🪧 NYTWA Striking Again, Citing "Phony" Uber Lockout Deal & "Fake" TLC Data
New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) prepares another strike to protest Uber / Lyft access restrictions ("lockouts"). NYTWA also upset about TLC publishing lockout-influenced utilization rates
New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA) is set to hold its second strike protesting NYC drivers not being able to access the Uber and/or Lyft apps when and where they want (“lockouts”)
Influential advocacy group is also upset that TLC is publishing lockout-influenced utilization rate figures and says City deal with Uber is “phony”
NYTWA says Bloomberg News is investigating NYC driver lockouts
NYC driver “lockouts”, or when a TLC-licensed driver cannot login into the Uber and/or Lyft app when and where they want, has been the story in the NYC for-hire transportation (TLC) market for months now. Uber lockouts started in mid-May. Lyft started locking out its NYC drivers in mid-June.
Although the Mayor / TLC recently announced a deal to “drastically reduce” lockouts by Labor Day (this upcoming Monday), many drivers on social media, and drivers we’ve spoken to directly, are saying the situation is actually getting worse! (Note: August is a seasonally slow trip month).
Against this backdrop, the New York Taxi Workers Alliance (NYTWA), the influential driver advocacy group, is preparing its second strike action to protest NYC driver lockouts. Based on the large turnout during its last strike, combined with reports that Bloomberg News, a mass media outlet, is investigating lockouts, this is becoming an increasingly important story to track.
On Wednesday, September 4th at 1pm, NYTWA and its supporters plan to march by foot from City Hall to Uber’s downtown Manhattan corporate offices, essentially a repeat of its July protest. The driver advocacy group, led by Bhairavi Desai (recently recognized by City & State as being one of New York’s most influential union leaders), has also written a petition and is asking drivers to sign it.
The strongly worded statement is addressed to both Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Lyft CEO David Risher and lays out NYTWA’s demands and the reason it’s calling for a strike.
To: Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi and Lyft CEO David Risher
From: [Your Name]We, the drivers in one of Uber and Lyft’s biggest markets, are fed up with your policies of exploitation. We are tired of lockouts, low pay, wage theft and deactivations. Some of us are losing 50% of our hard-earned income because of lockouts alone. We pay for the car, insurance, maintenance, repairs, and fuel/charging. We provide the service. We take the risk to our life and safety. You take the rewards. Instead of respecting us, you exploit us, put us last, then punish us to satisfy your never-ending greed. You fail to see how hard we work, that our kids and our families also have dreams and needs, and that our health and life have value. So, heed this notice, CEOs: where you do not see our value, we, the Uber and Lyft drivers of NYC, are ready to show you our power.
WE ARE READY TO STRIKE
If you do not meet our demands, we are ready to turn off our Apps for a minimum of 24 hours.
We see through your phony deal with the Mayor to have one company “reduce” lockouts while the other increases them, all while you get away with cheating us out of income for months and block our higher pay next year!
WE DEMAND!
End ALL lockouts NOW!
Agree to REGULATIONS to stop your lockout threats now and forever
Agree to updated TLC pay rules to reflect actual utilization so we stop losing an average of $5,000 - $7,000 of income per year
Pay us on each trip whichever is higher: 85% of fare or 100% TLC pay rules; double out-of-town rates
End unfair deactivations; stop acting as prosecutor, judge and jury. Agree to city law which gives drivers right to notices and independent appeals
Support drivers in our fight for maximum cap on FHV renting and financing rates”
- New York Taxi Workers Alliance petition published on Action Network (actionnetwork.org)
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“Fake” UR?
NYTWA also has a major issue with TLC’s recently updated Factbook data. The regulator now shows Uber’s utilization rate (UR) significantly increasing, causing the industrywide year-to-date (YTD) UR to now be compliant with the 53.0% regulatory floor the apps need to maintain (on a calendar year basis) to avoid financial penalties.
As we predicted and reported, NYTWA is likely correct to say that lockouts have caused UR stats to spike. However, we still cannot find any law, rule or regulation that Uber and/or Lyft is breaking by “locking out” drivers to drive utilization rates up, in order to be compliant with TLC driver pay rules.
“Given that (1) June is usually a busy month for overall trips, (2) Uber lockouts were in full swing in June, and (3) Lyft also began lockouts in June, YTD industrywide UR might come close to breaking 53% in the next Factbook update. Let’s see! 🤔”
- AutoMarketplace (July 29, 2024)
As TLC Chair David Do recently stated, the apps might be deploying a “heartless” tactic, but we’re not sure if anything illegal is going on. The regulator must be careful when using language that implies Uber and/or Lyft are breaking rules or laws. If the rideshare companies are indeed breaking rules, the regulator must specifically cite which regulations are being violated.
Of course, as we’ve mentioned several times, the TLC continues to not take any responsibility for the, in our opinion, careless release of nearly 10,000 new for-hire vehicle (FHV) licenses (TLC Plates), late last year. To not draw any correlation between adding thousands of new FHVs and the rise of lockouts that started only months afterwards, is frankly absurd (i.e., Supply & Demand 101).
NYTWA’s lawsuit against the TLC related to this decision to allow the release of ~10,000 new FHV licenses is ongoing. It’ll be interesting to see how the judge rules.
If you want more insight or information on NYTWA’s thoughts about TLC driver lockouts, please watch / listen to our recent conversation with its leader Bhairavi Desai, below.
NYTWA & AutoMarketplace Conversation
AutoMarketplace Lockout-Related Videos
For those who want more detailed, technical insights into why NYC driver lockouts are occurring (in our opinion), please see the videos below.
TLC should be subjected to strict regulations to prevent it from doing whatever it wants. There should be a cap on the number of plates, just like with yellow taxis. 110,000 is way too many for New York; the maximum should be 100,000 plates
TLC created this situation by issuing 10,000 plates, and now everyone is looking for someone to blame and trying to sue each other. Do people really not understand anything?