In our latest podcast, AutoMarketplace Founder and Publisher Dawood Mian sits down with former New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) Chair David Do for one of the most comprehensive interviews ever conducted on his tenure leading the nation’s largest for-hire transportation regulator.
Over the course of fifty minutes, Do reflects on the decisions that defined his time at the TLC: the driver minimum pay standard and Uber and Lyft lockouts, Green Rides, the release of electric vehicle (EV) for-hire vehicle licenses (TLC plates), enforcement, and the landmark Medallion Relief Program (MRP+) that provided nearly half a billion dollars in debt relief to struggling owner-drivers.
Rather than revisiting headlines, the conversation examines the reasoning behind those decisions and the tradeoffs involved in regulating a market that serves nearly a million trips a day: the evolution of TLC plates and the decisions around when, and whether, to release new FHV licenses; the relationship between TLC plates and taxi medallions, two asset classes shaped by the same regulator but on very different trajectories; the debate surrounding the city’s EV and wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) mandate (Green Rides); and the challenge of balancing driver earnings against platform economics.
The conversation is not purely diplomatic. Do names Minnesota-based lender OSK as the holdout still refusing to join MRP+ and extend debt relief to medallion owners, and he takes direct aim at platform take rates, questioning why Uber and Lyft keep up to half of some fares when it is the driver supplying the vehicle, the insurance, the gas, and the time. His own summary of the job doubles as the thesis of the episode:
“I’m particularly proud of the fact that I was not able to make everybody happy...If I made everybody happy, that might have meant that I was not doing my job.” — David Do, Former Chair, NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission
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In This Episode
WATCH ON YOUTUBE · LISTEN ON SPOTIFY
00:00 Intro: welcoming former NYC TLC Chair David Do
01:13 Leading DC's Department of For-Hire Vehicles vs. the NYC TLC
02:42 "More than a taxi agency": labor, safety, accessibility & tech regulator
04:15 Working with the Mayor's Office, DOT, Port Authority & the legislature
06:05 Example of balancing act: drivers vs. rental companies vs. insurers
08:10 Do: "If I made everybody happy... I was not doing my job"
08:49 The Uber & Lyft driver lockouts: what happened
09:45 The driver minimum pay standard & NYC's unique utilization metric
12:06 How the apps gamed the rule, and the fix that ended lockouts
16:16 Getting sued by Uber & Lyft; "Maximize shareholder profit"
17:20 The gap: insurance costs aren't in the pay standard
18:05 Green Rides: the EV & wheelchair accessible vehicle (WAV) mandate
19:54 13,000 green vehicles, 2M+ EV trips a month, ahead of schedule
22:05 The accessibility community's pushback on the EV exemption
24:46 EV charging infrastructure: Queens Center lines, LaGuardia & JFK fast chargers
30:08 "You're releasing a free taxi medallion": plates vs. medallions
31:51 Yellow taxi recovery: farebox from under $0.5B to nearly $1B
32:27 MRP+: $470M+ in debt relief for 2,000+ small medallion owners
32:55 Calling out Minnesota-based lender OSK, the MRP+ holdout
36:16 JFK illegal hustling: 10,000 police hours on an age-old problem
40:13 Empower, market concentration & barriers to entry
41:54 "Why is Uber taking 50% of the fare?" Take rates & platform economics
44:57 Autonomous vehicles: "don't be caught flat-footed like 2015"
48:22 Final question: advice to a 25-year-old starting a TLC driving career
50:47 Closing thoughts
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AutoMarketplace is the largest newsletter and podcast covering NYC’s $16 billion for-hire transportation market — tracking commercial insurance, TLC plates, taxi medallions, and trips. Proprietary indexes: AIX, APX, AYX.
