Monica Yant Kinney: Seeing Phila. through a cab driver's window

I've never paid for a column before, but to feel the burn of Philadelphia taxi drivers, you need to be in the car. So Monday afternoon, I went for a $16.56 joy(less) ride in John Hough's All-City cab.

Hough, 41, had a heart attack a few months ago. Steve Chervenka, a 48-year-old fellow driver sitting in the backseat, has had two. Both blame their job.

Neither man is healthy or wealthy, but at least they're not William Milburn - a cabbie comrade who was attacked by a rider Saturday, losing $183 and an earlobe.

"He pushed the panic button" in his taxi to call for help, Hough said. "Nothing happened."

Talk about a sign of the times.

Taxi drivers have one of the most dangerous jobs in the nation, based on fatality rates. Two of Philadelphia's 4,000 cabbies have been killed since December.

Driving a taxi is also an expensive way to earn a living, with a variety of upfront costs ($170,000 for a medallion, or $350 a week to rent one), fees (up to $68 a week in dues to dispatchers), and fines ($100 for mismatched hubcaps, $150 for a dirty trunk).

High-tech gadgets imposed by Philadelphia Parking Authority overlords have improved service. As a side effect, cabbies allege, GPS systems and onboard credit-card machines cost them time and money they can't spare.

And if you think the rising cost of gas is burdening you, ask Hough about his $800-a-month petrol bill.

"This job," said Hough, a Taxi Workers Alliance spokesman, "is just not worth it anymore."

Cue the snickers and sneers. Lance Haver, the city's consumer advocate, knows you don't feel sorry for the stranger at the wheel.

"Many of us have had unpleasant experiences with cab drivers," Haver said, "but if there are any workers you want to open your hearts to, it's these guys."

"They work very long hours for very low pay. They take all the risk, but there's really no reward."

Iqbal Hussain, a native of Pakistan, has driven for 11 years. The popularity of Philly CarShare has hurt business, he said. If he's lucky, he brings home $70 a night.

"Most drivers stay in it for the freedom," the father of four from Bensalem told me, "but if I don't work one day, I need to make double the next day. If I'm sick, I still have to pay. Even if you're dying, you have to be working."

At a Parking Authority hearing last week, Haver drew huge applause when he suggested that instead of fining financially strapped drivers, the agency should pay them "a guaranteed living wage."

James Ney looked into whether drivers could earn a salary or qualify for health insurance when he got the job running the authority's Taxi and Limousine Division.

The problem? "They are all independent operators." Technically, they work for themselves.

And nowadays, the work isn't luring newcomers.

"You don't see many young drivers, do you?" Chervenka said.

It is true that in two years of Parking Authority control, riders have noticed cleaner cabs with more customer-friendly features.

But to taxi drivers - many of them immigrants like Hussain - life under the Parking Authority is more irritating and expensive.

For instance, cabbies lose 5 percent on credit-card fares. Passengers may prefer plastic, but Hough loathes getting paid that way:

"It can be weeks for the money to show up in my bank account."

Ney said the average lag time was just two days. And he defended fining drivers for repeatedly refusing fares - even for safety concerns.

"I understand their fears," he said, "but these cabs have to serve all neighborhoods in the city."

That said, Ney resoundingly dismissed the conspiracy theory that a forthcoming 10 percent fare hike will result in lost tips for drivers but bring even more money for the revenue-hungry Parking Authority.

"In fact," Ney told me, "this division loses money."

Losing money? Finally, something the cab drivers can relate to.