Please, Please Tip Your Cabbie

With gas prices hovering near four dollars a gallon, cab drivers must work that much harder, and you cheap-asses aren’t helping any:

New York cabbies say outrageous gas prices have squeezed their wallets thin – but passengers aren’t helping them out with fatter tips.

“Hah! Forget about tipping better,” laughed cabbie Ruben Abramov, 38, of Fresh Meadows, Queens. “Somebody gets in a cab, they want to spend as little as possible. So I have to spend more time on the road.”

Cabbies said yesterday they pump about $45 a day into their gas tanks – up $10 or so from a week ago and as much as $20 from more than a year ago.

But fares – and tips – have held steady. So the drivers are spending more time behind the wheel and still going home with less money in their pockets.

Abner Simon of Queens Village described filling his tank for $3.59 a gallon, waiting three hours at LaGuardia Airport, driving a woman into Manhattan for a $27.80 fare – and getting only $30 for the trip.