NYC Taxi Firm Aims To Help Cabbies Earn Insurance

NEW YORK — One of New York City’s largest taxi companies and an insurance firm aim to extend struggling cabbies a lifeline through a first-of-its-kind driver rewards program.

Long Island City-based United Taxi Management has partnered with ostraa to create the program that lets full-time drivers earn life insurance coverage and discounts on prescriptions, dental, vision and hearing services and products.

Those benefits come at no cost to drivers who work 24 eight-hour shifts in a month. Those who work at least 12 shifts can earn the discounts without the insurance coverage.

The executives behind the program, launched Jan. 1, hope it can serve as a model for the taxi industry, in which many drivers are underinsured, and build loyalty among drivers who often migrate from firm to firm.

“It’s a major source of peace of mind, and as you know, there’s very little of that for this population right now," ostraa CEO Maximilian Weiner said. "So we’re really trying to address what it is that they told us they wanted."

Savas Tsitiridis, United’s owner, said he and Weiner started discussing the program a little over a year ago. In the process of putting it together, drivers were interviewed last summer to examine their values and perceptions of risk and insurance, Weiner said.

While yellow cab drivers have access to health insurance through Medicaid or other plans, they’re “massively uninsured” when it comes to life, vision, dental and pharmacy coverage, Weiner said.

"The view here is that these drivers — somebody needs to put a floor, in some shape or form, around the sort of decline of their quality of life," Weiner said. "Their risks are very real, and their incomes are increasingly decreasing."

All of United’s drivers — about 500 of whom are active in a given month — are automatically enrolled in the rewards program and can track the rewards they earn through a dedicated website. They can also search for doctors in the program's network if they want to use the services, Weiner said.

Full-time drivers can earn $25,000 in life insurance and $25,000 in accidental death or dismemberment coverage, plus bereavement services and travel assistance. The discount package includes price cuts for prescriptions, dental services, eyewear, LASIK and hearing aids.

The first benefits were set to be available on Feb. 1, Weiner said. Amalgamated Life underwrites the life insurance and Options Plus provides the discounts while ostraa adminsters the program, he said.

United pays for the benefits with monthly premium as a function of the total number of qualifying drivers, Weiner said. He would not disclose the specific cost, but said it is "competitively priced."

Tsitiridis said he had been looking for a way to incentivize yellow cab drivers, who are independent contractors, to work with his company long-term. Drivers who stick with one firm usually turn out to be better "in terms of reducing accidents, responsibilities, their performance overall," he said.

The program could also draw drivers back to yellow cabs from ride-hailing apps, which lured some away with incentives and earnings promises that have eroded, Tsitiridis said.

"I do believe that we could start to change the perception between the driver and the taxi fleets in the industry," Tsitiridis said. "So we finally want to show them that we want to incentivize people to come and drive a taxi."

Armando Gutierrez, a full-time driver for Tsitiridis of 15 years, said he's excited that he can qualify for life insurance through the new rewards program. He decided to buy life insurance five years ago and it's had an impact on his budget ever since, he said.

"Money is tighter than ever and every dollar spent on insurance is a dollar that gets taken from rent or our families," Gutierrez, 57, said in written responses to questions.

The rewards will free up some money for those already buying insurance and give those who aren't a sense of security, Gutierrez said.

"Drivers care about the security of their families. Insurance plays a big part of ensuring that security," he said. "I'm excited by this and am sure that other drivers will be too."

Other efforts have been made to extend health benefits to professional drivers. The Black Car Fund offers free virtual doctor visits and a $50,000 benefit for families of drivers who die on the job, according to its website. And Uber has partnered with a company called MyHealth to help drivers find health insurance, the firm's website says.

A bill was introduced in the City Council last year to establish a program providing taxi and for-hire vehicle drivers alike with benefits such as disability insurance and health care services. But the legislation has not made it out of a committee.

Weiner said he sees the United program as a "test case" for the independent contractor economy, which includes workers such as nannies, housekeepers and others. ostraa could set up similar programs for other taxi operators and would like to bring them to app-based companies such as Uber, Lyft and Postmates, he said.

"Are we saving the gig economy? I don’t know," Weiner said. "What we are saying is that this is one possible solution that is easy to implement, that is easy to model and make the economics of it work."

Correction: An earlier version of this story used an incorrect partial quotation from Maximilian Weiner. He said yellow cab drivers are “massively uninsured” when it comes to life, vision, dental and pharmacy coverage, not “massively underinsured.”

(Lead image: Taxi drivers gather at John F. Kennedy Airport on June 19, 2018. Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)