⏲️ As Industry Awaits 'TLC Plate' Decision, Taxi Medallion Owners Celebrate Debt Restructuring
It was a historic day for NYC taxi medallion owners. After a long struggle, a taxi medallion debt restructuring program was visibly being implemented with the NYC TLC Chair & staff in attendance
AutoMarketplace.com NYC covers the for-hire transportation industry and automotive news. Check out AutoMarketplace.com on YouTube ▶️
It was a historic day in the TLC industry, especially for the NYC yellow cab 🚕 industry .
Against a yellow and black TLC ‘step and repeat’ banner, TLC Chair David Do, New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) leader Bhairavi Desai and several taxi drivers held signs and posed for photos, highlighting taxi medallion debt forgiveness amounts. Such an event was almost unthinkable, until recently.
In the broader context of the taxi medallion crisis, which most agree started as technology enabled startups, such as Uber & Lyft, exploded onto the scene nearly a decade ago…we believe this event may mark the beginning of the end of the NYC taxi medallion crisis. In fact, things have come so “full circle” these days in the TLC industry, that yellow cabs even debuted on Uber’s NYC app recently!
The taxi medallion crisis saw a once prized asset, both to the City and drivers alike, worth over a million dollars at its height, and considered a better investment than the stock market and gold, drop in value over 90% 📉. This moment of course was hard won by the medallion industry and came after driver suicides, complex City & State politics, a pandemic, a historic hunger strike, etc. Even a Pulitzer Prize was won just covering the multiple esoteric dynamics that took place in the NYC taxi market over the last decade. Today, was simply the official photo shoot of of a very big moment, years in the making.
TLC “Plate Cap” Decision Looms Large
That being said, our “call” and today’s celebrations will be tested soon, when the TLC comes out with its biannual FHV License Determination (aka ‘TLC Plate Cap’ determination). The report is due to come out any day now, as it is based on August data.
As we’ve recently written, our belief is that the NYC TLC will NOT open up new FHV licenses (aka TLC plates), until the yellow cab industry has sufficiently recovered (i.e., thousands of taxi medallions are still in storage). Although, as we’ve also highlighted recently, there have been some rumors that around 2,000 “base specific” TLC plates maybe released 🤷.
As we wait for the TLC press release, we include some pictures from the taxi medallion debt restructuring event below, held earlier today 👇
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or by emailing us at info@automarketplace.com.
AutoMarketplace.com NYC covers the for-hire transportation industry and automotive news. Check out AutoMarketplace.com on YouTube ▶️