🎙️ NYC TLC Chair Do Sits Down With Agape Transportation Founder Mario Sena
🎙️ NYC TLC Chair Do Sits Down With Agape Transportation Founder Mario Sena
NYC TLC Chair & Commissioner David Do sits down for an insightful and revealing interview with Agape Transportation founder Mario Sena.
New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) Chair David Do sat down for an insightful and revealing interview with Agape Transportation founder Mario Sena. Mr. Sena is an accomplished NYC for-hire transportation entrepreneur, growing Agape into a non-emergency medical transport (NEMT) juggernaut. He is also a former for-hire driver, so has a real understanding of the NYC TLC industry.
We really want the interview to speak for itself and not add too much commentary, but here are some of our thoughts below.
Mr. Sena, who is clearly knowledgeable and qualified to ask questions about the industry, unfortunately doesn’t ask Do any tough questions. To us, the interview feels like a marketing exercise, but nonetheless one worth listening to.
The part we wanted to particularly note is Chair Do’s constantly changing lease math (which, to his credit, is becoming more correct). At about the ten minute (09:50) mark of the interview, he uses the extreme example of a TLC driver switching from renting a $900 per week TLC-plated Chevy Suburban (🙄) to paying effectively $600 per week (by his own math) for a Tesla Model Y that the driver will eventually own (Note: a Chevy Suburban can do luxury base work and Uber Black SUV jobs that a Model Y likely doesn’t qualify for, so it’s not a like-for-like comparison. In addition, has Do thought about the residual value of Tesla Model Y after 6 years doing NYC for-hire transport work 🤔…).
It’s a weird example to use to make his point re. “predatory” leasing. He’s likely using this example, as it’s the only one that makes his previous statements appear correct.
Chair Do is on record implying $300 plus per week was “predatory”, so while we’re glad his financial math is improving, he’s basically admitting his previous, public, “on the record” leasing math-related commentary was incorrect. In this interview, he used the most expensive vehicle rental in the NYC TLC industry (a newer make & model year, luxury, seven seater SUV) to make his point on a TLC driver saving money by owning their own vehicle vs. leasing.
“Now drivers are not going to be…[beholden to a predatory lease]…If you’re putting $300 plus toward a weekly lease, that’s money out of your pocket.”
- TLC Chair & Commissioner David Do, October 18th, NYC Mayor’s Office Press Briefing
As we’ve written and spoken about several times, we support ‘FHV Lease Caps’ AND the ability for experienced TLC drivers to get their own FHV License (TLC Plate). However, dishonest political talking points often lead to bad outcomes, even when your intentions are good (i.e., increasing FHV supply dramatically impacts taxi medallion industry earnings, congestion, all FHV driver earnings, etc.).
We do think Do’s intentions are good, but he can’t use the excuse that “you can’t please everyone, all the time” to explain away flawed policymaking based on bad math.
For example, most TLC rentals are below $600 per week or around that level. So, the “predatory” leasing point him and his TLC deputies have harped on, doesn’t seem like it’s based in reality. It’s obvious Do didn’t have any idea what he was speaking about re. “predatory” leasing companies and did the math and fact-checking later on. These things must be noted, because bureaucrats like Do rarely admit mistakes, so publications like ours must call it out.
Chair Do also confirms the vast majority of the ~10,000 *new* EV TLC Plates went to individuals and many LLCs, according to Do, were tied to individual driver applications.
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or by emailing us at info@automarketplace.com.
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