Chicago Cab Industry Collapsing As Medallion Foreclosures Soar
by Tyler Durden
ZeroHedge.com
Jun 7, 2017
Chicago mayor Rahm Emmanuel has a lot on his plate these days between soaring murder rates, failing pension systems and the worst domestic migration trends in the country as residents see the tax-hike writing on the wall and are moving out of the ‘Windy City’ by the 1,000s. Now, it seems he can add a failing taxi industry and millions in additional annual tax revenue losses to his list of woes.
As the USA Today points out, the cab industry in Chicago is quickly hurdling toward extinction as nearly 50% of the city’s fleet sat idle in March 2017 and medallion foreclosures in 2017 have already exceeded 2016.
About 42% of Chicago’s taxi fleet was not operating in the month of March, and cabbies have seen their revenue slide for their long-beleaguered industry by nearly 40% over the last three years as riders are increasingly ditching cabs for ride-hailing apps Uber, Lyft and Via, according to a study released Monday by the Chicago cab drivers union.
More than 2,900 of Chicago’s nearly 7,000 licensed taxis were inactive in March 2017 — meaning they had not picked up a fare in a month, according to the Cab Drivers United/AFSCME Local 2500 report. The average monthly income per active medallion — the permit that gives cabbies the exclusive right to pick up passengers who hail them on the street — has dipped from $5,276 in January 2014 to $3,206 this year.
The number of riders in Chicago hailing cabs has also plummeted during that same period from 2.3 million monthly riders to about 1.1 million.
The Rest…HERE
