The Channel Wire

October 23, 2007

New York city taxis drivers are having little luck protesting the mandated rollout of new GPS and credit-card processing systems in their cars, an issue CRN chronicled last month: "VARs Caught In NYC Taxi Tech Showdown." A 24-hour strike that began yesterday and ended this morning passed without most city residents even realizing it had happened.

Unlike the subway strike that shut down NYC's main transit system for three days in 2005 and caused massive commuter disruption, the cab strikes are partial, voluntary actions which thinned the cab ranks but didn't close them down entirely. In a press conference, Mayor Bloomberg commented on the large number of cabs roaming the streets and dismissed the strike as having "no appreciable impact on passengers."

A VAR working on the technology rollout says it's on schedule and that the Taxi Workers Alliance's grievances have had no effect on the city's plans.

"The city went out to the industry and told them they are not going to grant any extensions to people. It really puts the pressure on us -- we go from sun-up to sun-down outfitting cars," said Jesse Davis, President and COO of Creative Mobile Technologies.

CMT and three other vendors are working toward a Jan. 31 deadline, by which New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission expects all 13,000 city cabs to carry the new technology systems. CMT has contracts to wire 5,000 taxis, of which 2,000 are now equipped.

So far, all of the systems -- for processing credit cards, displaying advertising, news, and local maps, and for dispatching text messages to cab drivers -- are running as predicted, Davis said. The strike actually provided an opportunity for stress testing: The city wanted text messages sent to all drivers reminding them of their rules and obligations.

"I watched to see if that volume of messaging would adversely affect credit card authorizations and stuff, but it all went fine," Davis said.