COMMISSIONER'S LETTER

By New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission Commissioner/Chairman David Yassky

The year 2012 was a characteristically eventful one for the Taxi and Limousine Commission with an equally characteristic balance of challenges and achievements every step of the way.

Hurricane Sandy had the greatest impact on the agency and the industries we regulate. The earliest and most crucial challenges were to maximize the services of TLC licensed vehicles with MTA provided services which were either all or largely unavailable. Perhaps, most fundamentally, we had to deal with the scarcity of fuel.

Thanks to Mayor Bloomberg's leadership and foresight, emergency authorizations allowed for group rides as well as letting liveries and other for-hire respond to street hails in addition to taxicabs. We also exempted taxis and other for-hires vehicles from the HOV requirements and the odd/even gas rationing program. Lastly, the TLC provided tens of thousands of gallons of free gasoline to licensees at our own facility, and worked with the National Guard to provide tens of thousands of gallons more at Floyd Bennett Field.

Even as we worked to support our regulated industries, we were displaced from our own offices in the Financial District. We were forced to relocate our staff to our facilities in Woodside and Long Island City. In addition, our Staten Island satellite office sustained heavy damage, and we had to abandon it entirely in favor of a temporary space at Borough Hall thanks to the generosity of Borough President James Molinaro.

Manhattan based staff members relocated to other facilities, a transition made easier by eager and accommodating Queens staff members. Aside from coordinating and securing the TLC's fuel distribution efforts, Uniformed Services members pitched in by providing security at homeless shelters and, at one point, heroically rescuing two women who had been trapped in their storm damaged storefront for two days.

Thanks to the dedication of TLC staff, we were able to maintain the full range of services to our customers throughout the crisis, and have thankfully been back "home" at 33 Beaver Street for some time now, though we remain on generator power . . . a constant humming reminder that things won't be "normal" for some months to come.

As for the rest of our initiatives, with so many projects to choose from, it would be difficult to say the year 2012 was known for any one of them in particular. However, if pressed to do so, I would say that much energy was devoted to bringing quality taxi service to the neighborhoods of the City outside of the central business district.

TLC's Board of Commissioners approved a package of rules authorizing the Five Borough Taxi program on April 19, 2012, expanding on the State Legislature's enabling legislation to create a fleet of 18,000 "boro taxis" over three years, 20 percent of which would be wheelchair accessible. The state law also authorized the sale of 2,000 additional wheelchair accessible taxi medallions. A court ruling in a suit brought by the Metropolitan Taxi Board of Trade (MTBOT) prevented our implementation of the program in 2012, but we are confident in our prospects of achieving the aforementioned goal in the New York State Court of Appeals.

Following several years of testing and planning, the TLC launched its Wheelchair Accessible Taxi Dispatch Program on September 14, 2012. The service allows passengers who use wheelchairs in the borough of Manhattan to prearrange a trip to any destination using the City's 233 wheelchair accessible medallion taxicabs at the regular metered taxi fare. To date, there have been almost 1,000 completed trips dispatched in Manhattan to destinations throughout the city with a current average wait time of about 20 minutes. The service is funded by an annual assessment on each medallion owner and administered by Metro Taxi, a West Haven Connecticut company that is an acknowledged leader in accessible transportation.

You can request an accessible taxi by calling 311, calling the dispatch center directly at (646) 599-9999, texting a request to (646) 400-0789, or by using the mobile app "Wheels on Wheels" (WOW), available free from the iTunes app store. To incentivize drivers, the program pays drivers for the "deadhead," or travel time portion of their trips en route to scheduled pick-ups . . . a lesson learned from a two year pilot program.

In December 2012, the TLC passed a package of rules that permanently institutionalized the hugely popular acceptance of debit and credit cards in taxicabs, as well as create specifications for technology systems for use in taxicabs ("TPEP"). In addition, we proposed a pilot program to test applications ("apps") that facilitate the "e-hail" (ordering taxicab service via smartphone) of taxicabs, and the payment of fares via smartphone.

