🗞️ Hit, Punched, Bit, Shot, Killed...NYC Drivers Should Look Back To The 1990s & "The King of Pakistani Cabbies" (PART 2)
Violent attacks 🤕 on NYC TLC drivers are on the rise. What can we learn from 1990s NYC, the Pak Brothers Yellow Cab Drivers Association and Farooq Ahmed Bhatti
In Part 1 of our two part piece, titled "💔 Hit, Punched, Bit, Shot, Killed...Safety A Main Focus For Many NYC TLC Drivers", we highlighted several violent attacks and other safety incidences that NYC TLC drivers have faced (past tense) and prospectively face. Interestingly enough, since the publication of that article earlier this month, the New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) has distributed several community-wide emails related to driver safety. In fact sending another one today! To their credit, it's nice to see the TLC call this issue out, BUT, and I say this in a diplomatic tone, drivers deserve more attention and a hearing on this matter 🙋📹. A hearing specifically focused on driver safety and nothing else. This must be a priority.
In fact, there is a great precedent that the TLC & NYC driver community can look back to. That’s the example of the Pak Brothers Yellow Cab Drivers Association and Farooq Ahmed Bhatti, who The New York Times profiled back in 1995. In October 1993, a year where 43 TLC drivers were murdered 😞, Bhatti & his fellow TLC drivers helped organize a taxi protest 🚕🪧 that “paralyzed much of Manhattan”, according to the Times.
We briefly explore the background below 👇, to see what can be learned from Bhatti’s activism. As the famous saying goes, “History Doesn't Repeat Itself, but It Often Rhymes”. There’s always something we can learn from the past.
AutoMarketplace.com NYC covers the for-hire transportation industry and automotive news. Check out AutoMarketplace.com on YouTube ▶️
History Rhymes
The NY Times article profiling TLC driver activist (& entrepreneur) Farooq Ahmed Bhatti, immediately grabs your attention 📰.
The piece is fairly short and I highly recommend reading it. However, in a nutshell, early 1990s NYC seemed to be a dangerous time to be a yellow cab driver. You also have to remember yellow taxis 🚕 dominated the industry back then too (large market share of NYC for-hire trips). The article is not only an interesting historical snapshot of NYC and the TLC industry, but it's also a story of immigrants and their critical role in shaping the City and its politics. Bhatti, represented a Pakistani taxi driver community, as the New York Times put it, that was "like the Korean greengrocer, [a new] icon of New York's ethnic landscape". In 1991, it was estimated that 21% of all NYC cabdrivers were from Pakistan!
Obviously, new ethnicities and immigrants have come (and continue) to come to the City and if anything, the NYC TLC industry is probably more diverse, in several ways from ethnicity to gender, than it has ever been before. What Bhatti essentially did, via the Pak Brothers Yellow Cab Drivers Union (not a union actually, but an association of 1,700 mostly Pakistani cabbies), was to bond a driver community together to push for change - NOT ONLY for the Pakistani driver community, but for the ENTIRE TLC industry. Bhatti was also quite diplomatic and received praise not only from the taxi community, but from the TLC and City Hall. Him and his fellow TLC drivers efforts in October 1993, when a taxi protest they helped organize essentially shut down Manhattan, led to immediate reform. Specifically, driver safety was a major issue and on the back of that protest the following happened.
To go from over 40 murdered NYC TLC drivers to ZERO, is nothing short of extremely effective activism 👏👏👏 that changes people’s lives, that saves lives. What's even more impressive is that Bhatti was diplomatic and navigated NYC politics well, something I think is critical in effectuating real change. Just take a look at what then (1995) NYC TLC chair Chris Lynn had to say about Bhatti.
"Every time I hear from Farooq, he has yet another good idea…He never comes to me with petty gripes or personal favors." - Christopher R. Lynn, then (1995) NYC Taxi & Limousine Chair (Interesting sidenote: Mr. Lynn called for the NYC TLC to be dismantled in a 2021 Crain’s opinion piece and proposed it be replaced with a public benefit corporation. A story for another day!)
The article is also interesting on several other levels. Bhatti really seemed to not only deeply understand the NYC TLC industry, but was effective in highlighting very specific issues that he knew impacted drivers, from ideas about rest areas to the medallion leasing system. I personally know there are many similarly-minded and proactive individuals that exist in the TLC industry today. Those people have a genuine passion and concern for drivers and their safety & financial success.
Now, I definitely don't have all the answers to how New York City, the TLC and drivers get together to address dangerous safety conditions for commercially-licensed NYC TLC drivers. I do know though that more needs to be done and it needs to be done quicker. This isn’t a blame game or a finger-pointing exercise, but a call to action. Unsafe working conditions, where drivers feel nervous about their physical safety, cannot be tolerated.
I'm also not saying that the current situation is anywhere near NYC in the early 1990s and that drivers should attempt to shut NYC streets. It hasn't come to that YET and I honestly hope it doesn't come to that, but driver safety must be addressed thoroughly. My only specific idea for now is for a driver safety hearing to be held without delay. It will also be a great opportunity for newly appointed TLC Chair David Do to introduce himself to the TLC driver community.
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or by emailing us at info@automarketplace.com.
AutoMarketplace.com NYC covers the for-hire transportation industry and automotive news. Check out AutoMarketplace.com on YouTube ▶️