NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission Panel

An Earnings Standard For New York City’s App-Based Drivers: The Taxi and Limousine Commission’s Proposed New Rules
Meera Joshi
Commissioner of the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission
Eric Goldwyn
Research Scholar, NYU Marron Institute
Anthony Vanky
Assistant Professor, Columbia GSAPP
Alex Rosenblat
Technology Ethnographer

In NYC, over 80,000 drivers work for the four largest for-hire vehicle (“FHV”) companies in our city: Uber, Lyft, Juno and Via. These drivers have played an integral part in the tremendous growth in the FHV sector from 42 million trips in 2015 to 159 million trips in 2017. However, TLC analysis revealed that drivers did not share in this prosperity. From 2016 to 2017, driver income decreased by 11.17%. Economists hired by the TLC determined that after expenses, 85% of drivers working for these companies early less than the state minimum wage.

The regulations passed by TLC require the companies compensate drivers for each trip based on minimum time and distance rates such that an average driver working full time should earn at least $17.22 per hour after expenses and result in an average increase in $9,600 per year. TLC will enforce these standards through robust data collection and analysis.

Commissioner Joshi and panelists will discuss the driver income rules recently passed by the TLC Commission, the impact of new for-hire services on the City’s traditional for-hire sectors, and more broadly the need for smart, data-driven policymaking in the “gig economy.”

The Lectures in Planning Series (LiPS) is an initiative of the Urban Planning program at Columbia University’s Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation.

All lectures are free and open to the public. For more information or to make program suggestions, email lipscolumbiaplanning@gmail.com.