By Mariel S. Clark
DNAinfo News Editor
MANHATTAN — The multimillion dollar taxi fare overcharge scam may not have been as widespread as previously thought, the head of the Taxi and Limousine Commission said Monday.
Commissioner Matthew Daus said “a fairly significant number” of the 1.8 million rides thought to have been overcharged actually weren't. Instead there may have been mistakes that didn't cost customers extra money, according to media reports.
Many of the cabbies initially implicated may have unintentionally switched their meters to an out-of-town rate at the end of the trip when the cab had stopped, so no extra charge was passed along to the customer, Daus explained, during a City Council hearing.
"How can you overcharge a person at the end of a ride when you don't get money for it?" Daus told the Council, according to the New York Post. "It could be accidental."
On many meters, the button used to switch to a different rate is small and located next to the button the driver pushes to end the trip, reports said.
Earlier this month, the TLC announced it had found one of the largest taxi scams ever in which 35,558 cabbies — nearly three-fourths of the fleet — ripped-off passengers to the tune of $8.3 million over two years, the New York Times reported.
"We want an apology," Bhairavi Desai of the Taxi Workers Alliance told WNYC. "Not only in writing to the media. Blast it on the GPS screens."
TLC officials said they do believe some overcharging took place and will continue to investigate, according to the Associated Press.
