use financing assistance based out of houston lender and i participated in this program and got as far as being approved and the only thing to do was pick out which car that i wanted and i have to say that the idea of owning your own car and working when you wanted had a lot of appeal after years of being a cab driver. but i had to stop myself and check the insurance before i pulled the trigger before i found that the personal insurance company would not cover a uber lift or a side car or anything like that. so i have the choice of committing felony insurance fraud because the process went such that they were going to register the car as a personal vehicle and i would then have to get personal insurance

without disclosing. >> if you could summarize that, because i think that is really important, continue. >> my recommendation to the board of supervisors first of all when i see a hummer with a pink mustache that is not green fleet, there is no disclaimers that say, if they say that all you need is personal insurance and that is not true, the department of insurance issued the statement and there needs to be a required disclaimer on the web sites. >> thank you. >> next speaker? >> good afternoon, my name is david smith and i am a san francisco cab driver, and the cpuc is also the same licensing organization, state, organization, and that issues the tct, which is a complete joke. and it is a phoney taxi license

and never been able to control it and it has been ramped for only 20 years and now they created the tnc and how thiser going to control it, i don't know. >> it is a mess. but you have all of these running the fleets and charging the gates and leasing cars out like a taxi cab, but it is illegal with the tcerebral palsy to charge a gate. and you have the lincoln next to the park and basically the tnc parking lot hub, we don't know if those are tnc commercial vehicles are taking up all of that parking? they are the taxi hub. >> thank you so much.

next speaker? >> my name is tony from flywheel and as was mentioned in this hearing, it is deployed in over 1400 cars in san francisco and it has always been our vision to modernize and approve the service of existing regulated safe taxis in the city and thes working we are proud to be working with all of the best fleets in the city in the month of january, the service time is just over four minutes and ten seconds. you may have seen recently there was a comparison on the flywheel and we beat them by two or three times and so our vision is working and our rider participation is growing over day and the numbers will can't to improve as the fleets participate. thank you. >> good afternoon, supervisors, this is in the public interest,

my name is david snyder for informational purposes only, i am a co-founder of united taxi cab workers but also been a jack of a number of trades photographer, lawyer and newspaper reporter and all of that kind of stuff. but this as another vehicle for hire and ride shares, something strange, ride shares, ride shares you start charging, i think that is a classic definition when you charge isn't that the classic definition of motor vehicle for hire? the average taxi driver will work or drive about 36,000 a year. carry between 6 and 9,000 passengers. that is real heavy lifting that

is not pink fluff. >> thank you so much mr. snyder. >> thank you, my name is walter blake derby and i started driving the taxi in 1979 and it is changed and i am almost ready to retire and i am grateful about everything because i really like it and i have to write a book about it because basically, the 200 million, what would you do with it, put the ads on anything, and i got it on my facebook for two years, the tnc, you can do it. you can shut them down. they are running around the cannabis all of the time and you can shut these people down and you have to shut them down and take it back to the full board and tell them to shut them down now. >> that is my only message. shut them down now, it is not safe, more people get hurt and it is wrong. i love you guys. i am going to retire, but games people play, it is a classic thing they did. if you can't win the game start a new game.

and that is what they are trying to do saying that pier to pier, this and that, goit pier to pier tamales and i make them on the other side of the port-a-potty but you can trust me because it is an app. >> any way, supervisors my name is ben and i am a taxi driver here for ten years and i want to thank eric mar for having this hearing because it is very important you know, i am, this harowitz and google venture and all of these start ups and i am glad that it did not get to everybody in government and that you guys are here for the public's interest and here to listen. because we have uninsured vehicles on the road and people dying and that is criteria for

a seize and desist order and any of these tnc drivers that do not have full insurance, let's get them off the road right now. >> i am going to call a few more names. >> austin, peterson, mc mars, bill manci, folkerson, phd and chris, and peter witz and richard malgu. >> i have been a driver for two years. i just, yeah, i don't have medallion i am just driving, i drive for him i have uber and side car and lift, and all of the other s in the cities i have it in my phone and my own car. i love to drive for dosoto and

the taxi cabs and i don't feel like it is fair the way that we work, people taking our business, and they told you that we lost 15 dollars, and we lost more than that. way more than that. my friends, he is lucky that $35 home, and $35 for san francisco, you cannot pay your rent. your situation is really bad we need you guys to help us. >> actually sir, previously a woman said that she is down 30 to 50 percent, how much? >> 30 to 50 percent, i am sorry, i have to say, it is more than that. >> okay. >> it is more than 50 percent and one more thing, please. >> as drivers we have no right in the city we don't get any benefits if we need to use the rest room, i am sorry, you have to work and get the tickets and go and use the rest room. >> thank you.

