Comptroller Lander & Taxi Workers Alliance Demand an End to Uber & Lyft’s Cruel “Locking Out” of Drivers to Skirt Pay Rules

New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and New York Taxi Workers Alliance (TWA) are demanding an end to Uber and Lyft’s cruel practice of “locking out” drivers, arbitrarily barring drivers from accessing their apps to work. Uber and Lyft implemented these lock-outs to exploit a loophole in New York City’s driver minimum pay law, which requires the apps to pay drivers for their time in-between trips. 

An investigation by Bloomberg found that Uber and Lyft lockouts already significantly reduced income for drivers, leading to longer hours for less pay, inability to pay rent and bills, increased credit card debt, and worsening mental health. In addition, by artificially inflating their “utilization rate” through lock-outs, the rideshare apps could cheat drivers collectively out of over $1 billion dollars annually going forward.

“I was proud to sponsor New York City’s first-in-the-country minimum pay legislation to make sure for-hire vehicle drivers can earn a living wage – and we won’t stand by as Uber and Lyft dodge our regulations with cruel, arbitrary lock-outs that exploit drivers and pad their profits,” said Comptroller Brad Lander.

“We need the TLC to step up,” said Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director & Co-Founder of NYTWA. “We’ve submitted a petition for rulemaking under the City Charter that the TLC must answer by November 4th. We’re calling on them to discard the manipulated data from the lockout period so that they can calculate drivers’ actual utilization rate and pay them accordingly. Closing these loopholes moving forward isn’t enough.”

New York City’s minimum pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers were the first in the country and established in legislation sponsored by then-Council Member Brad Lander in 2018. Prior to passage of the law, drivers were earning as little as $6 per hour, largely as a result of the failure of the app companies to pay them for time spent waiting for rides. The law led to significant increases in driver pay without discouraging customers by significantly increasing prices or wait times. 

The arbitrary lock-outs, which have increased over the past year, cheat drivers both individually and collectively. By locking drivers out of their apps after they complete a trip, or for arbitrary periods of several hours, Uber and Lyft make it impossible for their workers to conduct stable shifts, get paid in full for the hours they are working, and earn a living.   

At a broader level, the lock-outs are part of a strategy by Uber and Lyft to cheat New York City’s law and reduce driver pay by artificially increasing their official “utilization rate,” the percentage of time Uber and Lyft drivers are busy with passengers, that the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) uses to insure that drivers are paid in full for the hours they work. The TLC looks at data provided by Uber and Lyft on drivers’ work hours and trips to determine the year’s utilization rate and applies it to the pay rates the following year, to ensure that the rate drivers earn for each trip covers the average time they are waiting for trips. By locking drivers out, Uber and Lyft are manipulating how many drivers appear to be waiting for a ride, in order to artificially increase the utilization rate and reduce pay rates for next year.

Lander and the TWA are committed to working together to win changes to TLC rules and City Council legislation that will close this loophole. A few weeks ago, Comptroller Lander sent a letter to the TLC asking for raw trip data, income data, compliance, and communications between the Adams Administration and the apps regarding lock outs, in order to provide the data needed to develop such policies. 

“As the Council Member representing Brooklyn’s Little Bangladesh in Kensington, a community with hundreds of working-class immigrant taxi workers, I am outraged by Uber and Lyft’s blatant efforts to undermine fair pay through unjust lockouts and deactivations,” said Council Member Shahana Hanif. “These tactics are exploitative, aimed at cheating drivers out of their hard-earned wages. We must hold these companies accountable and ensure that drivers, who are the backbone of these platforms, are protected from such manipulation. I thank Comptroller Brad Lander and NYTWA for shining a light on this issue and calling it out as it deserves.”

“Through lockouts, Uber and Lyft have corrupted the dataset that the TLC needs to calculate the correct utilization rate,” said Zubin Soleimany, staff attorney at NYTWA. “This is the digital equivalent of your boss taking your time card and punching you out while you’re still at work. The TLC cannot rely on this corrupted data to set future pay rates.”

“I was unfairly deactivated from Uber, now I only have Lyft,” said Saif Aizah, NTWA Leader. “Before the lockouts, I was barely paying my bills and other expenses, and now with the lockouts I max out my credit cards just to pay for my bills … Uber and Lyft want to cheat us from our raise next year by manipulating the utilization rates with these lockouts and these lockouts must stop.”

“Tengo 11 años conduciendo para Uber y Lyft y no me parece justo la decisión que tomaron las empresas, sólo porque intentamos pedir un aumento de pago comenzaron con los bloqueos injustos”, said Carmen Cruz, NTWA Leader. “Uber y Lyft tienen el control de todo sobre los conductores, mientras que los conductores hacemos el trabajo, arriesgamos nuestras vidas en un accidente o un asalto… estamos viviendo una crisis a causa de los bloqueos y mal pago.”

###