spending money to develop his own app. we will put one out in the next couple of weeks which will echo a lot of features. we will expand our dispatch service, to have some of those features that will allow the drivers to connect with their passengers by phone on the way. we are spending money and time to expand. the biggest problem i have, that i want to address, with what is on the agenda today besides being against it is the way he came here before you today. when something as important as the proposed legislation is before the board of supervisors, is relegated to the committee. the supervisors looked it over, and presented back to the board. we had a lot of time to discuss this.

even though there has been some talk about an app developed as far as specifics, with excerpts, and the actual specifics of what was all about were put up friday afternoon which most people -- a lot of stuff is threatening for our companies, very litigious. i would encourage you for more discussion rather than to look at it for a day.

>> i am a native of the planet earth i believe. i'm here to address you on page 3, taxi companies do not have a direct financial incentive to ensure the taxicabs are efficiently utilized. this is not only a false statement, it is inflammatory. yellow cab in 1981, we initiated computer aided dispatch. in 1997 we were the first company in the united states to offer passengers the facility to process credit cards for payment of fare. we have spent over the years millions of dollars for equipment, for programming, to make a statement like this is an excuse to tell is that we need to do more,

the city has to interfere with our brand name, take our business, i find is resentful because yellow cab was started by cabdrivers for the benefit of cabdrivers and the purpose is to make sure passengers are well served. we have spent a great deal of effort encouraging drivers to respond to the service calls. in fact we paid them at one time; we gave drivers 500 dollars apiece to take the most calls. the same driver always won the $500. they still drive even if we don't pay them. this is something that needs to be carefully considered as to how you will implement this thing and for what reason. thank you. (applause)

>> they're making barely 1500 dollars. you need to understand that with you being in our shoes, i would like to see how you would react to the public's frustration. and sfmta since they have been given all the power, they came up with the scam, the medallions. you guys have given them the power. (applause) >> (calling names)

>> it seems like the privacy issue has upset so many people. is it worth it? when the recently updated the system i pulled up to a call at whole foods, the police officer is there. are you mcguire? he was trying this new app in my cell phone, he was getting a cab for a lady. my name comes up and it's kind of weird, people don't even know my name. i was going through a lot of papers, this one back to 2000 when i was a commissioner, august 2000. the proposal from a firm in berkeley, and website taxi dispatch, virtually identical to what flywheel does. even had extra features,

downloaded all the activities that the cab does; it even had four different alarms, this was august 27th, 2000. how did we get into this position where we did not have this? i'm standard the cab companies have invested a lot of monies but we have to have this now. a particular app. i have a concern. i heard the contract has already been awarded to some unknown firm without a real track record. that is kind of -- that is disturbing. in the goals that you have i ask did you remove the word " ridesharing",

we don't want to give this illegitimate companies any loopholes. >> -- electra cab. i don't necessarily disagree with the application, it is a good idea even though i believe maybe unnecessary information to collect. [indiscernible] at the end of the day, maybe it's going to be a better service in the end but the cab companies don't have control of the medallions, in accepting radio orders voluntarily will not be the effect.

maybe okay. but we won't get people picked up. unless illegal operations accept credit cards, and they guarantee people to be picked up. maybe we should look in the direction and perhaps maybe consider other ideas that i submitted to you, probably a few times in the past six months, and some other cab companies also. interesting to have certain relationships between cabdrivers to make them perhaps employees; maybe it is a solution to guarantee people to be picked up. (applause) (calling names) >> i think the issue is only

how to serve the people of san francisco. do you want people to be served? you want to see how much the driver got in his pocket? and how much he gave to the company, and how much he pumped the gas? how much he gives to the doorman or to the dispatcher? what is the issue? how we can serve the people of san francisco; we need a central dispatch system. central dispatch system that will go to every cab whoever is near or close will pick up the ride. we don't need any electronic -- we don't need the yellow, the photo, [indiscernible] one invested 2 milon, the other 3 million,

that's why they have invested into that one. when you have a centralized dispatch system, an app, you should take the credit card information, and you can charge them, if the person is not there you should reward the driver who went there. you have a gps system in the cab companies and all the cabs. last week i picked up a ride, i went to serve that order, on grenwhich and -- the company was there, he said wait here. i said okay, what for? i called uber. uber shows up. what is my fare? uber will go home. and i will take over. thank you very much.

>> (calling names) >> good afternoon board of directors. we need an app, a universal app for all the cabs on the same app. some of them have flywheel; some taxi magic; some uber, whatever there is something they are doing. when the mca to come up; existing hardware is already in in half the cabs, the software mounted. i have a phone in my cab with flywheel; it works great. if i get to matters and no one is there, my cell phone is programmed into the app, rings with the customer on the other end, you're on 4th avenue, not 4th street. whatever.

it works great. even when it doesn't. we need this technology because right now flywheel isn't 700 cabs on that app, i asked people, how long did you wait for this ride, saturday night? 9-10 minutes. it can imagine with 1700 we are going to solve a big demand issue assuming you want to solve the demand issue; you don't want to just throw medallions of the problem. this is a holistic approach, a way to solve the demand issue. we needed to be done right. we need a app that works right. we can do it. it's about time. thank you.

(applause) (calling names) the last person who turned in a speaker card. >> i support having an electronic taxi access system, where all the cabs are on one app. it's time for the companies to stop preventing this because they want the particular app or dispatch service. i don't know. i work for yellow. i don't think you have a good dispatch system. all the dispatch systems could be improved but i really think that we need something to compete with all these other apps, and we need to get rid of all of these apps facilitating illegal cabs. i'm not sure why you can't do that. i agree with mary's point. if you will collect this information

when a passenger calls they should not have our names, they should have our badge numbers. we are dealing with the public. with a cover everybody not just people who have their credit card in there, and when our id cards had our name people protested because if you have a name like smith big deal if you have a name like korngold, they could hassle you outside of the job. people's complaints are not always valid. i think our nation not be accessible to the general public like that. i have a concern about the -- accessibility. i don't think it's necessary.

we should not have to pay for these advertising terminals in the backseat. they should not have sound coming out of the driver's nuts. >> i declare the public hearing open. members of the board what is your pleasure? >> i would move the amendment. before we discuss. >> chairman nolan: any discussion on that? all those in favor? >> i have questions for staff. one of the comments we heard was concerned about access, not everybody has smart phones yet you had a taxi system open to everybody who can use it. as i understand it the system that we are making