Inconsistent licensing practices and lax enforcement of regulations by New York City taxi regulators allowed app-based car companies such as Uber and Lyft to expand in the city at the expense of taxis and liveries, a Crain's investigation shows.
The Taxi and Limousine Commission regulated Uber and Lyft as if they were black-car cooperatives—a designation at odds with their operational model—giving them an advantage over the cab industry and allowing them to capture a disproportionate share of the city's transportation market, the investigation reveals.
Even though Uber and Lyft did not enter the market until 2011, daily for-hire vehicle trips exceeded taxi trips by more than 304,000 by January 2018, according to the Taxi Medallion Task Force report commissioned last year by the City Council. The TLC issued licenses for approximately 2,000 for-hire vehicles per month in 2018, while the total number of taxis on the city's streets has been capped by law at 13,587. Some of the 130,000 for-hire vehicles added to the streets were true black cars or livery vehicles, but most were app-hail cars.