Report: TLC Failing Livery and Black Car Customers in Wheelchairs
April 21, 2010
Outside of Manhattan, for-hire vehicles–black cars and livery cabs–are often the only real way to get around. But wheelchair users are finding the door slammed in their face.
Today I am releasing a report that exposes the failure of a New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) rule requiring for-hire vehicle (FHV) companies to offer equivalent service to customers using wheelchairs. The report finds that only 4% of livery car companies—and no black car companies—can accommodate service requests by riders in wheelchairs at a price and within a time frame equivalent to what is available for able-bodied riders. And price gouging of customers with disabilities is rampant and outrageous: on average, those livery companies that did offer accessible vehicles charged $37 more per ride for those vehicles than for ordinary cars—while black car companies charged an average of $109 more.
Moreover, the TLC admits that it only planned to begin enforcing compliance with the rule in December 2009—six years after the rule went into effect.
The magnitude of the TLC’s failure is shocking. The Commission does not even dispute the numbers in my report—they know they’ve failed, but it’s wheelchair users who are paying the price.
Among the report’s key findings:
-Only 4% of livery car companies were able to offer trips for wheelchair users at an equivalent price and within a reasonable time frame;
-40% of livery car companies and 43% of black car companies said that they would be unable to provide any services for a wheelchair user;
-Livery companies that did offer accessible vehicles charged an average of $37 more that service than for ordinary cars, while black car bases charged an average of $109 more;
-Of the 30,110 livery and black car vehicles on the road, only 75—0.2%—are accessible.
TLC Rule 6-07(f) requires all FHV companies to offer service for wheelchair users equivalent to that offered for the able-bodied, either by providing their own accessible vehicles or by contracting with another provider. My report finds that only 14% of livery companies and 2% of black car companies own wheelchair-accessible vehicles—while 152 livery companies and 12 black car companies claimed to rely on the same four third-party contractors to provide accessible vehicles. These contractors often charge FHV companies exorbitantly high rates for their vehicles.
The report, “Not for Hire: How Non-Compliance by For-Hire Companies and Lack of Enforcement by the TLC are Failing Wheelchair Users,” was researched through phone calls to every one of the 495 livery companies and all 68 black car companies in New York City. Companies were asked to verify their compliance with Rule 6-07 (f). Companies that indicated that they could provide accessible service were called again with an inquiry about the pricing and availability of accessible vehicles for a trip to LaGuardia Airport.
During the follow-up calls, the callers did not identify themselves as calling from an Assembly office—under these less official circumstances, my staffers discovered that many companies had been blatantly lying about their ability to provide accessible vehicles–at least 90 of the livery companies that had initially claimed to be able to provide accessible service now stated that they were unable to do so, while another 67 provided a phone number as a referral to another service rather than directly dispatching a vehicle—a violation of the TLC rule.
The report’s recommendations include:
-FHV bases that own a large number of vehicles should be required to have accessible vehicles in their fleets;
-The TLC should clearly identify on its website those FHV companies that own accessible vehicles;
-The TLC should restrict the number of FHV companies allowed to affiliate with a single third-party contractor;
-The TLC should monitor third-party providers for price gouging and other inequitable practices, and price gouging should incur significant penalties;
-The TLC should undertake periodic audits of livery and black car companies to ensure compliance.
The TLC needs to radically re-think its approach. The best thing the TLC can do now is revoke Rule 6-07(f), bring together advocates and the industry, and start from scratch. It’s clear that when it comes to making livery cabs and black cars accessible, the Commission has spent the last six years going nowhere.
The report is available below, and as a downloadable PDF here.
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