Billy D. Harvey has been driving with the Cambridge Yellow Cab Company for more than six years. The independence of the business and the chance to meet people and be his own boss were what attracted him to the job, he says.

But Harvey says that in the course of the past couple of years he has seen business drop off "dramatically," and has had to deal with more and more non-paying or non-tipping customers.

"Every night I have this dream of going to a sporting goods store, buying a gun and shooting myself in the head," Harvey says. "Things just aren't getting any better. People just aren't utilizing taxis like they used to."

Harvey attributes the drop in demand, which he estimates at 30 to 35 percent, to tightening economic conditions which are putting the squeeze on every sector of the nation's work force. He says that although he consistently works 60-hour weeks, he's finding it hard to get by. "You're lucky to get the fare from people now," he says.

Feeling the Pinch

According to Frank Anastasio, chief acting inspector of the Cambridge License Commission, Harvey is just one of close to 700 licensed cabbies in Cambridge who are being forced to fight for fares because of the recession. "Ten years ago there was absolutely no problem," Anastasio says. "The money was out there to be made. We've really started feeling the pinch in the last three years."

Because of the booming national economy which the country enjoyed throughout the 1980s, drivers went from 1981 to March of 1988 without raising their fares, Anastasio says.

But now that a financial downturn has arrived, cabbies are feeling the backlash of that period of prosperity. "When the recession finally hit it really took a bite out of the industry," Anastasio says.

In order to keep their heads above water financially, some drivers lobbied City Hall over the past months for a 10 percent rate increase, which the council granted late last month. But the council's decision provoked controversy among cabbies, some of whom feared the price hike would drive away customers, who are already scarce.

Cambridge taxis presently charge $1 when a passenger enters the cab, $1 for the first one-eighth mile and 25 cents for each subsequent one-eighth mile, making their prices roughly competetive with those of taxis in neighboring cities.

According to Bill Cavellini, who has been cabbying here for 15 years, the dire financial straits drivers have found themselves in lately made a fare increase a necessity.

A typical weekday night last year would have seen a handful of taxis lined up at the Harvard Square taxi stand, Cavellini observes. But now, he says, that number is doubled. "The economic downturn is generally felt in the taxi industry and the restaurant industry first, and this was true in this case," he says.

Airport Connections

Norm Roy, general sales manager at the Checker Cab Company, says the recession is hitting drivers particularly hard in its corporate and tourist aspects: the sense of financial restraint infecting the nation has resulted in less air travel and hotel usage for work and for pleasure, lopping off a significant chunk of taxi business.

"Even if they themselves are not economically bothered, they wonder if they should pull their heads in," Roy says of the usual cab customers.