NYTWA Calls For Immediate Fuel Surcharge on All Uber, Lyft, Yellow and Green Cab Trips
PRESS CONFERENCE & DRIVER RALLY
Friday, March 25, 2022 at 11AM
Shell Gas Station on 96th Street and 1st Ave.
As Uber announces its return to dispatching yellow cabs, Uber, Lyft, yellow and green cab drivers are banding together for their first joint demand: an emergency $0.75 fuel surcharge on Uber, Lyft and all taxi trips.
Yellow cab drivers have not had a raise on the meter since a decade ago - in 2012. Uber and Lyft drivers recently had a 5.3% increase based on the rise in inflation before gas prices started to spike in recent weeks. All drivers, the union says, are reeling from the skyrocketing costs, paying as much as $100 or more out of pocket just to keep up with the price at the pump.
From January to mid-March, area gas prices have increased 28.4%, from $3.365/gallon to $4.321/gallon. https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/researchers-and-policymakers/energy-prices/motor-gasoline/weekly-average-motor-gasoline-prices
Uber and Lyft enacted a $0.55 gas surcharges in all cities except NYC, claiming the recent 5.3% raise drivers received for inflation covered increased expenses. But the TLC increased the rates according to Consumer Price Index for the New York region which measures household good and does not measure the cost of gasoline for professional drivers. The 5.3% was due to drivers according to TLC rules in January 2021 and January 2022 - based on past inflation.
Before the recent TLC rate-cost-of living increase, the TLC had not raised the amounts Uber and Lyft drivers are paid since February 2020, when the price for a gallon of regular gasoline in the NYC metro area was $2.457. https://www.nyserda.ny.gov/researchers-and-policymakers/energy-prices/motor-gasoline/monthly-average-motor-gasoline-prices. Since February 2020 to now, gas prices have increased 76% since Feb. 2020. The union says, gas accounts roughly for 25% of driver operating expenses, the recent 5.3% increase doesn't come close to covering the astronomic spikes in gasoline costs.
Yellow and green cab meter rates have not gone up since 2012. Next month, the TLC is scheduled to hold a hearing on rules to set a flat rate between parts of Manhattan to LaGuardia Airport for $39 and to increase the JFK Airport -Manhattan flat rate from $52 to $65. Without a fuel surcharge, the drivers say, this increase, like the 5.3% increase for Uber and Lyft drivers, will get wiped out by the spike in gasoline costs, leaving drivers still behind square one. Yellow cabs are also more likely to be wheelchair-accessible vehicles, as mandated by the Taxi and Limousine Commission, burning more fuel than hybrids.
"We're calling on the TLC to enact emergency rulemaking on a temporary $0.75 fuel surcharge on Uber, Lyft, and all yellow cab and green cab trips until the price of fuel falls back down. Washington D.C. just enacted a $1 surcharge for 120 days and Uber and Lyft have enacted a $0.55 fuel surcharge across the country except New York City where goods are even more expensive. The City doesn't need to wait. This can be done by the stroke of a pen so drivers don't have to lose anymore income out of pocket," said NYTWA Executive Director Bhairavi Desai.