correct. and we have people that want to buy the medallions that we're selling? that's good news and keeps us in perspective and the final question i have -- we're hearing from people with whom we've worked for years me personally, many people with whom i've worked for years that this is the number 1 threat to the industry and could cause the industry to either increase or fade not only be sad to the to the people that work in the industry but a disservice to the city and i don't see anything in the plan or presentation where by we're going to look and try to figure out why our residents prefer tmc's over taxi cabs and i think there's reasonable answers people think there's

greater certainty or come faster or people think their cars are cleaner and so playing catch up is harder especially in the technology game but the reality is i don't know i know what people in the community tell me i know what i hear but i think we're to a level of sophistication and a level of service -- i just wonder if maybe we as an agency should be thinking of looking at that through a survey or outreach to make sure we understand why the tnc's are carving into the market so much and address that not to hurt the tnc's but to help the industry and therefore help our owners and drivers and that sort of thing so those are my questions which i realize border on advocacy a little bit but that's what i would like to

hear about i realize you i realize you and i are meeting and this is happening before the meeting and i understand you are just stepping into this and given that we're having a public discussion i wanted to air that. >> thank you. he said a lot of the questions i had but i have a few more. you mentioned you have eliminated 2.5 million in fees are they all cost recovery related or profit related to the agency. >> i'm glad i printed out my handy dandy little sheet here so for new drivers we eliminated the driver application fees and that was about 130 thousand, for the medallion holders we reduced the renewal fee and eliminated a metal plate fee so about 106 or 107 thousand. the color

scheme renewal was waived, and that was 120 thousand approximately reduction in the 8000 series use fees that has a total about 2.4 million and some of that has already happened and some is projected until the end of the term of those agreements and then the dispatch renewal fee has been waived and that was about 57 thousand $57,000 and we kind of spread the reduction over drivers medallion holders and dispatch services. >> so i think to your question the majority of those are cost recovery fees? often we determine what the full cost recovery fee would be and sometimes set the fees at a lower level but the fact is the agency budget was based on certain projections of all those fees whether they are

cost recovery or not and we're absorbing whatever losses that we have within our operating budget. >> i mean just because obviously one area of concern for taxis the fees and all they have to pay obviously tnc's don't and to credit cards a number one issue i've had personally and many people i know when they hail a taxi almost always the taxi driver says their credit card machine doesn't work this happened a month ago i had to go into my house find cash and it was very frustrating for me and why is it that taxis have credit card machines that don't work? i thought this was regulated and i've had friends at 2 in the morning in the marina ridiculous behavior especially late at night so if you can briefly address that.

>> that's certainly a big topic. [laughter] i think that's one of the reasons i've heard that customers take tnc's instead of taxis and i think the complaint about the credit card accept ance -- they have reduced but i think the perception has been trailing behind these us and the industry has to really work to get over that and to the extent they can get on that one ap and that will under cut that issue. >> for one thing, are there rules because some taxi drivers have square in their own personal name some use the machine in the back seat is there a rule around that? can they choose what payment methods they take? >> yes so they can use their squares or use the company provided equipment. they are

required to accept credit cards. >> i don't know -- are there fines for not doing so? >> you know i'd have to look to see what the fine schedule is for drivers that don't accept it but i can look into that and i know we have a fine for that. >> i know that continues to be a big challenge and maybe that's something we can setup some more time for you to to talk. did you have anything else. >> i had a comment i guess i think all the things director heinicke brought up the better service better understanding of the aps is key and the only reason i feel comfortable using taxis is because of fly wheel definitely been a big change and i know one of the things the tnc's every week send out to their drivers all the events happening around the city where people are going to be so they

actually know where they need to beef up some of their efforts and whenever i'm in a taxi i let them know there's something big going on and if we could provide that kind of service in this newsletter you are talking about for the industry i think i think it will be helpful as well as a variety of the other websites yeah i just wanted to reinforce some some of the things commissioner heinicke brought up the response rate and the fact that so many taxis are on the fly wheel aps specifically and also looking a little more -- i mean in general my only concern if we're going to make this more compatible we do have to to do the survey and the quality of service and perception of that in order to help the industry and the other thing we need to think from a fee standpoint you know, i know that we have a

budget and we can't you know foresake it but we have to figure out how do we make it so it's not so onerous to be a taxi car owner instead of getting a car financed through tnc and which is actually what tnc does. >> first welcome a board i hope this is as exciting for you as it is for us your first time here in this role. i really appreciated director heinickes and director director borden's comments i enjoyed their report appreciated it very much i think it hit on a lot of the concerns i've heard and experienced as well. some some of the things that i would really like to reemphasize reiterate the need for people

to understand that fly wheel exists. i was at a funding fund raising event the other day and when people were leaving one of my fellows was leaving running out the door my uber is coming and i said do you know about fly wheel and she said no i don't have any idea about fly wheel and she told me the story how she used to catch cabs and got tired of the wait time and now the drivers don't have the knowledge and streets and she's getting frustrated having to tell the drivers over and over again how to get to where they need to go and what i need to say is that the taxi industry plays a critical role to our well being as a community and it's critical that we find ways to support the taxi industry you know, for me,

