The Livery Base Owners represent over 250 livery bases in New York City. Our member bases serve approximately 150,000 New Yorkers each day in every borough across the City except for Staten Island. Our passenger profile was and remains residents of the outer boroughs who may or may not speak English as a first language. Our bases are equipped to serve these passengers because most of our member-base owners are immigrants as well; we come from the same communities as our passengers. On behalf of those base owners and the customers that we serve, we must express our deep concern over the TLC’s vote to extend the cap on for-hire-vehicle licenses.
In 2014, the livery sector of the for-hire-vehicle industry enjoyed over 25,000 affiliated vehicles. However, 2014 saw the entrance of what are now classified as “high-volume for hire vehicle services.” Those large corporate entities gobbled up market share and provided financial incentives to our affiliated drivers. Those high volume FHV services operate at a loss because their goal is to eliminate all of the competition here in the City. As a result, after 5 years, the number of affiliated vehicles in our sector has dropped to approximately 10,900 vehicles.
In an attempt to reign in the growth of the high-volume for hire vehicle services, the TLC is punishing every sector of the industry. Despite the fact that our member bases and affiliated vehicles are not the ones driving the congestion in Manhattan, the TLC has imposed the same restrictions on us as it has imposed on the large corporate players. This is fundamentally unfair, and will only hasten the demise of the traditional community car service.
The Livery Base Owners are asking for the TLC to consider a more flexible approach. The cap is not preventing the high-volume sector from flooding Manhattan’s congestion zone with empty vehicles. In practice, the cap is choking the remaining life out of the small bases that we represent.
Therefore, we would like the TLC to grant new licenses for drivers who would affiliate with our bases. Our sector of the industry is not responsible for the congestion problem, as most of our rides are local and in the outer boroughs. Therefore, additional vehicles will not undermine the TLC’s policy goals.
TLC reports that 26% of active licenses do not renew, which represents a service gap that threatens the communities that we serve. Our communities – poor and working-class immigrants and people of color – are the ones suffering from crumbling MTA infrastructure, service disruptions, and irregular and inconvenient bus lines. And those communities are the ones who suffer when small bases are unable to provide a ride.
Our small bases are in crisis. In only 5 years, we have lost more than half of our vehicles. And the trend of loss is not reversing. We are looking to the TLC to provide leadership on this issue, and to help us remain viable. We also call on the NYC Council and community leaders to step-in and address the concerns and needs of NYC’s livery base owners and the constituents who depend on their services for basic transportation, before one of the city’s most needed, reliable and dependable industries is driven to the ground.
While everyone focuses on the high-volume bases, and the yellow medallion crisis, our small livery sector is quickly disappearing. The City must not wait for another crisis before acting. We call on our Mayor, City Council Members, TLC Commissioners, and community leaders to work with us to address this problem.
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