NEW YORK (AP) – Taxi drivers angry about a new rule requiring the installation of global positioning systems and credit card machines in cabs are planning a second one-day strike in six weeks today.

The city was preparing for the strike by the Taxi Workers Alliance by instituting a contingency plan that lets drivers pick up multiple passengers and charge zone-based fares.

The touch-screen monitors, which are being phased in as yellow cabs come up for inspection, let passengers pay by credit card, check on news stories, map their taxi’s current location and look up restaurant and entertainment information.

The alliance, which claims to represent about a fifth of the city’s 44,000 licensed cab drivers, opposes the technology, saying the 5 percent surcharge on each credit card transaction amounts to a wage cut and the GPS device allows cab companies to track drivers.

Furthermore, the alliance claims the technology doesn’t work properly.

“There are several dead zones throughout the city where the credit card machine simply does not work,” Bhairavi Desai, the group’s executive director, said at a news conference Sunday. “A passenger may swipe it and jump out of the cab, which is understandable, but then three minutes later the message comes on the screen that the credit card was declined. Who’s going to compensate the drivers?”

The Taxi and Limousine Commission said earlier this month that its tests showed the technology worked more than 99 percent of the time.

It was unclear how many drivers honored the Taxi Workers Alliance’s one-day strike over the technology issue on Sept. 5 or how many would honor the strike scheduled to begin at 5 a.m. today.

AP-ES-10-21-07 1400EDT