>> >> good morning supervisors thank you. my name is andrew green and i am a taxi driver here in san francisco and i would like to thank miss diashi for being prepared, the california public utilities commission sent a representative who stated that we can't make decisions on the fly, yet her inbility to state the foundation on which the cpuc's decision to authorize the tnc businesses was made may be evidence that the california public utilities commission did indeed, make a decision on the fly. a decision that had a devastating effect on the lives of san francisco taxi drivers in which it gives you good reason to implement an immediate order to the tnc businesses to seize and desist and that means, immediately, tell them to stop. right now. because the cpuc did not make a decision based on clear and

thorough, thoughts. and thank you. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> i am going to call a few more names and i am getting to the bottom of the list, richard magoo and jacob davis and michael madox who i know came up earlier and mary mcchoir and paul good fader and sharm a and jeffrey rosne and bary corn gold. >> the taxi cab is in the big cities and moved to restore that and it has been kind and for the last few months 4,000 cab drivers with angry face. and angry find, this is not a joke. so, if you have to restore that and i have a slogan since 1998, that you can have 20 different color schemes but it is going

to be just under one umbrella. and the taxi cabs. and so the taxi cabs that we have issued are more, issue for the gay marriage before the proposition 13 because they thought that it was the right thing to do and so taxing those other people is 25 percent each fare they pick up from tomorrow. >> thank you very much, sir. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> my name is constantine. >> did i call your name? >> i asked you to repeat, but... >> thank you, so i did. >> no problem. >> about insuring a lot of people told already that there was a cap between the revolution stops and uber, insurance starts and so there is no insurance and those cars

driving around, and as we know are killing people and so we don't want to pay for it they should pay for it. that is first, second just one thing that i want to let you know, (inaudible) people is here and there are some medallions in the company that are not taken and the drivers not coming so when the heavy rain comes, those uberlift and side car people don't come to work, they don't like the rain they are afraid. the only people who work us. >> these are the taxi cabs

fees, downloaded from the sfmta website. we paid thousands and thousands and thousands of dollars in fees, we are struggling, we are dying out here. and the cab business is dying out here. and if new york and new orleans and all of these other cities can shut them down, why can't we? tmc is just another name for taxi and they do exactly what we do we pick them up and we charge them and we drop them off. please don't get it confused we are not blind, you are not blind, and tnc drivers do not have this. this is what a taxi driver has to have on top of everything else, experience and skills. don't get it confused. the industry is dying, and it is gapsing for its last breath and be regulating an unregulated business, if you regulate us, regulate them

exactly the same, no difference. thank you. >> thank you supervisor, mar for having this meeting, we appreciate it very much. >> i am a medallion holder in san francisco and i have been driving a cab for 24 years. and i am going tell you something now that the taxi industry that the companies will go out of business within a year if you don't stop these people. they are driving around with no... and i seen them living before me with no expenses whatsoever and we have huge expenses. and i am making less than half the money i used to make and now there are 4,000 uber type of cars on the streets and only 2 though taxis so look at the difference, they are making the money and we are not. taxi drivers are quitting in droves to drive for uber, and

other companies. when our industry has to survive and it is not going to survive the way that things are going it has gotten worse and worse and the city has turned a blind eye to all of the laws and regulations. >> thank you. >> >> they claim that they need the pricing to get on friday night and i don't think that is the reason. >> under the normal, rules of business, there would be a point where there is no longer any cabs on the street and you got the business down 50 percent and so, it does not make shens that uber and lift are still putting vehicles on, but the reason that they are putting them on is of course, to maximize the profit and they can maximize the profits only by the surge pricing and it

goes with the entire package, and of putting more and more cabs on the street, and they can afford to pay these people, three times and nine times and six times more. than they would order thaterly get. the number one thing that you have to do is limit the number of vehicles that are allowed to the street, and go from there, thank you very much. >> thank you, sir. >> next speaker? >> hello supervisors my name is jim knight and i am a driver for dosoto cab and so when you get in one of these vehicles, a tnc, there is two drivers, really and the physical driver behind the wheel and the driver that you don't see which is the company culture. the culture is very important. for instance if you get on a golden gate transit bus and i am, impressed of how

