New York’s new taxi regulations made thousands of taxi drivers to go on a 48-hour strike, starting on Wednesday, 5 a.m. (0900 GMT). Demands of GPS and credit card systems installed in every cab made the 7,000 members of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance begin protests.

The executive director of the organization, Bhairavi Desai said that it was difficult to estimate what proportion of the 44,000 licensed taxi drivers of the city would join the protests but the alliance calls for a large protest.

New York City elaborated a contingency plan that will go into effect at midnight Tuesday, announcing that during the 2-day strike taxi fares will be increased, also encouraging people to share the cabs, mostly on rides to and from LaGuardia and JFK airports.

Drivers will have to pick up all additional passengers waving to them all throughout the five boroughs of the city, and will charge at the same zone fares all passengers. Traveling within one zone will cost 10$ per person, with additional 5$ for every zone that is traveled through.

The New York Taxi Workers Alliance protests against the GPS and credit card systems, considering them intrusive and too expensive. The GPS device is thought to be disturbing, as the driver is forced to listen to a stream of advertisements while his back seat is heated up, thus diminishing the hard work a taxi driver has to endure every day.

Believed to benefit the passengers, The Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC), a government agency, ordered that starting October to January 31, all yellow cabs have the system installed. TLC stated that this plan was announced two years ago and taxi owners benefited two fare increases in order to earn the necessary money.

Also, the credit card system will make drivers lose 5 percent during the transactions. Almost 800,000 passengers are estimated to travel by cab every day in New York.