Want an exemption from NYC congestion pricing tolls? Drive an Uber.

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Working as an Uber, Lyft or taxi driver doesn’t come with many perks. But since the start of congestion pricing, those drivers do get one benefit: exemption from the tolls, regardless of whether they’re on the job or not.

More than 100,000 Uber, Lyft and taxi drivers in New York City don’t pay the daily $9 fee — so long as they’re behind the wheel of their work cars. Uber and Lyft drivers taking an afternoon lunch and tea break along Steinway Street in Astoria, Queens, told Gothamist this week that the exemption came as a surprise.

“Sometimes I have a doctor’s appointment, also maybe I go for shopping [in Manhattan],” Uber driver Ahmed Fany said.

“In the beginning it was very confusing for us, like when you enter Manhattan, ‘Oh OK, I’m going to pay the $9.’ … But after that I figured out that the TLC plates, it doesn’t charge anytime,” Fany said.

MTA officials confirmed that taxis and for-hire vehicles with special plates from the city Taxi and Limousine Commission are never charged a congestion toll for driving south of 60th Street in Manhattan. The cars only pay a nominal congestion fee (75 cents for yellow taxi trips and $1.50 for Ubers or Lyfts) when they carry a paid rider through the Manhattan congestion zone. The charge is passed along to the passenger.

“If no customer, no pay,” Uber driver Sultan Mahmud said.

MTA spokesperson Joana Flores pointed out that while private passenger vehicles only pay one congestion toll per day, cars with TLC license plates can incur a congestion surcharge as many times as they carry a passenger through the zone. The MTA’s Traffic Mobility Review Board wrote in a November 2023 report that taxi and for-hire drivers “should be exempted from the daily system toll on vehicles” because it “could be a financial burden” on the workers.

The yellow cab industry has been in peril for over a decade as app-based companies like Uber flooded the streets with cars and grew more popular. Over that time, the value of taxi medallions — which give yellow taxis the exclusive right to pick up street hails — plummeted from more than $1 million to less than $200,000. Taxi drivers sometimes don’t own their vehicles, which they drop off at garages after their shifts.

Many Uber and Lyft drivers, on the other hand, own their vehicles. Ahmed Goma, said that he drives his Uber car into Manhattan for doctor’s visits. But he said he hasn’t seen any other benefits to his bottom line through the tolls.

“The work isn’t active [since congestion pricing], it’s not busy … but at this time it’s a slow period, and the tolls started in January,” Goma told Gothamist in Arabic. “The work is slow. But the traffic is good.”

The Taxi and Limousine Commission argues that drivers with TLC plates are already burdened with other occupational expenses, like fees associated with mandatory training courses, licensing and higher than average car insurance rates.

Early MTA data shows congestion pricing is reducing travel times through crossings and in the Manhattan zone.

TLC data shows that in the first month since the congestion pricing tolls went live, average trips per day for high-volume for-hire vehicles throughout the city increased nearly 4% compared to the same period last year.

As for the exemptions on TLC plates, Bhairavi Desai, a founding member of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said drivers would rather work than cruise around the congestion zone.

“Drivers work six to seven days a week, you know? And so I mean, could people occasionally drive in empty toward an appointment or with family on a day off? It's possible,” Desai said. “But I think they generate so much revenue on the days that they're working.”

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Emily, from New Jersey

What is MTA Chair Janno Lieber’s real name?

Answer

You’re correct that Janno isn’t the name on the MTA chair’s birth certificate. His name, which appears on official agency documents, is John Nathan Lieber. Lieber says he got his nickname from his parents. In a 2015 interview with the New York Times, he said his “parents made up nicknames for all their children that were sort of loosely based on the dead European relatives.” He explained his brother James goes by Jed, another brother George goes by Theo and his sister, Anne Gabrielle, got the nickname Angie.

The latest NYC area transit headlines

• The head of the Federal Highway Administration says the MTA must end its congestion pricing program by March 21. Officials in New York vowed to ignore the order. Read more.
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• Metro-North’s New Haven line is scheduled to get 13 new battery-powered trains starting in 2029. Read more.
• The MTA collected $48.7 million in driver tolls during the first month of congestion pricing, which is 7% lower than the agency’s initial projection. Officials said they still expect the program to hit its $500 million target for the year. Read more.