you please tell of the stairs now? and if there are people in this room, could you line up over to the side? thank you. >> good afternoon. >> give courtesy to the speaker, please. >> will also want to look at this. i want to inform you, sir. i speak so many languages. but never in any country, i look had the government.

it is totally a human. i am opposing this in your thinking. >> i drive a yellow cab for 10 years. before became a citizen, i never had access to good education. or what they called a good job. that is my job. it is my life. my wife and my two daughters. if you want to interfere with our jobs and our lives, please

do with in a positive way. give us health insurance. give us a pension. please stop making our lives more miserable. stop the 5%. look at the gas prices. how can we survive? >> these were given to us at outside. i would like you to get in touch with in this. [chime] director nolan: thank you, sir. thank you very much. thank you. next speaker, please. >> i am not a cab driver, but i am an independent business owner. i process credit-card on a daily

basis and i have contracts with three credit card processing companies. the average interest rate is to 25%. of the occasion i get american per -- american express, the highest is 3.25. i have a small account, and by one person. if i had a larger clientele, there are thousands of cabdrivers, the rates would be even lower. i like to know how high, as one person, i'm having to pay half that. who negotiated the price for their having to pay double? who is a master negotiator here? they are paying double what it is the seller has to pay. >> my name is bill and i have been an independent contractor for 31 years.

at the end of today, i like to ask you to think of 110. when you leave here, and i am sure you are public employees, union people, involved in the negotiations and contract. if you're asked to go back to your people to set an agreement, the the agreement you wish us to take, you would not be asked records of the group again. >> i got to my car a couple of weekends ago when i found it was full of all the stuff. i have a computer and a new meter that goes over the dashboard. that felt like i was in the coffin. the price of gas is going out. they're not getting ahead of the price of gas.

i feel is a hazard. i can't see people crossing the street with all the equipment being dumped on us. if there is an accident, i don't know what will happen to the back seat. they don't have air bags. we can see -- i like being watched or listened to all the time. because i work late at night, i give the passenger time to get inside. a thing that is an invidious that we're going to lose with the way bills. nobody is complaining about filling out waybills. as far as the medallion sales program, it is a scam. it is ripping off our colleagues on the list.

the most vulnerable people in the business, who have dedicated their lives to driving a cab and they can't get home medallions because they are being sold out from under them. >> good afternoon. , i understand it all really know our industry. we are very low income people. ladies gentlemen, i invite you to come and drive a cab. you will understand the problems. they do so much. >> i drive a yellow cab. i support everything that my

colleagues said before, so i don't want to waste your time. but instead of robbing us more and more, you guys take care of the illegal drivers stealing every fare from us, and those things. and if you believe our customers like electronic waybill, you are mistaken. i asked to many customers if elected the tract, it will be the name and the road. if there is anything you say now, the 5% will go to our customers. sooner or later, they will like it, too. >> i am elizabeth bradley.

this is really pushing me away from the business. i was hoping to get my medallion. i had a guy pull a knife on me about that big. i got rid of him and i didn't get hurt, but reminds me, are you going to find people to drive that put up with that kind of stuff? my rent is $1,050 a month. my husband is gone. you take that 5% away from me, and where will i live? i am paying 750 to drive the rich people around. do you think that is right? thank you.

>> i have been driving since 9 -- 1993. reinforced to take the credit cards and pay the 5% fee, the driver does is headed me this picture. they're selling cards cash only. they will not take credit cards to purchase these parking cards. i want to make an issue about that. if we're going to take electronic waybills, computers always break down. sometimes the meter doesn't even work. a credit card machine barely lets me log on half of the time the area customers are complaining and i turned it into the office. now if we have electronic waybills, i see that as we will

be able to charge customers if it doesn't work. it is another scam to start charging us more and more fees because somebody has to operate these electronic waybills. >> hello. surprisingly, i think most of the kappa honors -- most of the cab company of hertz are texas driver's and they're acting like, very special people sitting home and getting more money from the drivers. they should start charging for that. they're offering the service to

the customers. it costs them at least $400 a month. at least $5,000 a year. why should the taxi drivers pay for all of this? it should be paid by the cab companies, but the driver is working very hard. >> what ever you want to say about that, just above the executive director's report. electron of waybills could be useful to improve efficiency. of the question i and many other drivers have, what else will they be used for? if their purpose is also the track our meters, you're opening

a very different can of worms because there many reasons why the meter does not accurately reflect the and come. if you have accepted a fair over the radio, you forget to turn it off after less fair. you may give a fair way, even. we're very concerned that your purpose here is to make available these waybills to the irs to they can squeeze cabdrivers to pay a federal that caused by rich criminal banks. every day we see the poor being squeezed to pay the debts of the rich. we just gave twitter six years of free rent. >> i am sorry, i am her diabetic

and i am shaking a little bit. at this point, i of this year to said that we are condemning an electronic waybills and the attack on cabdrivers. this should not be passed this type of the bill. it is a violation of national riots. in the city should not pass this type of nonsense. and also, nobody is talking about how much time between now and the credit-card passengers. it takes five minutes from the time of charging the gm credit card. a credit card should be removed from the business.

