You Have Until March 31st, 2026
On March 15th, 2024, Seattle and King County sent out a link to all flat-rate for hire medallion owners outlining what is going happen by March 2026: all flat-rate for vehicles will become taxis. This quote makes it clear: "The decision to convert is permanent and irreversible." I am sure they expressed it that way intentionally, knowing full well that denial is the commonplace response in the taxi industry. The link also contains an application to convert the medallion from flat-rate to taxi. The link's 4 pages contained some very straight forward information, like telling applicants that a dispatch company is required and that meters or smart meters must be installed. What I found most interesting is the statement that all flat-rate for hire vehicle medallions will remain the same, unlike taxi medallions that will become regional. If your medallion is King County only, your taxi medallion will be the same. Doesn't seem fair but who asked me?
Finally, A Taxi Hero
What I have here is a complete letter written to the New York Times "Metropolitan Diary" concerning my kind of cabbie.
"Give Him a Hand"
Dear Diary,
I got into a cab on a rainy night to go see my child's nanny in a play on the Lower East Side. I had an umbrella, my bag and a tote with me.
When I got to to the theater, I got out of the cab quickly and forgot my tote. Oh, well.
Just before the play started, the driver appeared, walked to the front of the theater and asked whether anyone in the audience had left a tote in his cab.
It's mine, I shouted.
As I got up to retrieve it, he received a standing ovation.
Seattle Yellows Cab's Puget Sound Dispatch is Awful
In these pages over the many years, I have written many times just how bad the dispatching has become at Seattle Yellow Cab. If you don't believe me, here are a few complaints taken from the "Trip Advisor" website. I encourage everyone to read the many reviews blasting Yellow Cab. The positive reviews concern cabs picked up at the airport. Note, not dispatched.
from Elizabeth A---Terrible Issues, October 2023
"I tried several times to get a taxi to pick up my family (me and my grandson), but every time the taxi cancelled. After three hours I gave up, but missed my bus and was stranded overnight."
from Sean A---Don't. Garbage Company, June 2023
"I book a Yellow cab to take my friend to the airport. I watched our assigned driver pick up someone else and proceed to drive off on their tracking map, while telling me that we had been picked up on their web app.
This resulted in missing our flight. Never waste money with these frauds. We ended up using Uber, which, while more expense, at least delivered the service.
This is why taxi companies deserve to die out."
___________________________________________
Pretty harsh reality expressed here. Elizabeth is stranded and Sean misses his flight. The fault here lies with the City of Seattle and King County. I have told them time and again that they had to do something about the poor and inefficient service provided by Puget Sound Dispatch. They act helpless. They can't do anything, they keep repeating to me. Doing nothing is not the answer. There are too many reviews like these. People are being greatly affected by the idiotic service that is PSD. It's true! It's obvious! It's factual!
Farwest Taxi 1990
Sunday, walking back to my car after visiting the DT Seattle Art Museum, I spoke to the doorman working the Hilton Hotel. Back in the day, he and his father owned 7 Farwest cabs. We talked how great the business was at Farwest back in the "good, old days." But he said, along came the Punjabi Indians and they destroyed the company. I saw that too. Sad but true, the Punjabis, in their greed, blew up a great company. It didn't take them every long. In that way, they were very efficient.
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