it's the concerns i have about the the price gouging that happens whenever competition gets stiff what does that do ultimately when we have few cabs left on the street and people asking for 2 for $200 for a ride and i think it's incredible that we finally got an ap like fly wheel out but we'll have to do better to make people understand it's out there and it's a service to compete with the status quo now. i love the idea of a survey of sorts to make sure that the taxi industry itself knows and hears it from you know, from their clients what they need to improve upon i mean i can sit here all day and tell you every third taxi driver experience i've had is a horrible one and they will say

it's just your bad luck but i hear it regularly and i also hear you can't get a cab in the bay view i appreciate the fact you have addressed the sunset district out west but we still haven't really addressed i've heard personally from restaurant owners out there on the way there they will say they won't get a ride back it would be a dead head trip for them what have you and created a lack of trust with the businesses there that are now advocating for these other ride shares and i don't know how to address this other than to help we develop a strategy to build trust with the merchants and businesses in the south eastern neighborhoods and lastly i'd really like to do something

about the enforcement of these transit only lanes it's true these fees we're paying for these amenities and services needing to offer the cab stands and the lanes it's critical access to running an effective taxi industry but i'm seeing regularly people abusing the transit only lanes i know it's still a relatively new phenomenon a but we need to understand why they are there who can and can't use them and i think the whole community would gain all together. again to director heinicke's point i don't mean to be an advocate against any other service but you know, again, i really want to underscore the fact that we really do need to protect and keep our taxi industry alive i feel it's absolutely critical

and i'm not saying close out the other competitive markets but i'm saying there will be a need always for taxis and whether we can fill that need or not remains to be seen thank you. >> thank you. >> first i want to welcome you a board that was a very good presentation. anything that i say right now would just be a rehash of what my fellow directors have said. my main concern right now i know that it's not a level playing field that's going on out there and competition will always be there the question is in some cases competition should make you better you can't just keep the status quo the question i ask what are we doing as a taxi industry to improve the service so that we we troll the business back i'm not going to change anything in my behavior

or improve technology or not and so i i know the playing field is not level but what are we are we to win those customers back? that's what i'd like to find out about. right? if we're not willing to take credit cards or willing to use dispatch system that's available, then i can't help you in that then i can't just chase other people away that are willing to meet the needs of the customers, okay? i don't see him here now. we have asked for this in the past

for an update in transit lane enforcement. we we share everyone's frustration so we will absolutely request an update from sfpd on what they can do to help us on this we've been saying for a while we've had transit only lanes not clearly marked and we thought it wasn't fair but now it's pretty darn clear so i don't think -- i'm sure we'll hopefully hear from sfpd on this. >> you actually did make this request at the last board meeting and we'll be sure to get that information back and i think i'm meeting with the commander on friday and this is one of our topics on the agenda. there was a lot of voluntary compliance and now in

particular some of these un regulated for hire services using these lanes. >> you said the para transit numbers dropped what caused that? >> if the wheelchair pick ups went down -- >> we don't think they are using another service we actually think they are not being well served and those are the hardest trips to service and what we've seen is a lot of drivers shift over from the taxi industry to the tnc service and those are the hardest shifts to fill the ramp taxi shifts very hard to fill. >> okay great. let's do item 12 and then we will have public comment on both items. >> the item has been called

already. >> i'm going to go through this quickly. >> okay because of the economic downturn in the industry, sfmta allowed payment plans for medallion renewal fees and fiscal year 2015 allowed payment plans but required a signed agreement with full payment due by the end of the year going forward staff doesn't expect to enter into payment plans for outstanding fees and collect the medallion renewal fees from the medallion holders consistent with regulations. and lastly staff is requesting the board to amend the transportation code section 320 to temporarily reduce the use fees from 2 $2,000 to 1 $1,000 per month.

>> thank you. >> board members any clarifying comments on this? at this point we'll move onto public comment. >> members of the public will have 3 minutes a piece starting with richard -- followed by charles rathbone. >> good afternoon i own metro cab a very small company by design. i don't know if anyone wants to tell you how bad things are but i'm going to. in april i had 25 cabs and i know things were getting serious because we had 77 un filled shifts about a a hundred dollars a piece and some of my medallion holders sold their medallions including

myself, and by august we now have 20 cabs and i lost 250 shifts, 25 $25,000 that's just how bad it is. two drivers quit this week already. i don't know where i'm going to go i keep trying to get smaller and smaller to match the number of drivers i have and they are walking out the door faster than i can get smaller thank you. >> thank you. >> charles rathbone followed by tone le e. >> good afternoon again. i'm charles rathbone luxury cab company i really believe that as much as you may want to to you can't solve our problems. at the end of the day we have to to do that ourselves and a