>> i want to address one thing. i've been driving since 1994. i am not sure. some time, yellow started charging 5% or 10% for the credit cards. one of the drivers took them to courts and the court put a ban on the credit card. and now, the president of yellow cab told me that sf mta lifted the ban of the credit card. how can they do that without consulting the drivers? >> i am a yellow cab driver.

some situations should have happened in this city administered by the republican. it is not happening. it is happening under a democratic administration. they will protect the unprotected when working class and the middle class. the 5% credit-card charges, it has nothing to do with san francisco. how would this happen? the yellow cab co.? what they give a free and electronics? it is questionable.

>> i work for the yellow cab. i will mention two things. the first is that most of us will have them out. every night, we're going without food or money. they're not paying the costs for the charges to us. the second tinhorn is, [unintelligible] this will cost five% at least. >> i am here to point out and

does the diversity of the cab drivers here. asserted smiling at 3:00 in the morning where the first report of this was going to be blowing up. it was reported everywhere. when you see this many drivers of different nationalities, different races, different countries showing up before you, you know it is serious. to understand that due process was not given to these drivers horn of coordination with them, something is wrong. this credit card issue, he said not to charge the driver's the fees. you should look at that. and it should be molded into how the industry works. last but not least, they schedule the town hall meetings. i'm glad they changed the schedule, but who really care?

>> i have been driving 28 years with the taxi have sent francisco. i would like to mention about the level of drivers that they freely parked everywhere. yellowstone, wide zone, red zone. beside the other day said not to park. why do they not give them tickets? they give us the ticket because they had to drop somebody by the by the zone or the bus zone that is taking maybe 10 seconds. it will force them not to park illegally or to get the ticket.

thank you very much. gosh i work for yellow cab company. it was not on the schedule. i came to join today as a program. as i was joining the line circling around city hall, i was not driving into the side a taxi. i was driving a personal car. investors just like everybody else. he asked me to pull over. a s them what i have done. he said to just pull over. the guard around the circle?

he said over. he forcefully pulled me over and started cutting my hands against my car at the same to give me your driver's license. i said i was just joining the procession. [chime] director nolan: thank you, sir. we appreciate your testimony. >> there are many things to say. time is very short, i will say it very quickly. the 5% units, and customers had not discredit that. they will pay all the time.

if they want to pay for we want to pay, and it will still charge all the time. i dunno -- the other question is, there are 400 medallions wasn't like that. if the city is busy, what will we do in the short time? they shouldn't care about it. the third question is, the meters and the gates, that is what they're charging. they will do something. >> good afternoon.

one thing about electronic waybill is that if the store and formation, it is our privacy in our rights. i believe they don't want any of these and any private company's database. we don't need tracking devices in our vehicles. [applause] bernanke. -- good afternoon. >> i look at your faces and it seems like you guys don't care what is going on over here. if you guys get in my cab, i

will surge to 5%. we will pass the costs to you guys. the city might turn just a fee. why can the city charged the administration fees? we cannot charge our customers. >> i think you're going to need more than two town hall meetings. operating out here is of very good way to make policy. things have to be discussed over a long time to find some sort of solution. green cat doesn't have to pay. why does everyone else have to? why can't yellow also do it?

i would like to point out that yellow and the other cab companies are already illegally charging their drivers. they should not be able to charge other 5% of top of that. blessing the letter crowded was out of context. she was not saying it was her opinion of cabdrivers, it was the public perception of cabdrivers. i have never met anybody more concerned and more respectful of cabdrivers and she is. director nolan: phelps in the back? >> if there is anyone else i like to address the board, step forward at this time.

>> one minute or two? director nolan: one. >> to the old president, i thought this was a democracy. i thought it was a democratic process. i thought was a free market. i have to believe that for a long time. the texas commission merged and they were bad enough. but they could have been fixed. the used to say all the time, that is unacceptable. you are unacceptable. we don't need a town hall meeting to tell you that. it is a waste of time, energy, and money. now you guys personally, but the

only be a year or two. >> i am eric brooks and a grass- roots organizer in san francisco. i have also been an organizer of the country for various campaigns and i can tell you that what is happening to these drivers is just a microcosm of what is happening all over the country and all over the world. the rich are getting away like bits and every time something has to goup in price, the little guy has to pay. in wisconsin, ohio, michigan, this is happening all over the place. they have not been rising up in san francisco until today when cabdriver's shut down the civic center and their proline going to make good on their promise to

shut down cab service in the city if folks don't change things. there are any union members watching this program, learn from the cab drivers. this is like the great depression. you need to rise up and help the cabdrivers get benefits. the unions need to get in on this. [applause] >> i am with these invoices go cabdrivers' association. i have disagreements. but she has done more research and learned more about that any other regulator i have seen in the 23 years. with that said, the credit card charges should be passed on to the passengers. we will end up paying for these

backseat monitors that are advertising vehicles that we're paying for whoever is in selling these things. i just don't like the intrusive nature of this. under the guise of regulation, we're being treated like employees, we want to be tracked with electronic monitoring waybill systems. we have these cameras that recorded audio and video out. some managers are listening to our conversations in the video. you're leaving yourself open for a lawsuit. they are illegal. >> you have heard this over and over today. we are, in reality, employees. they could hire or fire us at

will. i don't know how you and the city and the states have allowed them to get away with this. the millions of dollars that you have lost from tax revenue that they should have been pay is amazing to me. don't get so focused on these little issues that you forget about the big thing that is really going on here. that these guys are making out, raking in cash. this is a cash business. they say those -- they say so themselves. director nolan: people in the other rooms know about all of this? >> they have got to the south court and we will make another announcement a there is anyone in any of the other meeting rooms that would like to address the board, pl