Uber, Lyft, and the pandemic have flattened Philly’s taxi industry, leaving both passengers and cabdrivers waiting

The clock was sliding toward 2 p.m., and Ishmail Ali’s taxi was inching toward the cab stand outside 30th Street Station, 12th in line.

So far, he’d collected $54 in cash and $55 in credit card payments that Thursday, the meter reported. Before Uber, Ali said, he could make $450 or more in eight hours of driving.

“Those days are gone,” he said. “That money is gone.”

As thousands of people travel for Thanksgiving, it can be hard to find a traditional taxi in Philadelphia. Since February 2020, the number of cabs actively working the streets has plunged 58%, regulators say.

By that date, city taxis had already lost market dominance to the rideshare platforms Uber and Lyft. The pandemic delivered another blow.

During the month before pandemic restrictions, 1,350 active taxis provided about 244,000 trips in the city, according to the Philadelphia Parking Authority, the agency that regulates cabs.

In November 2020, there were just 240 taxis in service, and they provided 44,000 trips. Demand had doubled by September last year and the number of cabs inched up. Last month, 564 taxicabs were active, providing 113,000 trips.

“When the pandemic hit, a bunch of drivers just said, ‘I’m not driving anymore,’” said Christine Kirlin, director of the Taxi and Limousine Division at the PPA. In addition to worries about exposure to coronavirus, “some found other work and just never wanted to return.”

The PPA reports that the number of monthly taxi trips has been increasing at a faster rate than the number of cabs in service, suggesting that the size of the fleet, at least for now, “is sufficient for today’s demand,” Kirlin said.

The trend is similar for Uber and Lyft: a steep decline in daily trips in 2020, followed by a slow rebound, although in absolute numbers they have made many more runs than taxis. That’s according to self-reported data the rideshare companies must file quarterly with the PPA. (Uber and Lyft are not required to disclose how many drivers use their platforms.)

Kirlin thinks people have changed their behavior in response to COVID. It may be that they are going out less, not yet back to the office, or driving themselves. But what’s clear, Kirlin said, is they are paying for fewer taxi or rideshare trips, just as SEPTA ridership hovers at about 40% of pre-pandemic levels.

To give taxi drivers some relief from high gas prices and general inflation, PPA has formally proposed a 12% increase in the flat fee cabs can charge for rides between the Center City zone and Philadelphia International Airport, from $28.50 to $32. Those trips form a large share of taxi business and are the most lucrative for drivers.

While at any given time there seem to be enough taxis outside the airport terminals or at Amtrak’s 30th Street Station, they can be scarce in other traditional gathering spots. On a recent weekday in Center City, for instance, no cabs were lined up at the Loews hotel at 12th and Market Streets around checkout time. And forget about trying to catch a cab to a work lunch or take a taxi home after Friday happy hour.

“Hailing a cab on the streets is almost impossible,” said Ronald Blount, a former cabdriver who is an organizer for the Taxi Workers Alliance. Waiting outside a hotel doesn’t promise a sure payoff.

“You rarely see any riders, and you’re waiting 45 minutes to an hour,” he said. “Then, sometimes, you get a passenger and then they just want to go to the train station. That’s eight bucks.”

Blount began driving a Philadelphia cab in 1983 but stopped last year and now concentrates on his organizing work.

“I did this most of my life,” he said. “You could make a living, send your kids to college, get a mortgage. You can’t do any of that now.”

Even at hot spots like the train station, the supply of cabs fluctuates during the day and one might not be available when you need it.

On a recent Sunday, Jessica Vacek and her boyfriend arrived at 30th Street Station on a late Amtrak train from New York. Two cabs were waiting, but they were quickly snapped up. They waited.

“No more cabs were coming,” Vacek said. “I sure wished there were more.”

They went to the rideshare boarding area on the other side of the station as workers closed down for the night. About 1 a.m. a Lyft driver Vacek had summoned on her app canceled.

She doesn’t often use cabs or rideshare cars, preferring to ride her bike or take the bus. But the SEPTA route that goes to Brewerytown, where they live, was no longer running, and it was about 35 degrees. Eventually, another Lyft arrived.

When Uber began operating — illegally at first — in Philadelphia in 2014, a taxi medallion required to drive a cab was valued at $545,000, according to the PPA. Now, they go for about $12,000 each.

For a cabbie, the medallion had long been an appreciating asset, like a house. The market crash in these licenses hurt many taxi companies and independent drivers, who borrowed to buy medallions, considering them a reliable investment.

“A lot of them just defaulted,” Blount said. “They stopped paying.” Eventually several financial institutions that specialized in loans for medallions discharged debts for pennies on the dollar.

Ali, 63, reached the head of the 30th Street Station taxi line in his Dodge Caravan cab after about 20 minutes.

He ran a neighborhood grocery and deli in Frankford after he and his family moved to Philadelphia from Brooklyn 14 years ago. Eventually, Blount turned the business over to his son, paid about $500,000 for a taxi medallion, and hit the streets.

With another driver leasing the cab to drive it on the night shift, Ali said he was earning about $10,000 a month for a couple of years. Now, he said he’s lucky if he makes $160 a day for 12 hours of driving.

“Give me $5,000 and you can have my medallion,” Ali said, laughing. “Maybe I can go to work for McDonald’s.”