Impoverished people don't have any other choice.

It's part of how it's easy to stay poor. There was a while when all I had was a bicycle. When my bike got stolen I didn't have the money for another one, but over the next three months spent more than a bike would have cost on unavoidable and otherwise-impossible transportation. Mostly I walked (including three miles to work each day), but sometimes the cost of the cab was less than the money I'd loose by not being somewhere.

I was poor growing up. Rarely did we take a cab. We were lucky to have a decent bus system that was $0.50 and would take you all around the small town we lived. The fact is that we were so poor there is no way we could have paid the taxi fare & taxis don't take food stamps.

I do understand that public transit is not available for everyone, but for people who are impoverished, often the $10 - $20 for a cab ride isn't available either.

Honestly the inclusion of him helping the impoverished and old ladies just seems to be him buttering up his image for the story.

Clearly in a small town with good bus service, a taxi would rarely be needed for things you need a car for.

But there are plenty of large towns and cities that have terrible bus service.

I would still find it unlikely that a poor person could keep a regular taxicab habit going unless they were bailing on fares.

Cab drivers, including Yellow Cab drivers, don't work for "Yellow Cab". Each individual cab is a franchise operation with its own P&L. Cab drivers don't typically have "bosses".

It does look like you are right, though some companies do hire drivers to a more typical wage, that is not the norm. So I retract my assertion that his boss would be angry.