Uber/Lyft Drivers Call On City Council To Hold Emergency Hearings In wake of TLC Ignoring Drivers, City Leaders

Questions Loom on Impact on Pay, Leasing Costs, Deactivations for Tens of Thousands of Drivers

NYC TLC Risks Livelihood of Tens of Thousands of New Yorkers, Defying Calls From Drivers, City Council Speaker, City Council and Community Leaders To Delay Vote, Passes Extreme Uber/Lyft Rules

New York, NY — On Wednesday, August 7, the Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) defied the will of city council leaders and thousands of drivers by rushing through a vote on new proposed regulations that would have a massive impact on the more than 80,000 New Yorkers who make their living as app-based for-hire vehicle (FHV) drivers — and could devastate thousands of these families. The Independent Drivers Guild had urged the TLC to delay the vote until the effects of these proposals on FHV drivers were better understood. Numerous city council leaders and community organizations had also called on the TLC to delay the vote on these rules. Now the Guild is calling for emergency City Council hearings on the rules and the impacts on high volume FHV drivers.

“The city is gambling with the livelihoods of eighty thousand low income New York families by rushing through these rules. It is disappointing to see the city ignore the calls to delay the vote from drivers, the City Council Speaker, the Transportation Committee Chairman and numerous other City Council and community leaders,” said Independent Drivers Guild member Tina Raveneau, who drives for Lyft and Uber.

“The city council must act quickly to rein in the Taxi and Limousine Commission and call for immediate hearings to answer the numerous questions about the impact on drivers that the commission refused or was unable to answer before today’s vote,” added Raveneau. “In particular the Council must demand answers on the impact of rules thus far on driver pay, costs, and deactivations. We call on the Council to require the commission to: stop issuing unlimited new TLC drivers licenses instead of blocking drivers from owning their own vehicles; end predatory leasing with caps on lease costs; revoke TLC vehicle licenses from predatory companies and make those available to TLC drivers harmed by the cap; enforce the pay rules and end the predatory manipulation of app access; require high volume for-hire vehicle companies to establish due process procedures before deactivating drivers.”

The IDG is a Machinists Union affiliate which represents and advocates for more than 70,000 app-based drivers in NYC. We are Uber, Lyft, Juno and Via Drivers United for a more fair industry.  Follow us on twitter at @drivingguild