Sierra Ryan
sryan@queensledeger.com
The Justice for App Workers coalition rallied on May 1st to demand equitable solutions that recognize the vital role of FHV drivers and delivery workers in the city’s transit ecosystem. The Justice for App Workers coalition joined the call for a national day of action with a rally and strike action at the New York City Department of Transportation to demand an end to unfair bus lane ticketing practices targeting For-Hire Vehicle (FHV) drivers and delivery workers. New York City is home to over 100,000 rideshare drivers and delivery workers who form the backbone of its transportation system.This is the third year of the protest.
FHV drivers and delivery workers play a vital role in New York City’s transportation system, ensuring residents and visitors can travel safely and efficiently. However, current regulations unfairly penalize drivers with bus lane tickets when they are simply doing their jobs.
Drivers and delivery workers often have to pick up passengers, especially the elderly and disabled who can’t make it to the other side of the street, by pulling over in a bus lane in front of their building. Right now, drivers are being unfairly ticketed for stopping in bus lanes while assisting passengers. This causes more stress and problems for the service drivers. Taxi driver and president of the Utany coalition organization Adagisa Payero talks about the unfair ticketing that happens to drivers “The bus lane has been ticketing drivers for a long time. As of August of last year more buses were installed with an automatic program where automatically once when they see a vehicle blocking the bus lane you get a ticket. So when drivers are providing a service to elderly people or picking up and dropping off a person which should be in a safe area but they have no choice and do it in a bus lane and if the bus comes at that time they get a ticket. This is unfair because then now you provided a service to a passenger so maybe fifteen to twenty dollars then you’re gonna lose fifty or one hundred the ticket is going to come up to that amount or more. So that is the problem. As part of the transportation department we as taxi drivers, we are demanding to be included in the Department of Finances program where they are exempted from being ticketed because we are providing a service to the community.” Payero says.
Safety is another big issue as drivers have experienced having their car stolen from passengers, being hacked and even attacked by customers. Payero talks about the dangers drivers and delivery workers face.“There are some issues when it comes to hacking. We have had drivers who have been hacked with their account and money have been stolen. Some had their phone taken away and things like that. Even their vehicles have been stolen from them by an aggressive passenger. So we are asking the city to consider some safety issues for drivers even delivery workers have been victims of those kinds of issues.” Payero says.
Another issue for service workers is bathrooms. Payero talks about the struggle of drivers and delivery workers not having access to bathrooms “We have been fighting for bathroom services for a while. So what we are trying to do is a lot of restaurants are denying delivery workers access to their bathrooms which they shouldn’t but also we have areas where its very difficult for any driver to stop and use the restroom so we are trying to work a program where drivers and delivery workers can use the restroom in business by showing maybe their id or if they have an order.” Payero says.
The next event will take place on Memorial day. A memorial service will be held for those that have fallen while on the job will be held in honor of the service workers memory “What we do for the memorial is we try to just remember those that have fallen either driver or delivery worker while doing their job and know that we need to continue doing more for the safety of our members drivers and delivery workers to protect them and bring awareness to the city and politicians.” says Payero, “Even one life is too many.”
