New York City Tourism in a Blink

By: David Lee Buster
The hack license may interest you if you have you recently moved to New York City and are you looking for work. If you want to, perhaps you would like to get your own license and become a taxi driver.

What is that, you say? Well, the hack license is what you will need to get when you want to drive a yellow medallion taxicab in the city. This can be valuable if you are someone who needs steady work in the city.

How are you going to get this license in New York City? Well, you will need to go through a bit of paperwork, take required classes and study so that you can learn the highways, bridges and tunnels and various landmarks of the city. If you can do this, then it is most likely that you will be eligible for the New York City hack license.

Once you have it, you will need to get ready to go to work. And this type of job is not for slackers or somebody who does not have a lot of energy. You will probably work long hours, at least 12 on a shift. If this is you, then perhaps this is the perfect job for you. Go ahead and apply for your New York City hack license. Indeed, many taxi drivers can bring in upwards of $400 a shift with take-home pay of more than $200 a shift after expenses.

Now that we have got that cleared up, let us take a look at the definition of the word hack. What is it and what does it mean? Of course, this term can be a derogatory term, but historically, when someone is described as a hack, that means it is someone who is willing to work hard and will put in the time to do so.

It is possible that its origin came from the French word haquenee. This word was used for a horse whose gait was much smoother than that of a traditional horse, because the right legs or left legs moved in tandem instead of the traditional cross gait of a trot. This was much more comfortable for ladies who rode sidesaddle since it was much less jarring. And the term might have come from a borough in London called Hackney. By the way, in the UK, motorized hackney cabs are black instead of yellow as is traditionally true in the US.

In fact, the yellow medallion taxis have a tradition dating back to the 1930's. Indeed, they are one of the lasting enterprises of New York City. Just in the last decade, over 1,000 new medallions have been auctioned off by the city. Recently, a taxi medallion cost its new owner more than $600,000. By contrast, these went for less than $200,000 in 2001. The winners are either driving now or they have sold their licenses at a profit to present medallion owners.

In New York City, however, the hack license to be a taxi driver is issued by the Taxi and Limousine Commission. This allows you to hack or drive a yellow cab. Indeed, having this license can be worth a lot to you.

If you have the hack license, you are one of the select drivers who can pick up hails, or people with their hand raised, on the streets of New York City. You also will accept hails anywhere within the five boroughs of the city itself. In addition, during your first eight hours of the shift, you will take passengers to the adjoining counties of Westchester or Nassau or the Newark, New Jersey international airport.

Do you think you would like to become a hack for New York City? If you do, you can find out more about getting your own hack license by contacting the Master Cabbie Taxicab Academy in New York City.

Copyright 2008 American Master Cabbie