COURIER L 12 IFE, NOV. 23–29, 2018 DT
WAAVE OF THE FUTURE: Waave CEO and founder Daniel Iger, center in gray, partnered with the city’s Taxi and
Limousine Commission to offer an indefi nite 50-percent discount to Brooklynites who use his app to hail yellow
cabs to Manhattan during the morning and evening rush. Riazul Alam
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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 riderless,
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 forhire
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 for-hire
vehicle drivers took their
lives since last November, according
to Commission data.
Holy hail!
App offering half-price cab rides to
Manhattan during rush hours