professionals they are,. they are advertising themselves as a party on wheels for 20 somethings and they have costume and musical instruments, and you know, the drivers rated on their ability to chat up the customers, all of this stuff, kind of mitigates against the safety in my opinion, thank you. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> frank fahe, taxi man. >> for shame, invest tore ors in this criminal enterprise and if they were not for you they would not exist, i will talk about the billionaires that invest in them, they don't need to charge, they are free because they are put out there by you. to gather data. so ron con ray, and larry page, and you are traders to your country and your city. >> thank you sir. >> next speaker.

>> definitely agree with that. >> my name is trevor johnson and i am the technical director for the san francisco cab driver association and we are the ones collecting the license plate data on the tnc vehicles but i would like to let you guys know that as a dispatcher i can say that with the solid authority of the 30 odd accessible vehicles in the fleet only about 4 to 6 are going on per shift. that is horrendous, that is, very shameful. we have collected over 4,000 plates, over the last six months, and major insurance companies are actually accessing our data to research insurance fraud. start investigating and prosecuting it. and some of the tnc drivers like the guy earlier was saying that you know, we are seeing these guys with multiple phones on the window, we are talking four phones on the window, isn't textsing and driving

illegal? do we really need thousands of largely unmarked questionablely insured vehicles on our streets with the drivers focused on their phones and not the road in front of them. >> thank you for the data gathering as well. >> no problem, i have 2,000 pictures as well. >> great. >> next speaker? >> hello. my name is jacob davis and i guess that i am just a citizen, but i have a deeply motional investment and my friends are cab drivers and you guys pick me up and you are good people and i am a certified nursing assistant from orange county and this is identity to the problem that we had there with a lack of regulation and we had registries and these different, and these different, private companies, that were not licensed bonded or insured sending out people who were not certified to take care of the elderly in their home, and in a company where i am licensed and bonded and insured so if i mess up and get hurt, they are not lieible and i am not lieible

the company has it covered, it is so just identical to having these and there is no oversight, you know, there needs to be some type of regulation, of a board and we need an american board of home care in orange county, but there needs to be an oversight or regulation, because right now, they got run of the streets. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> greetings, supervisors my name is christopher and thanks for holding this meeting and thanks for keeping things real. this problem arose due to the company's delay in moderizing dispatch, the service gap is filled in an ex-sped ent way, they need the incentive of effective dispatch and there are two keys to this and deployment of the global positioning and the pass orders on and this, new thing and recent business of not passing

orders on is like, football, or basketball, without passing the ball and it is like only allowing baseball with those holes in one or golf with, and it is golf with holds in one and baseball with home runs only, $15 per shift, no i have not done my taxes yet, but i can tell you that in 2012,-weekered 37 days more and i made $37,000 less, and i never made it into the middle class if it exists. >> thank you. >> next speaker. >> good morning, taxi driver, every point has been made and i want to thank, specifically the director for a complete report, and now, i have two issues, one it has not been addressed, yes, crimes have been committed and never spoken about, i had a lady who came into my cab and told me that she had been raped in one of those unmarked black cars and i could not make her

go to the police she was too scared and did not want to talk about it. and two young men picked up at a gay bar and taken to a different location where they were beaten, and robbed and they called it a hate crime. so that is just one issue more, of the public safety than what people understand. also, multiple customers told me that they lose items and never find them there is no lost and found and that is another issue. and the other point that i want to make is okay. technology and progresses, we cannot reinvent the wheel but we can improve the wheel, if we can improve a whole industry, give it to us, sell it to us. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> thank you. >> hi, my name is beth powder and i am a driver and i have a program to make about the ramp cabs and during one of my shifts i knew that there was only one ramp cab in service

and there was an hour in which we had over eight orders waiting there is no way that one ramp cab can pick up eight people in one hour. we are short drivers and we need to take care of our customers. >> my name is au tin peterson and taxi driver 20 years and my income has gone way down and this is the cpuc and is this the same organization that is responsible for the gas line in san bruno in and i think that they have too much on their plate and so that i can them out of the picture. >> thank you. >> next speaker? >> hello my name is rich magoo and i am a driver for yellow cab and i don't understand the political process in this city. for three years now, this has

