🏛️🗣️ NYC TLC Chair David Do Speaks About Taxi Medallion Debt Relief, EV TLC Plates, Charging, Commuter Vans, Congestion Pricing & More
We summarize NYC TLC Chair Do's testimony to City Council on March 14th, including commentary on driver earnings, taxi medallion debt relief, EV TLC Plates, commuter vans, congestion & insurance
In remarks to City Council, NYC TLC Chair David Do speaks about taxi medallion debt relief, issuance of new EV FHV Licenses, charging infrastructure, congestion pricing, commuter vans, insurance rates & more
Do says NYC Uber and Lyft earnings are stable at between $1,000 to $1,300 per week
TLC delivered over $450 million of debt relief to ~1,900 individual taxi medallion driver-owners and is now winding down debt restructuring programs
City loan guarantee reserve is ~$46 million, which would only cover ~275 debt restructured taxi medallion loan defaults or a ~10% default rate
Chair Do apologizes for addition of thousands of for-hire vehicles, but blames New York Taxi Workers Alliance for run on plates
Consumer complaints against NYC TLC drivers are up 55%, TLC has plans to add 100 more Enforcement Officers
On Thursday, March 14th, NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) Chair David Do presented the regulator’s prospective ~$60 million budget to City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure.
During Chair Do’s ~40 minutes of testimony, including a ~14 minute opening statement, he effectively gave an update on the NYC for-hire transportation (TLC) industry. Do spoke about several topics including driver earnings, taxi medallion debt relief, the issuance of new electric vehicle (EV) FHV Licenses, charging infrastructure, congestion pricing, the need for more TLC enforcement officers, the commuter van market and insurance rates.
Council Members Selvena N. Brooks-Powers (Chair of the City Council’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure) and Lincoln Restler are also featured in the summary blow.
There was a a lot of useful information disclosed and below we share highlights. In this article we want to refrain from editorializing too much (with a notable exception for a discussion on the taxi medallion - MRP loan guarantee reserve) and let our readers focus on Chair Do’s testimony rather than our opinions of his testimony. To help, we’ve broken down the testimony into easier digest segments and also indexed longer videos based on the topic being discussed.
NYC TLC Chair David Do Opening Remarks
Table of Contents (Indexed In YouTube video)
👋 00:00 - Intro 🚕 01:05 - NYC Taxi, Uber, Lyft & Black Car & Livery Trip Volumes 💰 1:54 - NYC Uber / Lyft driver earnings 🚐 2:12 - Commuter Van industry 🚖 2:42 - NYC taxi medallion debt relief (MRP) ⚡ 4:03 - EV transition, issuance of TLC Plates & charging infrastructure 🚦 10:34 - New for-hire vehicles (FHVs) impact on traffic congestion 💸 11:23 - NYC Congestion Tolling ♿ 11:43 - Wheelchair FHV & accessibility progress 🚶♀️ 12:25 - Vision Zero 💰 12:57 - NYC TLC budget proposal
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NYC Taxi Medallion Debt Relief Progress & Loan Guarantee Reserve
Chair Do overviewed the taxi medallion debt relief delivered to date, as the Medallion Relief Programs (MRP(+)) are set to close on April 30th. Over $450 million of debt relief was granted. This debt relief impacted over 2,300 taxi medallions and 1,900 individual driver-owners (Remember, MRP programs were only available to those who owned 6 or fewer medallions).
🚕🚩 Low MRP Loan Guarantee Reserve
Do also disclosed ~$46 million was in a reserve to fund any defaults that occur on restructured medallion debt to support the City’s loan guarantee (or promise to pay) made to participating medallion lenders, including Marblegate.
If we take the agreed to post-debt restructured individual taxi medallion loan balance of $170,000, the reserve could probably only effectively payout full loan guarantee balances on ~275 taxi medallion defaults. In simple terms, if 2,000 taxi medallions participated in the MRP+ program, it means any sustained default rate of more than 10% of medallions that participated in MRP+, might drain the reserve.
This concerns us, because in October 2023 testimony Edward Wilton, CFO/Deputy Commissioner of Finance for the TLC Finance Division, disclosed the following MRP program figures.
$445 million of debt relief has been granted to smaller taxi medallion owners
$58 million from MRP, $387 million from MRP+
1,879 owners, representing 2,258 medallions participated in MRP programs (i.e., medallion owners with 6 or fewer medallions were allowed to participate)
🚩16% of taxi medallion loans were more than 90 days overdue
🚩 21% were generally delinquent (loan more than 30 days past due), which represents ~400 medallions (implies 2,000 active medallion-related loan benchmark?)
THIS COULD BE A MAJOR ISSUE FOR THE CITY, DRIVERS AND LENDERS.
Yellow cab trip volumes remain at ~50% of what they were pre-pandemic and thousands of medallions are still inactive.
We urge the NYC TLC Chair , Mayor and City Council to take note.
TLC Needs More Enforcement Officers
TLC Chair Do lays out the need and plans around increasing the number of TLC Enforcement Officers by 100, which includes existing vacancies. One of the more interesting disclosures in the testimony was the disclosure the consumer complaints against NYC TLC drivers are up 55% to 17,000 from 11,000! 👀
Commuter Vans
The NYC paratransit & commuter van market is regulated by the TLC. We wanted to note that during Chair Do’s City Council testimony issues in the industry were brought up several times. Notably, comments on continued insurance problems and support for granting commuter vans NYC outer borough street hail rights.
TLC Insurance
The increasing cost of NYC TLC commercial liability insurance was an important topic brought up by NYC Council Member Lincoln Restler. We covered Chair Do’s specific testimony related to topic a few days ago (please refer to article below).
