The practice of picking up passengers for a fee without the proper commercial licenses, medallions, or municipal permits. It often involves soliciting riders at airports, transit hubs, or busy nightlife areas where legal taxis are scarce. Enforcement agencies target this behavior due to passenger safety concerns and the lack of commercial insurance coverage.
Port Authority police cracked down on hacking at Terminal 4 last night and impounded three cars.
Licensed drivers often use the noun hack to refer to themselves or their legal taxi, but hacking as a verb almost always implies illegal operation.
Also heard as
- gypsy cabbing
Related terms
P2P
A transport model moving freight or passengers directly between origin and destination.
TaaS
A mobility model that shifts users away from personal vehicle ownership toward consuming transport as an on-demand service.
Commuter
A transit system or vehicle designed for daily travel between residential areas and city centers.