to pay. director nolan: next speaker, please.

>> let me say with a great deal of pride that accompanied the imf of believed used to be the only company that is not passing on these costs to its drivers. if we can do it, other companies can do it. yellow has been doing it even since the credit card uses have slowed. what you see here is a tremendous outpouring of frustration, obviously, about credit-card an electronic monitoring. it is just part of a pattern in which the risks, the responsibilities, the cost of the burdens are constantly being pushed on the people back at least bear them at least afford them. that is what is going on here. it has to stop. get rid of the credit card charges or you are hearing what is going to count.

>> my name is christopher. i hope you appreciate the and if you're hearing is that people who routinely disagree with one another. i like to speak about the advisory council. it is the equivalent of the smoke-filled conspiratorial room. i had to point out that it was voting on motions before allowing public comments. the upcoming approval of the sales program will reflect a vote by force of filibuster. the council is political lopsided and there are not represented of the citizenry. if i said nothing else, i would

like to say to other things. i accuse you of earning her the amnesty of certain fractures of the industry in order to get her fired. secondly, i accuse all representatives of a lack of fraternal solidarity with the cab drivers. >> good afternoon. 26 years driving. as you can hear, there is a pervasive malaise in the industry. it is complicated and the verse. his is very deep, why don't we have our own division? why do we have to demonstrate, strike, lose time and money in the discussion to be heard. we should have our own division.

we deserve as much respect and concern as the other drivers. [applause] >> [reading names] >> i have been a cab driver for 21 years. yes, we are treated as employees. we have a compromise with the waiting lists. some money could go to the city. what did we get? it charges the credit card that makes a lot of money for the banks and robs us of our honest work.

we will be bombarded. we have been -- [unintelligible] it is quite a sizable sum of money for a cabdriver. to work, we transport, and we care for the people of san francisco. director nolan: we have several lines of what we get to them? -- lined up, why don't we get through them? >> first of all, i wanted to mention the issue of 5% reduction from the credit card we're charging.

there is a lot of resentment among the others about this issue. it is cause an undue this comfort in our writers, and this is going to increase in the not going to go way unless it is taken away. secondly, there were yellow cabs church in extra as stipulated by the city of san francisco. we came here to defend the company because the company told us that we're charging you a little bit extra because we're providing services in the form of credit card machines. [chime] director nolan: thank you, sir.

her next speaker, please. >> thank you for listening to us. as to what we were informed, there were teased without any cost to anybody. and it would cover all of the cost of credit card transactions by the ad revenue. and later on, it comes on our shoulders. they are paid less than anybody else. you're still taking up for these people. we have to figure out. there'll be a lot of things going to be mentioned. people will be coming up to protest. it is a lot of what we call insecurity on the web page web site.

it is easy to get somebody's information. microsoft and brag that it was so secure. but it was packed within two minutes. so we have to secure our system. >> because we have some of the cards and i don't know who is here are not here, we'll have people from the south side court come to this room and sit down so we can keep the speaker cards and speakers here. >> good afternoon. i have a yellow cab driver. i have to concerns. first, the credit-card 5%, in my

second concern is about elector videos. if the mta is there, they can do it. >> i am here for the 5%. i am here for the electronic waybill. of you can do something about it. thank you for your time. >> have a yellow cab driver. i wanted to say that all texas

drivers are independent contractors. that means it is like any other grocery stores, convenience store. we are no different. if you do not require other stores to have electronic waybills, why should we be forced to have any kind of the electronic devices to collect all the data? if you can get credit card processing for a 1.5 or 2%, why should we pay 5%? i drove for almost 16 years. the first thing, of 5% a charge

for credit cards is not acceptable. it will be 1.5 or 1.57. another comment is about security. i heard about sunday attacked by the hackers. who will provide this protection for cabdrivers? you have to give this information for our family. >> i spoke to you a month ago. nothing has changed and i am back. i like to read a quote here. i am told that this came from chris, she is referring to the perception of 7 cisco cabdriver's that they're rude, untrained, and how to operate

their own payment processing equipment. they have refused any fare that is not good enough for them or paid in cash. and unwilling to wash or change out of their pajamas before going to work. and taxi drivers refuse to respond to radio calls because they're on their way to or from the airport or unwilling to leave downtown. if you want the public to what is the events as the taxi, look at the mirror. you have to look for a part of the solution to the problem. that may be so, but i have worked in private businesses my entire life. [chime] the way you and improve the quality of employees and the workmanship is to increase pay and working conditions. neither of which this panel is doing. >> good afternoon.

and then if you don't help us, next time i'll ask credit-card customers to bring me eggs and oranges. >> in this country, everybody has the rights. we are driving cabs, perhaps altogether. could you list for us what rights we have? we only have the right to family and kids. i beg of you to not raise the price. >> if there are people in room 408 or in the southport