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HOUSTON -- Before he even starts his taxi cab, Yamare Ndiaye knows the day will take a toll. “Every day I keep losing a lot of money.”

Ndiaye says he hasn’t turned a profit in months.

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He says he doesn’t even bother to ask customers for that $1 fuel surcharge the city allowed this week.

“I don’t even ask it to customers because I feel ashamed. One dollar is nothing,” he said.

Manpower is now also an issue says Jerry Brady with Liberty Cab Company. “And we’re already having radio calls that we can’t service because of the driver shortage.”

Brady is asking the city to raise the per-mile rate by about 15 percent.

Even then, he says, his drivers would only pocket what they did five years ago.

That’s driving some employees away.

More than 50 drivers have left their jobs at Liberty Cab in the last three months.

Most of them took jobs in other cities.

That’s more than one in every five.

“I know that cab drivers are hurting and this is biting into their profits but again when you’re talking about raising something we’re not going to rush into it,” said Houston Councilmember Sue Lovell.

“I think we’ll take our time and see if there is something we can do to give them some relief,” she said.

The City Council’s heard from other cab companies that say higher rates would hurt business.

Brady says customers are already frustrated. “They’re gonna call cab companies and they’re gonna wait and wait and wait and maybe they’ll get a cab and maybe they won’t. I’ve got 70 cabs vacant out of 237.”

No matter how bad it gets Yamare says he plans to stay.