Cab driver Adalbert Millien will take passengers to any of the outer boroughs – but he won’t take American Express.
“No Credit Card,” states a handwritten sign Millien has taped to his taxi partition.
Millien, like many of the crabby cabbies opposed to the new technology, has searched for every excuse imaginable to avoid letting customers pay by plastic.
Taxi officials yesterday said they’ve had enough. They announced plans to send out one final warning before beginning an undercover sting operation to crack down on cabbies who refuse to take credit cards.
Jordan Saxe, who hailed Millien’s cab Monday night, insisted on paying by credit card despite the sign.
He said it wasn’t clear if the sign meant that the system was broken or that the driver was simply opposed to taking credit cards. But since the television screen embedded in the back of the seat was lit up as if working, Saxe insisted that he be allowed to try.
“He was trying to deter me in every way he could think of,” said Saxe, who works in finance.
“He tried to make me feel guilty for using it – but I just couldn’t believe he put up that sign when the system was clearly working perfectly.”
Saxe swiped his American Express card over the objections of Millien, who claimed the system was broken, and the charge went through fine. Then Saxe snapped a photo of the sign and the working machine.
Drivers have opposed the credit-card systems because they must pay a 5 percent transaction fee for every charge. Taxi officials contend this is offset by the higher tips that card users typically give.
Under TLC rules, cabbies are not supposed to have a choice about accepting credit cards. But at least 38 of the more than 6,000 yellow taxis equipped with credit-card readers have somehow managed not to have a single fare paid with plastic.
Millien, 53, who has more than a decade of experience driving a cab, did not return calls for comment.
According to a dispatcher at Mystic Leasing Service in Brooklyn, where Millien leases the cab, the driver taped up the sign because the network was down.
But a spokesman for Creative Mobile Technologies, the company responsible for the service in that cab, said everything was working fine Monday.
Taxi officials said Millien’s driving record was clean, but he did have several citations for failing to properly fill out his trip sheet.
Under the new crackdown, drivers and owners who refuse plastic will be receiving a letter from Ira Goldstein, chief of staff for the Taxi and Limousine Commission.
“If this vehicle/driver continues not to use credit cards, we will order the vehicle for inspection,” states the letter.
“Both TLC Enforcement and the Police Department will be doing field-enforcement testing to ascertain whether the credit-card readers are working and to ensure that passengers are being allowed to pay by credit/debit card.”