Taxi drivers bothered by racy ads on top of their rides are about to have another thing to worry about. The Taxi and Limousine Commission today votes on whether or not advertisements should be allowed on taxi receipts [PDF]. We have a very strong feeling it'll pass.
And if it does, ad-laden receipts could hit the streets as soon as next month. But they won't be the tiny things you are used to. "Apparently they will get bigger to accommodate the ads. Our rules won’t require the receipts to be any bigger but that’s what the industry will move toward," TLC Commissioner David Yassky said. Sounds great, right? Or at least not the worst thing in the world? Well, there is one catch and you guessed it: Money.
You see, any ad revenue from the receipt ads will go to the credit card vendors. According to Yassky, "The theory is that it holds down the fees they charge to taxi owners and holds down fare pressure." But not everyone is buying it. Taxi Workers Alliance Executive Director Bhairavi Desai tells Transportation Nation that, "Hard working drivers shouldn’t have to provide charity to 5th Avenue advertisers, taxi technology vendors or taxi garages. It’s the driver’s labor, customer service, gas money and lease, so they should have the ad money."
Anyway, along with deciding if the receipts can have ads, the TLC board today is also voting to approve other receipt-related rules, including clarifying that if a passenger does not say they want or don't want a receipt it isn't the driver's fault not to mention making it officially okay for a passenger to refuse a receipt.
