Taxi drivers in the US have been among those hit hardest by the steep rise of gasoline prices over the last year. Along with other workers and small business owners in the transportation industry around the world, taxi drivers are now facing a precipitous fall in their standard of living.

According to an industry organization, the Taxi, Limousine and Paratransit Group, the average taxi driver in the US spends about $14,000 a year on gas, an increase of over 40 percent in the past two years.

Despite the recent fall in gas prices, New York City taxi drivers find themselves with an increase over the past two years of $1,000 in monthly costs to operate their cabs. This is a crippling burden for these workers. According to the Bhairavi Desai, co-founder of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (TWA), New York’s cabbies normally work 60 to 70 hours a week and take home between $27,000 and $33,000 a year.

At a protest outside the offices of city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission over the high fuel prices in July, drivers demanded that the city impose a surcharge of $1.00 a ride when gas costs more than $3.50 a gallon and $1.50 when gas costs above $5.00 a gallon...continued.

Source: WSWS