Black Car Drivers in NYC: TLC Rules, Bases & Summonses

In short: In TLC rules, a black car is any for-hire vehicle affiliated with a black car base or with an app company licensed as a High-Volume For-Hire Service. That makes black car the biggest group of licensed vehicles in New York City by far. You drive on the standard TLC Driver License. Your car's base decides several of your rules: no base name on the doors, a different way to display your license, which jobs you can take, and which workers' compensation fund covers the base.

What makes a car a "black car"

TLC's chapter 51 definitions say a black car is a vehicle that "affiliates with a Black Car Base or with a High-Volume For-Hire Service." A black car base must work like this:

1. All black cars are dispatched pre-arranged.
2. All black cars are owned by franchisees of the base or are members of a cooperative that runs the base.
3. More than 90% of the base's business is paid some way other than cash from the passenger.

That last point is the main difference from a livery base, which can work on cash flat rates. If you used to drive a livery car, see our livery drivers page.

TLC's daily lists show 543 licensed black car bases out of 859 bases in total, and about 101,000 of the roughly 104,800 licensed for-hire vehicles are black cars (snapshot 2026-10-12, NYC Open Data).

Rules that are different for black cars

The license display rule is a frequent, easy-to-avoid summons: 80-24(a)(2) is $150 if you plead guilty before a hearing or $200 after. In a black car, keep the license where a passenger can clearly see it and hand it over if asked.

Line work is a term defined in the city's Administrative Code. The rule that only black car bases can dispatch it carries $250 for a first violation, $500 for a second within 24 months, and revocation for a third within 24 months (59B-15(i)). That rule is aimed at bases, but it is one more reason to know what kind of base your car belongs to.

Rules you share with every for-hire driver

Being a black car does not change the core for-hire rules in chapter 80:

• Pre-arranged trips only. Picking up a passenger who was not dispatched by a licensed base is 80-19(c)(1): $200 to $350 for a first violation, rising to revocation for a third within 36 months. In Manhattan south of East 96th and West 110th Streets and at the airports, the penalties are higher (80-19(c)(2)).
• No taxi stand pickups. 80-19(d)(2): $350, then $500 within 24 months, then revocation within 36 months.
• Airports. At JFK or LaGuardia, you may accept a dispatch only while parked somewhere other than the airport's designated passenger pickup locations (80-19(f), $250).
• Devices. Besides your base's dispatch equipment, you may use one or two extra dispatch devices depending on your base's equipment. Each must be mounted, not hand-held, and you may use only voice or one-touch buttons while moving (80-22(h)). See the cell phone rule.
• Hours. No more than 10 hours of passenger trips in 24 hours, and 60 hours a week (80-14(f)(2)).

Not an app driver? Black car work outside the apps

Some black car drivers work for traditional corporate car services instead of, or alongside, the apps. TLC's indicators count these trips separately from app trips. In 2025, black car (non-app) trips averaged about 30,900 a day, up from about 9,700 in 2015, and about 12,000 drivers made at least one such trip in an average month (TLC Industry Indicators). If you mostly drive for Uber or Lyft, the minimum pay and lockout rules on our Uber and Lyft drivers page apply to those trips. Airport and event work for car services often means a meet-and-greet pickup inside the terminal; the Port Authority's pre-arrangement rules for that are in airport meet-and-greet pickups.

If you own the car

If the car is in your name, you also carry the vehicle owner's duties: insurance, inspections and keeping a base. A missed inspection is 59A-26(a)(1), an ignored TLC directive is 59A-13(j)(1), and a lapse in insurance can lead to revocation of the vehicle license. Read FHV insurance requirements, FHV base affiliation and the TLC vehicle inspection guide.

Whether you own the car or not, injury on the job is a separate question from vehicle insurance. Black car bases meet their workers' compensation duty through the Black Car Fund (see the table above); what it pays and when is explained in Black Car Fund benefits for drivers.

When a summons arrives

Check whether appearance is required and when the hearing is. Then gather your dispatch records from the base or app: for black cars, proof that a trip was pre-arranged can be central to a defense. Our summons deadline calculator and what TLC must prove at a hearing are good next steps.