It has been illegal to hail a livery car in any of the 5 boroughs of NYC until a NY court ruled in favor of NYC's attempt to ease access to transportation opening up the possibility of allowing customers to hail a car service other than the NYC medallion taxis. The biggest gripe of NYC customers is that plenty of livery cars pass them but are not allowed to pick them up & the public outcry has led to finding solutions proposed by the former Mayor Bloomberg.
Until 2013,
ONLY yellow medallion owned cabs were permitted to pick up fares on the street, while car services are legally limited to
prearranged dispatched calls.
If any livery driver picks up a hail they risk a fine & more. Hardly worth the risk as it's much too costly ultimately resulting in losing the license to drive a livery car altogether:
What are the fines for soliciting street hails in the exclusionary zones (downtown Manhattan and the airports)?
$500 for the first violation; $750 for the second violation in 24 months; and revocation for third violation in 120 months.
The rules are tough. I had applied for my TLC license back when I started a livery service & it took 4 tries at getting my fingerprints approved because of my "dishpan hands", they were difficult to process. Finally, one of the board commissioners approved mine personally as she chuckled about the dish pan hands dilemma.
http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-...ds-livery-car-law-allowing-borough-hails.html
Street Hails are still NOT ALLOWED BY ANY SERVICE OUTSIDE OF THE YELLOW MEDALLION TAXI & NOW
ONLY allowed to be picked up by the new
STREET HAIL LIVERY SERVICE as per: Guide to understanding the Street Hail Livery (SHL) Service - Rules and Requirements for the year 2014
"The
TLC has created a
new permit that allows
drivers and owners of livery vehicles to provide street hail service in the neighborhoods
outside of the business district of Manhattan. Drivers and vehicle owners that are interested in
purchasing a Street Hail Livery Permit (SHL) will have the option of purchasing one of two types of Street Hail Livery Permits."
For current livery car owners/drivers, they can
CONVERT to the SHL.
1. Can I use my current TLC livery taxi for this Street Hail Livery (SHL) plan? Yes, however you must have your vehicle
converted for the new program.
2. What is the cost to have my vehicle converted? The approximate cost for
converting your vehicle to a Street Hail Livery is $2000 - $3000.
http://www.nyc.gov/html/tlc/downloads/pdf/shl_guide.pdf
The new
STREET HAIL LIVERY car service
must be converted to look like one of the following to be easily identifiable to the public & to keep in compliance with the new licensing.