Doing More in ‘24: TLC Celebrates a Year Defined by Driver Initiatives and Accessibility

TLC Helped Secure Better Driver Pay, Expanded EV Trips By 500%, And Added More Than 1,100 Wheelchair Accessible Vehicles to The Fleet

NEW YORK, NY – The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission is proud to reflect on a substantial list of achievements and accomplishments in 2024, many of which support, honor and empower drivers while highlighting the importance of the agency’s safety mission. The historic and extraordinary 12 months also saw major policy moves designed to increase and improve accessibility.

“From day one, our administration has focused on creating a safer, more affordable New York City. In 2024, we continued to deliver on that vision and ‘Get Stuff Done’ for working-class New Yorkers,” said New York City Mayor Eric Adams. “Thanks to our extraordinary public servants, America’s safest big city got even safer this year, with overall crime down and thousands of illegal guns, mopeds, and ghost cars taken off city streets. We passed historic legislation to turn New York into a ‘City of Yes,’ shattered affordable housing records once again, and put billions of dollars back into New Yorkers’ pockets. We broke records for the most jobs and small businesses in city history and moved millions of trash bags off our sidewalks and into containers. But we know that there is even more we can do to continue to uplift working-class families. As we look to the future, our administration remains committed to keeping New Yorkers safe and making our city more affordable for the millions of New Yorkers who call our city home.”

“Safe driving always comes first at TLC, but in terms of getting stuff done we’ve been burning up the road,” said Taxi and Limousine Commissioner David Do. “We protected driver earnings by securing a cost-of-living increase, leapt two years ahead of schedule in our efforts to create more sustainable and accessible rideshare fleet, and expanded our overall accessible fleet by 11%. We’ve also doubled down on Vision Zero with a dynamic new driver education curriculum, including retraining requirements, that will save lives. I commend my TLC team for their unyielding commitment to New Yorkers and thank Mayor Adams and Deputy Commissioner of Operations Joshi for their continuous support.” 

Here are some of the TLC’s 2024 accomplishments:

NYC’s Rideshare Drivers Receive Pay Raise: The City’s first-in-nation minimum pay standard continued to ensure that rideshare drivers were fairly compensated to keep up with rising costs. On March 1, NYC’s rideshare drivers received a minimum per trip pay increase of 3.49% to account for inflation as part of the city’s mandate to regularly adjust minimum pay for rideshare drivers.

Green Rides’ New Sustainability, Accessibility Milestones: The historic Green Rides Initiative, which passed in Oct. 2023 and requires all NYC rideshare trips to be either wheelchair accessible (WAV) or zero-emissions by 2030, is already two years ahead of schedule. The TLC’s “Electrification In Motion” report highlighted the substantial gains in electric vehicle charging development that have been generated by Green Rides. In 2024, more than 120 million EV trip miles saved more than 30,000 metric tons of CO2 emissions. Today, one out of every five Uber and Lyft trips that start in the city are either completed by an electric vehicle or a WAV, already meeting benchmarks set for the end of 2025. In March, the TLC’s monthly rideshare EV trips surpassed two million (2.05M) for the first time, while WAV trips hit a record 1.9M.

TLC’s New Driver Renewal Course Revamped After Input from Drivers, Instructors: The refreshed curriculum, which debuted April 1 and was driven by substantial feedback from instructors and thousands of TLC drivers, contains engaging new video content that focuses on real-world scenarios and expands on drivers’ extensive WAV training. The immersive new video content also continues to emphasize Vision Zero instructions around passenger safety, cyclists and weather hazards.

TLC Inspector Inducted Into NYS Veterans Hall of Fame:  Ryan Su was inducted into the New York State Senate Veterans Hall of Fame in Albany on May 28, becoming the first known member of the TLC to ever be selected, after New York State Senator John Liu nominated him for his military service and dedication to law enforcement. Inspector Su, who served in the United States Army, has spent five years with the TLC, starting out in Enforcement before transitioning to Safety and Emissions for the last three years.

Driver Wellness Room Opens at TLC’s Long Island City Offices: Partnering with NYC Health + Hospitals and the Mayor’s Office of Community Mental Health, a new outreach campaign specifically for taxi and for-hire drivers outlined a bevy of available benefits and mental health resources. A dedicated Wellness Center in the Long Island City office, accessible through the Owner Driver Resource Center, allows licensees to have a private video consultation with providers, while NYC Health + Hospitals’ Virtual ExpressCare provides a 24/7 resource to drivers and their families.

Celebrating A Decade Of Vision Zero Safety at Gracie Mansion: The annual Vision Zero Honor Roll ceremony—which recognizes TLC drivers and bases for their outstanding commitment to safety and impeccable driving records—brought together hundreds of drivers who have gone at least five years without any serious crashes, have no traffic violations, and no violations of TLC’s safety related rules. In special recognition of the ceremony’s 10th anniversary, Mayor Adams became the first mayor to host the party!

Former Drivers Reinforce TLC Police’s Latest Cadet Class: A diverse group of New Yorkers joined the TLC’s Enforcement Unit in October, including nine former TLC drivers who will now use their knowledge and experience to bolster public safety. The class also included seven officers who have worked in enforcement at other agencies, and 13 who speak or understand multiple languages – including Spanish, Hindi, Urdu and Bengali.

TLC Series Documents Commissioner’s Trailblazing Experiences as a Driver: Commissioner Do is the first sitting commissioner to get a TLC hack license and conduct trips, and the agency launched an online series chronicling his journeys through the streets of New York to find trips and deliver passengers. The “Commissioner Cab” series raises awareness about the TLC’s regulatory role and the overall industry, and is a fun way for passengers to vicariously get behind the wheel. Stay tuned for more episodes, coming monthly.

TLC’s Online Factbook Expands Groundbreaking Commitment to Transparency: The TLC Factbook – an interactive dashboard that visualizes trip data collected by TLC – continued expanding its unprecedented look under the hood of the agency’s statistics. The dashboard, which is updated every month, added new and illuminating data in 2024, including driver pay, working vehicle classification stats, and licensee demographics that even features a driver residence map.

The year ahead promises many, if not more, efforts from TLC designed to increase stability for drivers and accessibility and safety for passengers. This will include proposing minimum pay rule amendments to deter rideshare companies from future access restrictions (aka “lockouts”); passage of rules permitting tablets in for-hire vehicles, with at least 25% of their gross revenue going into drivers’ pockets, and increasing up-front payments from the Taxi Improvement Fund to allow medallion owners to more easily hack up new wheelchair accessible vehicles.

About the NYC TLC

Created in 1971, NYC TLC is the agency responsible for licensing and regulating New York City's medallion (yellow) taxi cabs, for-hire vehicles (community-based liveries, black cars, and luxury limousines), commuter vans, and paratransit vehicles, along with the businesses that operate them. It is recognized as the largest and most active taxi and for-hire vehicle regulatory body in the United States.

Over 200,000 TLC licensees complete approximately 1,000,000 trips each day. To operate for hire, drivers must first undergo a background check, have a safe driving record, and complete 24 hours of driver training. TLC-licensed vehicles are inspected for safety and emissions at TLC's Woodside Inspection Facility.

To find out more about the TLC, or to review its rules, regulations, and procedures, we encourage you to visit our official Web site at www.nyc.gov/taxi or contact 311/311 Online.

###