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🕵️🚕 Undercover Boss
TLC Chair & Commissioner David Do plans to drive a yellow cab, after getting a TLC license. Is Do setting a refreshing example or pulling a publicity stunt?
NYC Taxi & Limousine Chair & Commissioner David Do is planning to drive a taxi to understand the TLC driver perspective better
We share thoughts on Do’s initiative
In a recent The City article, New York City Taxi & Limousine Commission (TLC) Chair David Do poses for picture with his new TLC license and is profiled. Do plans on driving a yellow cab to get a better sense of the TLC driver perspective. He’s becoming an “Undercover Boss” or we suppose an “Undercover Regulator”, to be more precise.
If you’ve been in the NYC TLC industry for a minute, or perhaps if you’ve lived in New York City for a time, these sorts of announcements always invite skepticism. What’s the angle?…Is the first thought that might cross, for better or worse, many TLC drivers or New Yorkers mind. Why announce you’re going to become an undercover TLC driver vs. going undercover, doing the trips and then reporting your findings?
Isn’t that how the story arch works on the show Undercover Boss? Doesn’t this arch “make the moments”, get the tears flowing? Isn’t the final humble brag revelation at the end, the entire point? What’s the fun, when everyone knows your the boss at the beginning of the show?
BUT, let’s take a breath. Let’s not be haters, right out of the gate.
We think TLC Chair Do should be given (1) credit for this action and (2) the benefit of the doubt. We also think he is setting a new standard for all future leaders of the Taxi & Limousine Commission. Do hasn’t even completed one full year at the TLC and you would have to be unfair not to give the young regulator credit for all that has been achieved under his watch.
From completing a historic taxi medallion debt restructuring to pushing through driver pay raises - even our skeptical mindset has to give Do at least an A- (thus far). He, in our view, is what a modern regulator should look like, out in front, on the ground, accessible. For example, Do is holding a Q&A session at the newly opened Taxi Clubhouse at 161 W. 22nd in Manhattan this upcoming Monday, March 13th from 9:30am to 11:30am.
Are there policy decisions we take issue with? Yes. For example, releasing 1,000 *NEW* EV-Only FHV Licenses (a/k/a TLC Plates) when there are still over 5,000 inactive taxi medallions is perhaps controversial 🤔. However, those are differences in opinion regarding policy and that will always exist.
“I hear stories all the time from drivers, that the regulator can never experience what they are going through…Even for a moment in time, I want to experience that.”
- NYC TLC Chair David Do
We look forward to hearing about Chair Do’s TLC driving experience and think his gesture should be appreciated by TLC drivers, other industry participants and New Yorkers.
As always, let us know your thoughts in the comments section below or by emailing us at info@automarketplace.com.
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