SAN FRANCISCO – Four credit unions have partnered in a program to make loans for taxi medallions, days after San Francisco launched an enabling program.
San Francisco FCU and New York’s Montauk CU are accepting loan applications, while San Francisco Fire CU and San Francisco Police CU are purchasing participations in taxi loans. San Francisco FCU underwrote the first loan in the new program for Ahmad Sidaoui, who had been on the waiting list for more than 14 years and who paid $250,000 for his medallion.
This comes after the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency voted Aug. 3 to approve the launch of a short-term pilot program for the buying and selling of San Francisco taxi medallions that allows those medallion holders who are more than 70 years old or disabled to sell their medallion to a new, qualified driver. It is being projected that approximately 200 medallions will be sold under this program.
San Francisco has a unique taxi market in that each medallion holder must be a full-time driver and is responsible for all aspects of operating a taxi, hence a true small business owner.
Medallion holders then affiliate with a qualified taxi company under the pilot program, which provides services such as fuel, radios, dispatch, insurance, etc.
