MAX
COURIER LIFE, N M B G OV. 23–29, 2018 27
WAAVE OF THE FUTURE: Waave CEO and founder Daniel
Iger, left, partnered with the city’s Taxi and Limousine
Commission to offer an indefi nite 50-percent discount to
locals who use his app to hail yellow cabs to Manhattan
during the morning and evening rush. Riazul Alam
Holy hail!
App offering half-price
cab rides to Manhattan
during rush hours
BY COLIN MIXSON
Brooklynites headed into Manhattan during the
morning and evening rush can now hop in yellow
cabs at half off via the taxi-hailing app Waave.
The new discount, which Waave is offering indefi
nitely, is meant to boost business for the roughly
8,000 taxi drivers who store their cars in Brooklyn
and often head directly into the outer borough to
start their shifts, according to the app’s creator.
“For the fi rst time, taxi drivers won’t be forced
to kick off their shifts with a rider-less, multi-borough
trip,” said Waave Chief Executive Offi cer
Daniel Iger. “Commuters can get into Manhattan
quickly and inexpensively, and we can all enjoy the
benefi ts of less-crowded streets and subways.”
Locals headed to the distant isle can hail a discounted
ride between the hours of 6 and 10 am, and
5 and 8 pm, every day.
Waave provides customers a set fare up front,
like other ride-hailing apps such as Lyft and Uber,
whose drivers brought the number of for-hire vehicles
on city streets from 50,000 in 2011 to just less
than 120,000 in 2018, according to statistics from
the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.
And as a result, the city in August put a temporary
halt on issuing any new licenses to for-hire
drivers, leading Uber bigwigs to offer their own
bargain-basement rates to Brooklynites .
A less-positive consequence of the rise of vehicles
for hire, however, is the free fall in values of
city taxi medallions — permits required to operate
a yellow cab in the fi ve boroughs — which plummeted
from $1.3 million per medallion in 2013 to
just $160,000 per medallion this year, the New York
Post reported .
That drastic drop left some cab owners with
crippling debt, and four taxi drivers died by suicide
since November 2017, including a Queens man who
killed himself on Nov. 14, according to Taxi and
Limousine Commission offi cials. In total, eight forhire
vehicle drivers took their lives since last November,
according to Commission data.