I began driving for the accused at 6-7-10. From the start he was totally clueless about the rules and displayed a complete inability to understand how the industry works. American taxi is a new and relatively small company. With no form of dispatch(local city ordinances require that all cab companies form dispatch) provided, the company relies heavily on the local airport for fares. Working at the airport takes diligence to say the least a driver must sit for up to 4 hours for a fare(Imagine sitting in a line of cabs and getting a customer that wants to go less than a mile from the location you pick them up from. Now, don't misinterput what I've just explained because I'm not complaining. It comes with the territory, besides there are ways you can entertain yourself during these periods. As an ametuer artist I had plenty of time to work on my drawings an improve my skills). Airport customers often request to use a credit card to pay for the fare traveled. American taxi did not provide this for customers. We were losing customers due to the lack of convience. I explained this to the cab owner, but he stubbornly refused to take the necessary steps to solve this problem. I had to rent a credit card machine, on my own. The process was simple, the company that provided the machine does not require any money up front and the machine literally pays for itself. Because of his refusal to get a machine, I had to rent one myself. I told him that there was a wait of up to two days for the money to be issued to the account the machine was assigned to. At that time he told me that would be no problem. I had to spend money to keep this man business running and expected no re-imbursment(only patience) for having to pay out of pocket for the service. I knew other drivers who'd reaped the benefits of these machines and I knew it would be only a matter of time before I got the same results. Sometimes customers at the airport are issued vouchers to cover the fare for traveling to another airport to catch a connecting flight. The taxicab vehicle owner can send the voucher to the airline whom issued it for a re-imbursment. A voucher to Norfolk Airport has a cash value of up to $70. Since I did not have the ability to send in the vouchers for the owner, I gave the 2 vouchers to him (valued at $70 each). He was dumbfounded, because he expected cash. I explained to him the neccessary steps he needed to take to re-imbursed for the vouchers. It is suprising to me that cab owners are not required to know this info before they go into business.(In the past, I have taken vouchers from customers and recieved a deduction off the lease from cab owners who are aware of the practice). The requirements needed to be fully re-imbursed for vouchers are a business license (Which all taxicab owners are required to have) and filling out the neccessary paperwork at the airport with the airline(s). The next morning I recived a call from the cab owner. He told me that he sold the vouchers for $50 each rather than sending the vouchers to the airline himself. He then told me that since he sold the vouchers for under the value of both the fare and the voucher value, that I owed him an extra $40. I was infuriated and made him aware of it. I refused to pay him anything extra and let him know that I did not appreciate his attempted strong arming to say the least. A few days later he abruptly removed me from his vehicle and told me he no longer wanted me to drive for him. This has created a hardship on my household. Now me and my family are on the verge of eviction from our home. I feel that because I refused to allow this person to burden me with the consequence of his actions I was put out of work. Furthermore I made numerous attempts to make this individual aware that because of the absence of any kind of dispatch service that I wasn't recieving any fares from the company,( I personally feel like the owner of the company disproportionatly gave out trips) completely relying on my own contacts and the local airport for trips. I saw no profit from working for American taxi. I don't consider myself a run of the mill cab driver. I take the occupation very seriously. I even won an award from our local tourism association because of my dedication to the industry. I am tired of getting the short end of the stick for doing my job correctly while those who act wrecklessly get all the benefits of my hard work. Recently our industry has come under intense scrutiny becasue of unprofessional practices and behavior. It is people like the owers(of the cab and the company)that are the problem. Our industry will continue to go downward so long as these people are allowed to run their businesses the way they do.