Boston Taxi Fleet to Be All Hybrid by 2015
by Matthew McDermott, Brooklyn, NY on 09. 4.08
photo: Pablo Pecora
New York City’s taxi fleet has been slowly converting to hybrids for some time, and earlier this year Mayor Bloomberg indicated that livery cabs should green-up their act as well. Now another Northeast city is getting in on the act: Boston Mayor Thomas Menino has announced that 2015 the city’s entire taxi fleet would have to be converted to hybrid vehicles.
Hybrids to be Phased In
According to the mayor’s office:
The new standards for hybrid vehicles will be phased in as current vehicles reach their mandatory retirement age of six years. As a result of this new plan, owners will be required to replace their taxis with hybrid vehicles. Hybrid taxis will reduce carbon emissions from the taxi fleet by 50% and will save taxi drivers $1,000 a month in fuel costs. It is anticipated that within two years more than 50% of the fleet will be hybrid. It is required that by 2015 100% of the fleet is hybrid.
Predictably, Taxi Association Objects
As in New York, taxi drivers are nonplussed. Marckinson Charles, president of the Independent Taxi Operators Association was quoted in The Boston Globe: “We’re not ready for this. If by 2015, we all have to have hybrids, we have a problem.”
The Globe went on to say that the hybrid Toyota Camry’s trunk space is too small for taking travelers and their luggage to the airport; and that the cost of replacing hybrid batteries “every few years” was too expensive.
As if there are no other hybrids suitable for taxis...
:: City of Boston, :: The Boston Globe, : Hybrid Car Review
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Well, if the changes have already been announced, isn't the Taxi association a little late with these objections? Not that they have merit in my opinion; I'm just wondering if their complaints are liekly to have any effect.
And besides, how much preparation does it take to replace a car (which by law you were going to have to replace before 2015 anyway) with a new model that can save $1000 dollars a month for just a few thousand dollars more up-front? Even if it were true that the batteries would need to be replaced, using hybrids would be a money-saving change.
That's pretty huge. I've always thought all those taxis driving around with their massive V6s or V8s was a ginormous waste. I mean, they're ALWAYS on the road with or without passengers. It would seem you could make some substantial savings by moving them to hybrids. It's about time.
Taxis are perfect applications for hybirds, given that they spend most of their time in city driving which is exactly where they shine, and a hybrid in taxi service probably reduces total fuel consumption far more than a hybrid owned by an individual. However, on the practical side of implementation, as with most things it may not be as simple as it sounds in a two paragraph blog post - not that it shouldn't be done, just that it isn't as simple as it sounds.
First regarding the issue of trunk space mentioned in the post, most if not all hybrids do have smaller trunks than their conventional counterparts, because that it typically where the battery pack is located. The Prius has a particularly small cargo area for a hatchback, for example. The Crown Victoria, that most taxis tend to be in the US has a particularly large trunk that is easy to toss large suitcases into, so a hybrid version of a smaller car could seem particularly inconvenient to the drivers.
Second, I read somewhere that independent taxis are often retired police cars and as such are dirt cheap to buy, so the increase in cost could be far more than "a few thousand dollars more up-front". At the very least, they are fleet service vehicles that are cheaper than their retail counterparts, and therefore, that much more cheap than any hybrid, which so far are all retail. Of course, the fuel and maintenance savings would pay back the difference, but for small businesses (like independent taxis), often capital is not as readily available as it is for larger businesses, so they sometimes prefer the lower up-front cost.
Finally, since there are waiting lists for just about every hybrid except the big SUV's and luxury sedans, they may have diffiiculty buying one period. As more manufacturers offer more hybrid vehicles, there will be more supply, but as fuel prices increase, so will demand, so by 2015, there could still be a shortage.
These are pesimistic views, but the point is that as with any change, there will be resistance. Surely they will find solutions to the problems, but people generally don't like change, and how often have you seen a large group of people involuntarily inconvenienced without some whining?
Too bad they will be underwater by 2012 ;-)
most likely, the opponents are taxi owners, and not taxi drivers. The driver would be happy to pay less for the gas, but the owner would rather pay less for maintenance and possibly sell more gas to their driver.
I would not argue against going green, but I feel Boston needs to do something about its cab prices. Did you know that Boston's fare is most in the country?
http://www.taxifarefinder.com/rates.php?city=