Uber And Lyft Drivers Hail New TLC Rules That Limit App Lockouts

By Jose Martinez, The City

June 25, 2025, 5:00 p.m.

The city’s Taxi and Limousine Commission signed off on new rules Wednesday that aim to keep Uber and Lyft from locking drivers out of the ride-hailing apps on short notice.

The TLC board unanimously approved the changes, which include a 5% pay bump from 2024, after advocates for tens of thousands of for-hire vehicle drivers waged a yearlong campaign to stop the app companies from shutting them out, sometimes while in the middle of a shift.

For-hire vehicle drivers who packed the TLC boardroom in Lower Manhattan erupted in applause after the commission signed off on regulations aimed at stopping the tech companies from manipulating data by pumping up “utilization rates” — the metric that reflects the amount of time for-hire vehicle drivers spend with passengers in their rides

“Today is a great day for our drivers, for our advocates and for all those who work in the for-hire industry,” David Do, TLC commissioner and chair, said after the vote. “Your advocacy over the last year has made today a reality.”

By limiting driver access to the apps, the tech companies were able to curb wages by making it look as if they were spending a higher share of their time on passenger trips.

“It hit me and all of the drivers,” said Mohamed, a for-hire vehicle driver since 2015. “We lost more than 50% of our income because of the blackout last summer.”

Since last June, drivers have rallied repeatedly against the deactivations, at City Hall and at Uber’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, with thousands protesting how they could be cut off with next to no notice.

“It’s affected 99% of the driver population,” said Brendan Sexton, president of the Independent Drivers Guild, which represents 80,000 for-hire vehicle drivers in the city.

Drivers rallied at City Hall last week in support of a bill from Councilmember Shekar Krishnan (D-Queens) that would create an independent panel to review cases before drivers are deactivated.

Krishnan praised the TLC for implementing added protections for drivers.

“Providing greater notice for drivers that are temporarily deactivated is a step in the right direction, but it cannot be the last,” he told THE CITY in a statement, adding that the bill would give drivers “multiple avenues to fight off unfair deactivations.”

Fahad Ghaffar, who drives for both of the affected app companies, recalled being shut out “a lot of times” while waiting to be hailed for rides via mobile devices.

“Suddenly, my screen just turned red and it was like, ‘You’re offline,” said Ghaffar, 31. “Due to that, I lost a lot of my wages and it affected my work.”

TLC officials said the companies took advantage of gaps in commission rules to achieve time-based utilization rates that did not reflect actual working time.

A Lyft spokesperson called the changes a “step in the right direction,” but said they may ultimately not be a boon for drivers — or the driven.

“We still have concerns that the underlying pay formula will still deprive drivers of earning opportunities, drive up prices for riders, and reduce ride availability, which isn’t good for anyone — especially the drivers who depend on steady demand to make a living,” the company said in a statement.

Uber noted in a statement that its full-time drivers averaged $75,000 in pay last year, according to the TLC.

“This rule finally moves away from automatically tying driver pay directly to utilization,” the company’s statement read. “It created perverse incentives, stifled innovation and led to a frustrating, unpredictable experience for drivers.”

But the head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, which represents drivers for the app-based ride-hailing companies along with yellow taxi, green and black car drivers, pinned the blame on the tech giants.

Bhairavi Desai, executive director of the alliance, said the lockouts against drivers who make the companies billions of dollars have been “defanged” by the new rules.

“Now we have regulations that have caught up with this obscene practice and we’ll be able to disincentivize it and regulate it in the future,” she said.

This press release was produced by The City. The views expressed here are the author’s own.