The Taxi Driver's Plight

The Daily

The New York Times

Daily News, News

4.4 • 102.8K Ratings

🗓️ 2 May 2018

⏱️ 25 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

A New York City taxi driver, Nicanor Ochisor, took his own life in March. His family says he grew increasingly hopeless as ride-hailing services like Uber took over the industry. Mr. Ochisor’s suicide is one of several in recent months that have called attention to the economic straits of professional drivers. Guest: Nicolae Hent, who has been a taxi driver in New York City for three decades and was a friend of Mr. Ochisor. For more information on today’s episode, visit nytimes.com/thedaily.

Transcript

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0:00.0	From the New York Times, I'm Michael Barbaro. This is The Daily.
0:04.0	Today, a New York City taxi driver took his own life. His family blames Uber.
0:18.0	It's the fourth such suicide in five months.
0:24.0	It's Wednesday, May 2.
0:41.0	Do you know which corner? There he is.
0:44.0	Hold on, don't tie.
0:47.0	Hey, I have to move a little bit ahead because they already told me to move because it's a hotel.
0:54.0	Okay, let's get in.
0:57.0	Nikolai Head has been a New York City taxi driver for the past 30 years.
1:03.0	Nikolai, yes. Thank you for letting us in your cab. Why not?
1:10.0	So I'm Michael Barbaro. I'm the host of The Daily.
1:14.0	Okay, so you want me to move? I thought we might go where you and drivers that you know would go around this time of day or are they all in their car?
1:23.0	At this time of the day, most of them will be in their car because it's three o'clock in the, you know, in my case, everything I have to eat is here and this is lunch box.
1:30.0	Really?
1:31.0	It's my breakfast, my lunch, my dinner.
1:34.0	Is that corner of the car?
1:36.0	This is the sandwich my wife make for me every day. This is a corn. This is a samelo and cantaloupe.
1:43.0	A green tea, a water, a banana, strawberry, grapes and two apples.
1:51.0	That's beautiful.
1:53.0	Lunch slash dinner slash everything.
1:56.0	Slash everything.
1:57.0	What kind of sandwich is it?
	...

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