Mel Plaut is a writer from New York City who was recognized by ABC News and the Associated Press in January 2006. Plaut ran a blog called "New York Hack" about her career as a New York City taxi driver. In 2007, her book Hack: How I Stopped Worrying About What to Do with My Life and Started Driving a Yellow Cab was published by Villard. At the time of publication, women made up only about 200 of the 40,000 cab drivers in NYC.