About 3,000 New York City taxi drivers routinely overcharged riders over two years by surreptitiously fixing their meters to charge rates that would normally apply only to trips outside the five boroughs, according to the city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission.
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The commission then used GPS data, collected in every cab, to review millions of trips in New York City and found a huge number in which the out-of-city rates had improperly been charged, officials said.
The investigators determined that 36,000 drivers improperly activated the higher rate at least once, and that about 3,000 drivers did it more than 100 times.
The higher rate, reserved for rides in Nassau and Westchester Counties, is 80 cents per one-fifth of a mile — twice the rate charged for rides in the five boroughs.
As described by officials, the fraud might rank as the biggest in the taxi industry’s history.
Full story: New Yorkers gouged by taxi drivers – The New York Times
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