Why do all New York City taxis look the same?

Factual Questions
1

I live outside D.C. Here and every other place I have ever lived there are competing taxi companies that distinguish themselves by different paint jobs on the car. Sometimes the name and paint job kind of go together, like here we have Yellow Cab and Red Top Cab. The name and phone number of the company are always clearly visible.

I just spent the weekend in NYC, first time in at least 15 years. There are lots of taxis and they all have the same paint job. Does NYC mandate all taxis to have that paint job, with no distinguishing marks to identify the company? Why? I can see a certain amount of sense in being able to identify a taxi easily but I don’t know of another city that does this.

2

I don’t know the answer to your question, but I can tell you my local (Orlando, FL) Yellow Cab Company paints its taxis white and orange.

There’s no city commission requirement in New York mandating that all cabs be yellow or anything. See here.

3

In NYC there’s a difference between being able to pick up curbside fares and being an on-call cab service. To do the latter requires a “hack license” for the driver, and a Taxi Medallion for the vehicle. There is a strict limit on how many Medallions are in existence and there is a secondary market for them – most of them owned by leasing companies who then hire drivers. There is also a city law requiring medallion cabs to be painted yellow, for easy identification.

Non-yellow cabs who pull over and offer to take you places for a negotiated fee are called “gypsy cabs”, and are illegal but sometimes your only option.

4

Not “all cabs” but “all Medallion taxis”, which are in turn the only ones you can legally hail from a curb. There are many car service cabs around the city, Lincoln Town Cars for the most part it seems, that are radio dispatched and are not yellow, but also cannot legally pick up passengers ad hoc. These are “Livery cabs” and are the subject of the document you linked to.

5

My typo here – I meant the former, not the latter. Only yellow Medallion taxis are allowed to pick up people hailing them off the street.

6

And the vehicle models need to be approved by the commission, so only a few types of cars can be official taxis.

7

Those models are all of very recent vintage. Are all taxicabs in NYC that new, or is this just the most recent list?

8

Existing vehicles are grandfathered in under the regulations in place when they were registered for use as cabs, I imagine.

9

I believe that is correct. For a while, the Honda Odyssey was one of the only minivans (the first one?) approved for taxi use in NYC and they were everywhere. I’m sure some of them are still around, but it’s interesting that current models don’t appear to be certified.

10

They used the original Odyssey which did not have sliding doors , it had standard swing out doors. That model was not very popular and was only made for a couple of years. The current Odyssey is more like a normal minivan with sliding doors and it’s bigger than the other model.

11

For years, the automobile of choice for NYC cabs were made by Checker.

12

Whoah. I never realized that Checker Cabs were actually cabs made by a company called Checker. I thought they were Chevrolets.

13

When that happened to me, it was actually an old Dodge Ram van, and not only did the driver not charge me a fee, but he offered free candy as well.

14

Check is still in business providing stamped metal parts and welded subassemblies for, among other companies, GM. (And most of the things that made the car move were, in fact, from GM.)

15

In addition to all of the above - the reverse is true - you can’t hail a car service from the street, and you can’t call for a yellow cab. So, “brand identification” for yellow cabs would be pointless, since you could never call the one you wanted anyway.

Almost every neighborhood in NYC has several radio dispatch car service companies. The car service companies cars are normally clearly labeled with the name and number of the company. Usually decals or magnets as opposed to distinctive paint jobs.

16

They used GM engines from 1960 until 1982.

17

Actually, there are VERY strict rules for taxicab retirement in NYC.
Conventional cabs being operated by normal taxi fleets get retired at 3 years old.
I believe that minivans get an extra 12 months.
Not sure about hybrids.
Owner-operators who don’t run multiple shifts may run longer as well.

18

Actually, you can. (According to a relative who lives in NYC.)

Nearly all of the yellow cab drivers have cell phones, and will eagerly give you a business card with their phone number, and urge you to call them directly when you want a cab. Especially for regular appointments, like taking a cab to work every morning at 8am, going to the gym after work Monday, Wednesday, & Friday evenings, etc.

I don’t know how legal this is, but it certainly seems to be quite common in NYC.

19

T’ain’t legal at all. If you want to call someone for a ride, you’re suppose to call a “black car” limousine. The Taxi and Limousine Commission is actually trying to ban cabbies from carrying cellphones for this very reason. Yellow cars are for hailing only, Black cars are for calling.

BTW, I’ve seen the black cars pick up people who’ve hailed them on the street too. Not legal and they can lose their license if caught.

David Pogue has a column in the Times about technology issues in the taxi industry. If you use a phone, you call a black car. If you whistle on the street corner, you call a yellow car. But, what if you use your iPhone application to get a cab while standing on the street corner?

20

Why all the restrictions? Why is it illegal to call a yellow cab for a pickup?