LI taxi company blames Uber and Lyft as it’s likely to close

<p>Traditional taxi cab companies say there&rsquo;s no way they can compete with Uber and Lyft&nbsp;due to all the fees that they face for such things as licensing and insurance.</p>

News 12 Staff

Feb 16, 2018, 7:34 PM

Updated 2,268 days ago

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A Long Island taxi company is likely going out of business and says it’s because it can’t compete with ride-sharing services Uber and Lyft.
Leslie Remy says it's likely he'll fold Good Guys Taxi & Limo, the taxi company he's owned for the past 10 years.
“We've lost over 40 percent of our business,” Remy says. “This summer it looks like it's gonna spiral down to 60 percent.”
He says he and other cab companies simply can't compete with Uber and Lyft because they have nowhere near the overhead that they do.

“The insurance for a taxi is $8,000-$9,000 a year,” says Remy. “The fees … are over $3,000-$4,000 that they pay to every individual town.”
The biggest complaint of cab companies are Uber and Lyft drivers who they say act like cabbies, driving around train stations, hotels and bars with signs in their windows – something they’re not supposed to do.
“The cheating that the Uber drivers are conducting -- that's the biggest killer,” says Remy.

For their part, agencies that oversee enforcement say it's very difficult to catch violators in the act.
And Uber has also become hugely popular with Long Islanders. Cab companies say they recognize the popularity of companies like Uber, but they say changes have to be made to level the playing field between the competing industries because right now they feel the deck is stacked against them.

“I just can't imagine that just through one swipe of legislation, where you knock out a whole industry,” says Remy.
A spokesperson for the Nassau Taxi and Limousine Commission says it "aggressively enforces state and local laws" regarding ride-sharing companies. It says it issued 5,500 tickets for violations last year.


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