More than 15 years after The City launched a paid medallion program — and then let in Uber and Lyft — many drivers are still struggling to pay their loans
Miguel Marquez said that when he bought his taxi medallion from San Francisco for $250,000 in 2013, he saw it as his chance to achieve the American Dream. At the time, he could rent out his medallion to a cab company for $2,500 a month, giving him a steady source of cash each month even after making his $1,800 loan payment.
He was still driving a cab himself and making good money doing that, particularly picking up fares from the airport. And he saw the medallion as his retirement plan — under the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency’s then-new paid-medallion system, medallion holders could essentially sell them to other cabbies for the same $250,000 price, with SFMTA taking a $50,000 cut. Things haven’t worked out as Marquez hoped. The entry of Lyft and early ride-hail competitor Sidecar into the San Francisco market around the same time undermined the industry by flooding the streets with quasi-cabs that weren’t subject to the same regulations — and didn’t require medallions. With demand drying up, cab companies cut the prices they were willing to pay for medallions until it no longer made sense for Marquez and other drivers to continue to lease them out. These days, Marquez and other drivers say they work more and longer hours to typically earn a fraction of what they used to make. The paid-medallion program, for all intents and purposes, is dead, with none sold in nearly 10 years, so drivers can’t cash them out. More than 300 medallion loans have now been foreclosed on, according to data from The City. Meanwhile, at least 282 drivers are still paying off their medallion loans. For his part, despite paying for 13 years, Marquez says he still owes $165,000. Between his loan, maintenance for his car, the money he pays the cab company he’s affiliated with and credit-card debt, Marquez said he’s struggling to stay afloat. “Sometimes, I don’t even know what to do with myself, because so many bills coming left and right,” he said. “Like me, I know it’s a whole bunch of people out there that they’re trying to figure it out, what they’re going to do,” he said. On Wednesday, Marquez and a group of other taxi drivers took a step to try to call attention to their plight and get help from The City. Drivers piloting about 10 cabs circled City Hall multiple times, honking and displaying signs that carried messages including, “Lurie hear our plea: Bail us out!” and “Relief now, no more delays!” After holding a sparsely attended press conference on the steps of City Hall, Marquez and other drivers presented a petition to Mayor Daniel Lurie’s office, calling for his active assistance in reducing or eliminating their debt. It’s unclear whether or how Lurie will respond to their call. He wasn’t there to receive their petition, as he was attending the U.S. Conference of Mayors meeting in Washington, D.C. In response to a request for comment about the petition, Kate Poltack, a spokesperson for the mayor, directed the inquiry to the SFMTA. Erica Kato, the transportation agency’s spokesperson, declined to comment directly on the petition or the drivers’ call for debt relief. Kato pointed to steps the agency has taken in recent years to try to shore up the taxi industry, including waiving taxi-related fees between fiscal years 2020 and 2024 and launching a program where Uber and Lyft rides are now open to taxi drivers. “SFMTA remains committed to supporting the taxi industry through innovative new programs and services,” Kato said. Drivers said that some of the SFMTA’s steps have helped, but they don’t compensate for the debt burdens they still carry. San Francisco, like several other major U.S. cities, limits the number of cabs on the road to those associated with individual taxi medallions. From 1978 until 2010, The City offered those medallions for a nominal fee, with a catch: Cabbies could only get them when medallion holders died or surrendered theirs to the city taxi agency. After putting their names on a city-maintained list, drivers would often wait years to get a medallion. Ex // Top Stories Entire SF city block to be covered by large-scale mural Contemporary artist Jeffrey Gibson's 433-foot mural"This Burning World" spans Mission Street between 4th and 5th streets How Wiener’s AI safety bill is paving the way for other states Legislators elsewhere are copying and building on SB 53, which the state senator fought to get enacted for more than a year Bring January to a close with these 18 exciting SF events Listen to a live podcast recording, run a half marathon or attend a sound bath before flipping the calendar to February SFMTA started a new program in 2010 in which drivers who already held medallions could sell them for a set price of $250,000. The agency later started selling brand-new medallions as well — for $125,000 to those who were near the top of the waiting list, and for $250,000 to everyone else. The City ended up raising $63 million from the program. But things soon went south for drivers, thanks to largely unregulated entry of the ride-hailing companies. By 2016 — and as early as 2014 for some drivers — business had slowed markedly. Conditions changed “really quick,” said Matt Sutter, who said he bought his medallion for $250,000 around 2013 and still owes about $130,000 on it. San Francisco Federal Credit Union, which provided most of the loans for the medallions, sued SFMTA in 2018, charging that the agency had breached its contract by never declaring an end to the sales program and buying back the medallions, as was provided for under the city law authorizing the program. The credit union was already foreclosing on delinquent medallion loans and claimed at the time that write-offs for such loans — along with the reserves it had set aside for future defaults — had already cost it $10 million. The credit union lost a jury trial in 2021 and a subsequent appeal. In 2024, the state Supreme Court declined to hear the case. The two sides are in mediation to try to finally resolve the dispute. Among the drivers’ demands are that Lurie step in to broker an agreement. They said they’re hoping the mayor will take on a role similar to the one he took last year when he helped broker an end to a monthslong strike by hotel workers. But the paid-medallion holders say they also hope to be a part of those discussions. Although the loans they are still on the hook for are at the center of the fight, neither SFTMA nor the credit union is well placed to represent the interests of those drivers, said Evelyn Engel, a member of the board of the San Francisco Taxi Workers Alliance. “That is one of our main requests of Mayor Lurie — to let us in, to let us have a seat at the table,” Engel said. While it’s unclear how City Hall will receive the petition, one San Francisco politician was on hand Wednesday to support the drivers. Dan Wheeler, who is running for the congressional seat from which Nancy Pelosi is retiring, spoke at the press conference and went with them to deliver their petition to the Mayor’s Office. Wheeler — a lawyer who said he is now representing the taxi drivers on a pro-bono basis — said he only recently became aware of the drivers’ plight. That The City sold off the medallions at $250,000 a piece and then allowed the ride-hailing companies to come in and compete with the cabbies without having to secure medallions themselves was “a remarkable injustice,” he said. San Francisco needs to wipe out the drivers’ debt and give a refund to those who have already paid off their loans, Wheeler said.Wheeler said he’s optimistic that Lurie will take on the issue. Because the paid-medallion program launched years before the mayor took office, “this is not Dan Lurie’s fault,” Wheeler said.
Uber Lyft Daniel Lurie Dan Wheeler Sfmta
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