Andrew Milgram

I described earlier, there was this contentiousness in the space.

Labor, operator, capital, nobody really even talked to each other, much less liked talking to each other.

As people figured out that MarbleGate was playing a larger and larger role, one of the first things that happened, our offices are here in Greenwich, Connecticut.

We were picketed by the Taxi Workers Alliance, which is the de facto union for the space.

Now, one of the things I'm most proud of is we had water and sandwiches delivered to them.

It upset my team.

And I actually don't even think the Taxi Workers Alliance knows this.

But I actually put on a baseball cap and a T-shirt and went out and marched with them and talked to the drivers.

Showed them your license.

Grabbed a sign.

It goes to driving a taxi.

I want to understand.

We're on your mind.

Tell me what you need.

Tell me what's going on.

We ultimately did do that across the table from each other in a conference room.

But the reality is you get a sense of things by really going and speaking with people and understanding really what's driving their decisions and how they really are interacting with you or the problem that they're facing.

And by spending time with drivers in informal settings like that, but also formal settings with the Taxi Workers Alliance and particularly with the leadership of the Taxi Workers Alliance, I found their concerns to be completely valid and real.

I thought that the pressures they were facing were obvious and unavoidable.

It was very clear to me that the system was not working for them.