The Hoboken Blog

I love the cabbies in Hoboken. They are almost always around when you need one and generally very nice people. I wish New York’s cab drivers were a little more like Hoboken’s. Not to say that Hoboken’s drivers are like limo drivers who open your door for you (although a few have done that for me). It’s just that I almost never have been upset with the say I’ve been treated by one. But it did take some getting used to.

Hoboken has some weird rules on the books when it comes to taxi regulations. By law, all destinations originating from and going to Hoboken are $4 – that’s it! Yes, it used to be $3 up until March or April of this year, but still, $4 to anywhere in Hoboken is great. Old-timers (who have been in Hoboken 10+ years) always knew the fare to be $3 and that included tip. I always give a buck more because I know the guy driving me has got to pay for his smokes just like everyone else (cough!) and I don’t want to get in the way of that.

One rule in particular that no one follows is the ‘no ride sharing rule.’ On the sign at the taxi stand (which I will get into later), there are the rules where the one fare per car bullet point that everyone either deliberately ignores or ignorantly overlooks can be found. I don’t know why the law is in place like that but my hunch is the idea that one person gets home later if another person has to be dropped off first. It makes sense and when I was living up town, I hated dropping someone off before me and even pointed to the sign if the cab driver tried to cram some stranger in the back seat next to me. But the cabbies lose out if the rule is enforced and I can see how it benefits them and the consumers for not enforcing it.

On the side of the cabbies, they miss out on what we could call the economies of scale. The more fares he takes with him in a given direction, the more money he makes on the route. Usually, there are no more than three different fares in a cab at any one time but it gives the driver an opportunity to make $12 a round trip even before any of the passengers gives him a tip. If they do the dollar tip like I do, the guy could make $15 in one trip. Moving right along (no pun intended), if the guy can do one round trip every 10 minutes, that’s six runs an hour and $15/run x 6 runs/hour = $90; that’s a lot of money to make in an hour! I know that the government charges someone a “medallion” fee of some kind and there are fuel costs which of late have been higher than the norm (if there is a norm, that is) but I can’t imagine that they are more than half of that hourly rate. True, they can’t make that amount every hour of the day so it’s less I’m sure but what do I care? I’m getting home really freakn’ fast!

This brings us to the passengers. Sure, those people who aren’t dropped off first get home a wee bit later than those who are, but again, who cares? The tradeoff is that you have a cab and are on your way home. Unlike the poor schmuck still standing in line for a cab – which happens often – and you aren’t the dork walking home (fitness is important; exercise, people). It also means that more people can be served at once and the lines won’t get worse – especially during the winter months and days with bad weather.

If you are getting out of the PATH, train, or south ferry terminal, you will probably find the taxi stand/station/line/whatever pretty easily. You can’t miss the two dozen yellow cabs lined up in a twisted formation waiting for passengers to shout their destinations out to the drivers as they get in. There is also some crowd controlling gates in place that are meant to do just that - control the crows and force a line to form so that people waiting don’t riot; it keeps some asshole from cutting in front of everyone else. If you get there at the right moment, you can see the waves of people exiting the PATH scramble to get in line and snicker at those who got there late and now must wait for the cabs to return from taking home the people who got in line before everyone else.

If you are one of the ones who have to wait, it’s usually not long. I’ve never had to wait more than two or three minutes for a cab to get back from its route and even in the freezing cold, it’s better than walking home. Most of the waiting time a passenger would ever have to endure is beyond the cab driver’s control anyway: sitting in traffic. Traffic isn’t all that bad in Hoboken, though. It’s during rush hour, an emergency, or when a cop tries to mess with the citizens he works for by destroying the flow of existing traffic patterns by ‘directing.’ There aren’t many lights in Hoboken so that’s almost never a bother.

So getting past these little things – and they are little compared to what other cities have to deal with – Hoboken’s cabs are great. I already mentioned the cheap, fixed rate but what do you get for it? A lot! As I walk down First Street, I see cabs on almost every corner. If I’m running late, I can practically count on one being there to whisk me away to the PATH. If a cab isn’t on the any of the corners, I can bet that 9 times out of 10, one will drive down First – often with someone in it already. Even if you flag one down with someone in it, they almost always stop to get you too. Most people get to work via the PATH which is very close to the train, ferry, and bus terminals so even if you don’t use the PATH, you can count on someone going to the same general area as you.

And talk about service! The guys in the morning are always friendly and are the ones that have opened the door for me in the past. When I need to drop off the laundry in the morning, they do so without the assumption that I would pay them the extra fare; I always tip extra well on those days. Since the laundromat is on the way, it’s nice and easy; they go in one direction and I don’t have to lug my sack-o-socks 6 blocks. Most of the cabbies are of Latino descent and listen to one of the many radio stations that broadcast in their language. But a good number of the cabbies actually change the station to what they assume is ‘my’ music like easy listening or smooth jazz or something. I don’t like either of those genres, really. But it’s nice to know these guys are willing to go without their station just to make me more comfortable. Sometimes I feel bad but I didn’t (and never have) asked them to change the station.

Now the realist in me says that special treatment is just to butter me up for a better tip. But I give it to them! What’s two extra bucks tacked onto an already cheap fare when you are racing to get to that 7:30am meeting? If it makes the 5 minutes a little nicer, I say give them the extra dollars and give them the incentive to do it to everyone else they give rides to. Besides, this is America and free enterprise still rules. If someone wants to enhance their services and make them more valuable to the consumer for a premium, I say go for it!

For all my raving about the cabbies here, walking is still the way to get around Hoboken. It’s not a very big town (a mile squared, remember?) and most destinations are close to Washington Street, anyway. But I you must get to the far side of town, get home fast, or to work early, taking a Hoboken cab can’t be beat.