It's Time The Seattle Yellow Taxi Single Owners Have Legal Representation & Soured Relationship: Puget Sound Dispatch And The Yellow Fleet & Did The City Of Seattle Violate Taxi Driver Privacy?

We Must Have Legal Advocacy 

As will be outlined in my separate sections concerning Puget Sound Dispatch and the City of Seattle, we, meaning the collective Seattle Yellow Cab single owner community, require some kind of legal protection because its clear we are essentially defenseless, PSD and Seattle Taxi licensing doing anything they want to us minus consultation or consideration, leaving us with little to no effective ability to respond to dictates good and bad. Where once some owners entrusted Teamsters 117 to speak for them, it's now obvious they were mistaken, the Teamsters embracing our arch-rivals, Uber and Lyft, leaving us to fend for ourselves. And since that's our unvarnished reality, we must hire a lawyer or lawyers telling all concerned parties we are no longer remaining silent, demanding a "seat at the table" concerning decisions influencing our future well-being.  

In short, collectively we have been extremely foolish to remain PSD's and the City of Seattle's punching bags.  If necessary, we must hit back.  I see no other recourse because PSD's operational repression is relentless, expecting us to pay for our own diminishment, and worse, saying we are getting what we deserve---lump it but please, guys, don't leave us---and continue giving us money as we routinely bash everyone in the head.  

This must stop, which I why I am  encouraging all of you to join me and others in this effort to regain a balance lost years ago when the City of Seattle and King County forced us taxi independent operators to join a association or simply lose our right to operate a cab.  If we write letters or make telephone calls, they are ignored but if a lawyer writes or calls for us, they will begin listening, I can guarantee you that.  As been said many times, united we stand, divided we fall. 

The Last Straw? PSD's Decision to Conceal Time-calls 

It appears Puget Sound Dispatch has lost track of history, operating as if Yellow Cab/PSD is still the BYG taxi cooperative and not what it is now---a company composed solely of independent single owners.  Back then, big multiple medallion owners like Lema, Noven, Hirschberg and others were making the decisions but that is no longer the case, PSD existing now in an operational vacuum minus any foundational support other than the single owners, a base they routinely refuse to recognize. 

Given this new dynamic, one would think PSD would begin working cooperatively with us (that is, the single owner community) but the exact opposite is true, treating us as quasi-employees and refusing to  allow us any participation in association operations.  Case in point was PSD's unannounced decision to no longer display upcoming account time-calls, the "bread and butter" all of us depend upon to make our living given the recent crash in tourist-related and business travel customers.  

Why did they do this?  Because too many owners have been sitting in key areas waiting for the time calls rather than accept usually smaller cash fares but much of this is a problem created by PSD itself.  Instead of having timed the calls in say, 15 minute intervals, they have been displaying them 45-60 minutes ahead of time, causing the drivers to bunch up when a time-call appears in a given zone.  

And each week, management highlights the biggest weekly account fare, last week it was a $800.00 fare, with an amazing $1000.00 plus fare coming out a few weeks ago.  By advertising these "Golden Eggs," they have taken away any incentive to instead grab that $5.00 Safeway run.  One then could say PSD's approach is nonsensical, displaying little thought to how one correctly operates a taxi company.

While agreeing overall that too many of the owners aren't the best cabbies, PSD has repeatedly refused my offer to teach our fleet how to properly drive a cab.  Me and my taxi buddy Rick, previous owner of Redtop Taxi, have said we will do it, we will help mold these guys into the cabbies PSD wants them to be but no, PSD continues to say no, we won't do that.  

On one hand they say they have no authority over the drivers while simultaneously making all the decisions for them minus input and consultation.  Does this make any sense?  And now does anyone wonder why I say we need lawyers in our corner?  The alternative to this is PSD's recognition they are in an equal partnership with the owners, as I said earlier, with PSD finally understanding that basic foundational dynamics have changed, making cooperation the new operational imperative.  

Seattle Checking on Cabbies' Hours

In the last PSD newsletter, all of us were informed that the City of Seattle have been checking on our hours worked, concerned some of us are surpassing legal daily limits.  All this is news to me, bringing up the legality of the City seeking information that could be considered confidential.   The conflict arises in that while, yes, I am leasing dispatch services from Yellow/PSD, I have never agreed to them acting as my legal agent.  

And again, this is why we single owners need a lawyer, telling us what's up, what's down, who is real and who is a clown.  

And since my Mac's battery is almost expired, I'll leave it at that.