been going on. and these people have just started being basically gypsy cabs and they have just allowed to roam and do whatever they are doing and now we are talking about providing choice for the consumer, and we are talking about whether or how they should be regulated, the process, there was a procedure, there is a, there is a regime in the city for the issuing of new cabs and that has completely been bypassed >> thank you, sir. >> next speaker? >> good afternoon, chris, ceo of city wide taxi in san francisco, and i have grown up in and around the taxi cab industry for over 30 years and make no mistake, these companies are providing on demand, for hire transportation just like taxi cabs do, and they are using a new technology to facility it for the customer

and the service but that does not change the business that they are in. by calling themselves, a new type of transportation, and ignoring the rules of effectively deregulated the taxi cab market and when the companies like these are not held accountable by the regulations their motivation is going to be at odds with public safety and we are not asking for protection, we are asking for a level playing field and i will take the driving skills and the knowledge of the city streets against any of these drivers any day in the level playing field, thank you. >> thank you. >> if there is anyone else that would like to speak that has not been called you can come forward but we are trying to wrap this hearing up, sir? >> my name is michael maddox but we are talking about the safety of san francisco and i like san francisco to adopt certain standards that is already in place, one being i am sorry, the vehicle code of california 260. and which states that a commercial vehicle is a motor

vehicle for hire. and those vehicles have to be commercially registered with the dmv as well as cover with commercial insurance. >> and that should be something that should be in the law within san francisco as well. the second thing that i would like to do is have san francisco permit each driver that wants to drive through these companies. to insure that we are making sure ha they have the commercial vehicle. they have the commercial and everything that is checked out each year or whatever, and or whatever sequence. and other than that that, they should not be operating as of right now because they are providing a commercial service and by the federal law, the government states that any vehicle that is by time, is a vehicle that is a taxi cab. >> thank you so much, mr. maddox. >> thank you. >> and i should let everyone know that we are join, or we have been joined by supervisor

john avalos and supervisor campos has been excused and supervisor kim is replacing him on this committee. >> next speaker? >> good afternoon, my name is paul goodfader and i was one of the first ramp drivers in san francisco in 1994 before i got certified i drove 4 and a half months young lady that was up here earlier, i understand exactly where she is coming from, i went 4 and a half months driving 6 days a week, eleven hours, sometimes 12 just picking up people that were not only just in wheelchairs, but they were disabled. the point being is, the disabled no matter who you are, everybody has a disability. there is no discrimination in this person right here. i take my job very seriously, and you should do the same, get

rid of those guys they are taking money out of my pocket, i lost 60 percent in the last ten years because of these guys. i won't stand for that, thank you. >> thank you. >> >> good afternoon, my name is ernistenand i strongly object to all of these pink mustaches and gypsy cabs around the city untamed and unregulated and they are destroying the wonderful taxi industry, my cousins were taxi drivers in new york and they had no education, but they could make a good living, when they came to this country by driving a cab. and working in the garment center in the off seasons. and so, their medallions cost them thousands of dollars and that is eroded and no one will buy them with all of this going on, and so shut them down and be tough and discipline. >> thank you.

>> they have a business model based on it is dangerous but it is also based on deceit. and i would like to address this idea of casual labor, this used to be a labor town and here we have something that is replacing full time bread winners with part time workers. that are supplementing their income from another source. and the issue of worker's comp, when they are injured, who pays? who is going to pay for all of this? >> the public is going to pay. and another, and an important question is, do these companies exist solely for the purpose of the ipo? if they follow the pattern of these otherwise, i think so. and do you really want to lose an industry, you see how great all of these people are and it

is a great industry, do you want to lose that. is this just the idea or these companies will shut down and they are not sustainable. >> thank you so much. >> thank you. >> we have another card, ray sloan, please come forward, next speaker? >> jeffrey rosen, vice president of san francisco cab driver association 20 year cab driver, these companies, are guied in a deceitful manner and they are operating in the same manner, and our group is sphere headed the collection of data over 4,000 license plates and, that is just a sample, and we don't know how many are out there but there are thousands and thousands, approximately 1900 cabs only. and and we are talking about the liability insurance background checks and vehicle inspection and