🔒📉 NYC Uber & Lyft Utilization Rates Rapidly Declining. Lockouts Soon?

Uber & Lyft's NYC utilization rates (UR), or how busy a driver is kept while on the apps, are dropping. Although UR floor lowered by TLC in March, "lockouts" could still return

• Newly launched TLC Factbook shows rapidly declining Uber & Lyft utilization rates (UR), or how busy a driver is kept while logged into either app

  • Seasonality might impact UR, but unclear

• UR is key metric used in TLC Driver Minimum Pay calculation for high-volume bases (currently only Uber & Lyft)

• During March TLC hearing and subsequent vote, regulator revised initially proposed UR floor of 56%, down to 53%.

• Lyft’s year-to-date (ytd) UR is below 50%. Uber’s ytd UR is 57.4%, but has downward trend, falling from 59.3% in May to 54.9% in August

• Industry-wide ytd UR is 54.8%, as of August, and edging closer to falling below 53% UR Floor, which might trigger “lockouts”

  • Industry-wide August UR dropped below 53% UR floor