Vets Drive Yellow NYC is a new program that is helping former servicemembers get jobs as New York City taxi drivers in their life after service.
According to NBC New York, the hiring initiative involves seven taxi garages, the owners of which are paying for the hackney licenses of returning soldiers in order to help ease their transition to civilian life. Having the owners purchase the licenses also speeds up the process, which can often be lengthy.
AM New York explained that cab drivers are in high demand throughout the city, mostly due to the spike in popularity of ride sharing programs like Uber and Lyft. Since many soldiers are returning from war actively searching for ways to support themselves, matching them up with cab companies seems like a natural choice.
Veterans can take advantage of the program by attaching their discharge papers to their driver applications. This will get them hiring preference so that they can immediately schedule the mandatory drug and driving tests and have their official licenses within a month.
Garage owners are excited to take on former servicemembers, mostly because the skills they learned in the service translate well to the fast-paced life of NYC taxi driving. Not only are they a trustworthy and respectable pool of applicants, but many of them drove in combat situations. They are more than equipped to handle the often unpredictable streets of the Big Apple. Additionally, they hope passengers will return to using cabs in place of ride sharing apps once they know they will be helping to support veterans with every ride.
Participating veterans have been pleased with their experiences so far.
"It's a job where you do get to travel a lot and travel with a purpose. It's interacting with people from every single culture, every single place," veteran and taxi driver Peter Lloyd told AM New York.