NYC cabdrivers worried about dress code

A proposal to update the city's taxi driver dress code to include a "professional appearance" has some in the industry worried that the new language will prohibit religious or ethnic attire.

TLC Commissioner David Yassy said he supports the new dress code proposal because the current code is outdated. The current dress code is specific that drivers not dress in "tank tops; tube tops; body shirts; swimwear, bathing trunks or cutoff shorts."

"Our drivers are our ambassadors and we want them to greet our visitors in an appropriate way and project a neat, clean professional" attire, he said.

Yassy assured those at a public hearing Thursday in Manhattan that the commission does not intend to use the new dress code to stop drivers from wearing religious or ethnic clothing.

"We cannot be prouder that our drivers come from all around the world," he said.

But driver Osaman Chowdhury, 44, of Sunnyside, said the vagueness of the "professional" description is open to interpretation.

"An inspector can use this when he can't find anything wrong in his inspection and use this rule," said Chowdhury, who represents Bangladeshi drivers who are members of Bangladesh Society Inc., in Elmhurst.

"The word 'professional' is not clear," Chowdhury said. "I can go to the mosque with my cap and get a summons when I go back to work? What does 'professional dress' mean? A shirt with a collar or no collar?"

Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the Taxi Workers Alliance, said "some immigrant groups are concerned that maybe there might be a political moment that this open rule will leave it to interpretation."

Yassy said that the "fashion police will not be out in force." He said only 40 summons have been issued in the last 25 years under the old dress code.

But Desai said the $25 fine under the proposal "is easy money for the TLC and inspectors might begin to write out summonses."

The commission will vote on the proposal in January.