couple of things we're doing at luxury is we've begun experimenting with variable work shifts. many of our drivers now are working shifts of very variable lengths certain times of the day during the week they tell us how long they want to work and time will tell how successful that is but we're trying to better accommodate the driver needs and also about to install more driver friendly -- drivers will find it a lot easier to use and introducing the payment module is not correct yet on our ap it will be an improvement free for the user and customers to use

at no additional charges for drivers that will be a plus. we also are doing the best we can to keep the ramp service running. the financial diss incentives are daunting but we're committed to that program and continue to do it as best we can. supervisor -- commissioner heinicke asked about the aps, yes, my only question is one enough? at luxury i'd like to see fly wheel and curb and halo and easy taxi and get taxi and about a dozen other viable aps that are out there integration with our dispatch system is an issue you don't want to have half a dozen distracting screens to find a cab there.

boy, a lot of stuff to talk about here. regarding the transit lanes good luck on the enforcement on that uber and lyft particularly uber will not comply uber will pay the fines and it will be a trivial expense for them and they will dare you to do something about it is what i predict. credit cards -- i suggest it's time to review the policy from top to bottom. . credit card fees ought to be baked into the gates. >> thank you. >> thank you. good afternoon. i feel so sorry for our taxi driver. she just get in her job only 2 months. to give

her a hard time. she's been doing job just 2 months. we're looking at big picture. why we live in this country fcc, faa you don't pass faa you can't fly you don't pass fcc you can't do radio call anything that's why we living in this country somebody using the technology getting involved in the public transportation. they have put the smoke in your eye transportation network you need the license to run in the city. why you are smoked by this because this money effect your eye eye to the state level? if the governor signed

this unreasonable bill he bill he is cookoo. >> he fixed the deficit because the economy rising not by him only. he can sign this bill but i have no time to go to sacramento. somebody using the network organizing all the mafia in america they are against the government do you know about that? everything you said about technology what is wrong what's right what is black what is white? somebody selling pizza? somebody blah-blah blah call me i send you the bill whatever you want give me the money this is going to happen in this country soon if you get polluted by this if you not stand up for the cab driver you are going to make

trouble for yourself. we have more than a hundred driver depend on this job. they are going to state level to looking for justice. if they do so i don't know they are going to get crazy but i hope understand what fcc or what this faa or what is the government smarts guy signed this bill. we are going to get big trouble and the people very soon on the street so can we organize the mafia and come like the military how about one other make a mistake then can we -- no. individual you look at the big picture. >> thank you mr. lee. >> hansu kim?

>> good afternoon i'm with dote dote cab i want to address item number 12 it has highlighted dote dote there i don't want it to look like we're a bunch of freeloaders but the reason we're distinguished here we made the decision not to give back the 8000 as the other cab companies did with the hope that we'd put them out and we didn't feel taking cabs off the street would help with the industry when there was a sick out all our 8000 went out so the feeling was maybe the amounts that we would have to pay in terms of rent given the circumstances i made that decision hopefully you guys would make an adjustment on it unfortunately you guys didn't

and now i'm burdened with not having enough drivers and i appreciate you working a payment plan for us however maybe you can revisit this in the future the fact trying to stay loyal to the industry i built this debt in the meantime i signed it and appreciate you doing the payment program. in regards to item 11, first, let me just say a quick answer to director heinicke, yes, a mandate of an ap should have been done 2 years ago no reason why an ap an ap shouldn't be mandated across the board for the taxi industry and despite me being here always credibility of criticizing the lack of regulation i want to answer directly director heinicke -- director heinicke we can beat these services at their own game we can have a vibrant taxi

industry even in a deregulated market i wouldn't still be in the taxi business if if i didn't believe that. . i have the rides to keep my drivers busy i'm not doing that because i truly believe not only is the taxi industry vital for the city as a public service but we can also be profitable and stable but you have to work with us i have some really good ideas i'm going to be introducing them in the next weeks and i want to give hope that despite everything here the taxi industry can can be vibrant and still successful even in this environment but you have to work with us and i think we can do it. i just lastly want to mention it's the

tcp's not just the tnc's but they are acting on demand as well hurting our business. >> remind me. >> an limo licenses. >> thank you again. to continue with my crazy ideas, next year will mark my fifthth year in this crazy business. it is a milestone never the less. i have served as general manager of yellow cab and officer of various organizations involved in transportation and director of 2 insurance companies i do know a thing or two. anyway, to continue with my suggestions, it would be helpful to us if we had a premium service fee we could charge customers who are

agreeable to it and we could advertise if you want to get to the opera on time and you are willing to give us an extra five or 10 bucks we'll make sure the driver's know about it and so in response to some of the questions i heard by board members -- credit cards if we have drivers on a monthly basis accept 4000 plus dollars from credit cards some drivers take zero and the reason is simple they are un informed and greedy and petty and short cited and it's our job to make sure they are not and teach them inform them and of course if they are punitive ways of making them understand that would