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A.C. cabdrivers struggling due to casino closings

ATLANTIC CITY - The winter here is traditionally brutal for resort business, but a glut of vehicles to transport patrons that once filled the casinos has created a new class of beleaguered taxicab drivers.

Nadir Khan , a father of three, says, "I can't make a living."
Nadir Khan , a father of three, says, "I can't make a living."Read moreCLEM MURRAY / Staff Photographer

ATLANTIC CITY - The winter here is traditionally brutal for resort business, but a glut of vehicles to transport patrons that once filled the casinos has created a new class of beleaguered taxicab drivers.

Nadir Khan, 57, is ready to throw in the towel after four years.

"I can't make a living," Khan said as he sat in his taxi outside the Trump Taj Mahal last week.

From 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. Wednesday, Khan had two fares totaling $29. The lease on his cab was recently dropped from $275 to $170 a week because business has been so off.

Still, Khan - who has three children and a stay-at-home wife to support - can't cover the lower fee, much less his daily gas.

"I bring my dreams to America, but now I don't know where to go," said the Pakistani native who arrived in Atlantic City in 1986 - eight years after the first casino, Resorts, opened on the Boardwalk.

What were a dozen gambling halls just a year ago are now eight, with one or two more on the brink of possible closure.

But while the number of casinos has shrunk, there remains an endless parade of stretch limos, jitneys, rolling chairs, and cabs, circling the city looking for customers that have all but disappeared this winter - less than five months after Revel, Showboat, and Trump Plaza fell like dominoes after the closure of Atlantic Club on Jan. 13, 2014.

'Killing us'

The toll has been particularly difficult on drivers, like Khan, many of whom are immigrants, and who for decades turned to driving cabs when no other jobs were available, or they were laid off from a casino job. Khan worked at Trump Plaza from 2000 to 2010 as a cashier.

But the cab safety net is gone. In interviews with a dozen city cabdrivers this month, seven, such as Khan, are thinking of quitting; three have turned in or are about to turn in their medallions (cab licenses); and two have part-time jobs to supplement their cabs.

Half of the 12 plan to leave Atlantic City as soon as they can.

"Some drivers are moving to Maryland and New York, and some to Philadelphia," said Hossain Shakhauth, 31, who drives a cab at night and job-hunts during the day.

Yellow Cab Co., the city's largest and only organized taxi company, said 24 drivers turned in their medallions in September, with an additional 37 behind on lease payments and on the verge of having their contracts canceled. That's a total of 61 of its 75 drivers facing hardship.

"Just making the lease is hard," said Muhammed Fayez, 48, president of the Atlantic City Taxicab Association, which represents about 150 drivers - half its total membership before the September casino closings. "I'm behind about two weeks."

Fayez's cab lease is $200 a week. Last Tuesday, he made $20 after 10 hours. On Wednesday, he had zero customers.

"We had four properties close, and now the competition in surrounding states is killing us," said Fayez, who sat for six hours straight without moving in "the feed line" that supplies cabs as needed to the Taj Mahal, which also is struggling to stay open.

"We used to have thousands of buses coming here," he said. "We've lost business from the south. I used to have tourists from Baltimore and Maryland. The poker player from New York is now going to Bethlehem [at Sands Bethlehem Casino]."

He said even the locals market - casino employees taking a cab to and from work - has dwindled. The casino closures laid off 8,000 workers.

Fayez, a former cashier at Caesars, has driven a cab for 14 years. He said this month will likely be his last.

"At this point, I am willing to drive a tractor-trailer. Anything."

'There's nobody'

The 97-year-old Yellow Cab office sits four blocks from the shuddered Atlantic Club. It is owned by Murray Rosenberg, 73, who bought the company from his father, and controls 75 of the city's 250 medallions.

Rosenberg's son, Paul, 35, who became its president seven years ago, said he was dispatching more than 100 Yellow Cab cars this time last year. He has fewer than 60 cars out this month.

"There's nobody in town to move," he said. "Folks that are coming in don't leave the casino. When they're done, they go back to their cars and leave."

The city's economic downturn recently exposed how some were being defrauded by third-party middlemen. Close to 40 taxi drivers are named in a lawsuit filed last year and still to be tried in Atlantic County Superior Court against Adel Halim.

Halim allegedly leased medallions from Yellow Cab and other owners, and subleased them to drivers at exorbitant rates. In several instances, the suit alleges, he charged as much as $575 a week, instead of $500 to $800 per month as outlined in their original contracts.

"City Hall did not know we were paying that much," said Shakhauth, the Yellow Cab driver and a plaintiff in the lawsuit. "If they didn't pay, Halim threatened to take their medallions away."

The city is in the midst of rewriting the Taxi Code Ordinance and overhauling its whole transportation system. In September, it added wording to all taxi lease agreements requiring "proof of payment" to medallion owners and prohibiting subleasing.

A plan is expected to go before Atlantic City Council late next month. The proposed cab reforms include a dress code, and using credit cards, GPS dispatching, and more efficient fuels.

"I don't think we have taken any action with transportation for a long time," Mayor Don Guardian said. "With four properties closing, we ended up with more limos, rolling chairs, and unlicensed taxis than demand. Competition is so fierce now that no one can make a living."

An electric tram system with five trams that each can seat up to 15 passengers debuts on the Boardwalk on Feb. 1, adding to the crowded field. B&B Parking will pay the city at least $126,000 per year for two years to operate it.

Guardian, who refers to cabdrivers as "my frontline ambassadors," said he recently visited Chicago, Dallas, and Cincinnati and was impressed with their cab service.

"All three just had a major cleanup of the industry," he said. "That's what we need to do. For a city like ours that drives on tourism, we really need reform."

The overhaul comes as the city rebuilds. It is adding non-gambling attractions - including a new Ferris wheel on the Steel Pier, and Stockton College opening a campus at the former Showboat in the fall.

'I can't make it'

As it neared 8 p.m. on a recent weeknight outside the Atlantic City Bus Terminal, Taoufik Ammari sat in his cold cab and listened to the radio scanner.

It had been three hours since his shift started and not a single customer.

It was costing him. Ammari's lease with Yellow Cab was $1,400 a month, plus $400 for insurance. He stopped paying both in October, so Yellow Cab stopped dispatching him on calls. He relies strictly on street fares.

But that night, like so many others since summer, no one needed a lift - not even in 18-degree weather on a Friday night.

The week before, Ammari made $250 - all on New Year's Eve - but still not enough to live on. He said he and his wife, who is unemployed, could no longer afford milk for their two sons, ages 3 and 11/2.

"I can't make it. There's nothing here anymore," Ammari said. "It's like a ghost town."

On Monday he turned in his medallion at City Hall.