WBRZ - Baton Rouge

NEW ORLEANS - New Orleans taxi fleet is being forced to modernize - over the objections of protesting taxi cab drivers.

Starting Monday, the city's fleet of about 1,600 cabs will have to be equipped with air conditioning, surveillance cameras, credit card machines and global positioning devices. The vehicles also will need to be no older than 11 years, with that age limit reduced even further to seven years in 2014.

The Times-Picayune reports that cabs without these upgrades will fail their next biannual inspection.

All of this hasn't been sitting well with cab drivers who've fought the changes in court and in the arena of public opinion.

On Thursday, several dozen taxi drivers marched around City Hall protesting the sweeping regulations.