The "TPEP 2.0" rules will steer us away from the prior approach of requiring exclusive contracts for technology vendors in favor of a system whereby participants, in an open and competitive market, submit unique products for licensing once they have demonstrated compliance with published specs. Lastly, the new rules require that TPEP systems be integrated with apps so that the integrity of payments and other communications is protected.

The E-Hail/App pilot, the fruits of which will be readily apparent in mid-February 2013, created a framework that will allow passengers to enjoy the full range of conveniences and benefits from apps by ensuring that they likewise are fully integrated with TPEP systems, maintain the reporting of all necessary trip data, and implement and maintain state-of-the-art security protocols among other things. Most importantly, the proposed regulations would implement safeguards that protect consumers from dispatch of unlicensed drivers and financially by ensuring that fares are calculated by meter and not by GPS as some apps currently do.

In June 2012, the TLC's Board of Commissioners approved a 17 percent fare increase to improve industry stability. This included replacing the driver-paid 5 percent per transaction credit card processing fee with a $10 per shift fee. With credit card usage above 50 percent and growing quickly, the flat fee will benefit drivers economically. Instead of paying a fee that varies depending on how passengers pay for their trip, drivers will now pay one flat credit card processing fee. The new policy will also remove any incentive for the small number of drivers who sometimes told passengers that their credit card machines were not working in order to avoid paying the transaction fee.

The fare increase rules also provide for a driver health fund supported by a 6-cent-per-ride set aside. The health fund will address a core concern that drivers do not have health insurance or disability coverage due to their independent contractor status. The TLC will issue an RFP to seek a qualified healthcare provider to administer the fund and provide services in 2013.

Certainly not least among the TLC's most highly publicized initiatives of the year, the TLC's Board of Commissioners approved a plan in late November 2012 to modify taxicab roof lights to clarify when a taxi was available or unavailable for a trip. Under the new rule, taxicabs would convert from the current four light system to a simpler binary on/off single light system. The new roof light system will be introduced on a rolling basis at the time of each vehicle inspection between January 1 and April 30, 2013. An ancillary benefit of this equipment update is that drivers will no longer be able to control the roof lights manually removing the ability of some drivers to "cherry-pick" passengers by switching the off-duty light on and off.

While the aforementioned projects and programs took up a lion's share of the spotlight, the TLC continued to excel in the provision of its core services by serving the business needs of licensees and protecting TLC licensed operators from illegal activity. Unlicensed drivers often use unlicensed vehicles and advertise themselves as a taxi or livery service. These unlicensed activities threatened the earnings of TLC licensees and threaten public safety.

Fueled by the addition of 98 new Uniformed Services Officers - New York's Proudest - for a total of 189 personnel in the enforcement unit today, we have seen a 72 percent increase in airport issued summonses in the past calendar year, as well as an unprecedented 162 percent increase in illegal vehicle seizures at the airport. Total summons issuance city wide grew from 49,712 to 65,984, or 33 percent. City wide illegal vehicle seizures jumped 233 percent from 1,737 to 5,776.

The number of seizures will continue to grow in 2013 with the implementation of our finalized contract with Knights Towing for towing and storage services throughout the five boroughs. Our war against service refusals continues with an increase in undercover refusal tests of 13 percent, from 1,944 to 2,193. Lastly, car stops are up by 20 percent, from 23,038 to 27,589. Looking ahead to 2013, we will continue enforcement activities by bringing the total number of enforcement personnel to 250.

In closing, the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission has continued to achieve its stated goals of 2012 advocating for passengers and its regulated industries alike, fostering innovation and the development of new technology with equal measures of creativity and dedication even as these projects faced historic challenges. I look forward to reporting back to you again in 2013 because I guarantee that it, too, will be a year to remember!

 

Watch the TLC web site at www.nyc.gov/taxi for updates, or to access monthly medallion price charts.