Yellow Taxi Drivers: TLC Rules, Summonses & Your Rights

In short: You drive a yellow taxi on the standard TLC Driver License, the same license used for green cabs, black cars and liveries. What makes your job different is the street hail: you can pick up anyone who waves you down in New York City, so the rules about where you can look for passengers, who you can refuse and what you can charge are the ones that set taxi work apart. (Traffic rules are still the most common charges on taxi and FHV summonses overall.) Rules for the cab itself (inspections, meters, the medallion) mostly fall on the medallion owner.

Your license and the cab's license are separate

TLC's license page says the TLC Driver License "lets you drive a yellow taxi, green taxi, livery, black car, and limousine." The cab is licensed separately: the medallion is the numbered plate on the hood that shows the vehicle may operate as a taxicab (chapter 51 definitions).

That split decides who a summons is written to:

If you lease the cab, read buying or leasing a TLC vehicle. If you also own the medallion, both columns are yours.

Where you may and may not look for passengers

TLC rule 80-19(a)(4) says a taxi driver must not solicit or cruise for passengers:

• at Kennedy, LaGuardia or Newark airports;
• within 100 feet of an authorized taxi stand;
• on the private streets of Lincoln Center; or
• anywhere in the city where taxi cruising is banned.

The fine is $100 if you plead guilty before a hearing, or $150 if you are found guilty after one. You also must not use another person to find passengers for you, other than a dispatcher at a transportation terminal, a licensed e-hail app or an accessible vehicle dispatcher (80-19(a)(1), $50).

Taxi stands and airport lines

You have the right to take any open spot at a taxi stand, but you must join at the back of the line and not overcrowd it. Cutting the line is rule 80-19(d)(4): $100 before a hearing or $150 after. The first two cabs on a stand must stay in the driver's seat, and other drivers must stay within 15 feet of the cab unless off duty (80-19(d)(6), $75).

The stand rules also apply to feed lines at airports and rail, bus and ship terminals (80-19(e)). Where an airport stand has separate short haul and long haul lines and cabs are waiting in both, you must take only the trip type on your ticket ($100, 80-19(e)(3)). If you take relief time, park in the holding area first and rejoin at the end of the feed line ($50, 80-19(e)(2)). How the JFK hold lot and dispatchers work is in the JFK taxi line guide.

Going off duty

Once you are logged off the technology system, you can only pick up a passenger if all three are true: you are heading back to your garage or home, you have recorded "returning to garage (or home)" in the trip record, and the passenger's destination is directly on your route (80-19(a)(5)). Otherwise it is $75 before a hearing or $100 after.

Refusals and overcharges: the expensive ones

Some taxi rules carry mandatory penalties under rule 80-02(e). The rule says the tribunal "will impose" them. They cover overcharging, refusing a trip inside the city, requiring an assistant for a passenger with a disability, refusing a wheelchair or other mobility aid, and asking a passenger's destination before they are seated. All of these violations count together.

The rule counts the 24- and 36-month periods backwards from the date of the most recent violation. These summonses can start with a passenger complaint, so read how passenger complaint summonses work, the service refusal rules (including the reasons you may refuse) and the overcharging rules. Payment problems are covered in taxi payment rules and the card payment rule 80-17(e)(1).

Hours, points and the road

Every TLC driver is limited to 10 hours of passenger trips in any 24 hours, and the count resets only after eight straight hours with no passengers (80-14(f)(2)). There is also a 60-hour weekly limit, Monday to Sunday (80-14(f)(3)). See the 10-hour rule.

Traffic summonses written under chapter 80 carry TLC points, and DMV points count too. Under the Persistent Violator Program, 6 to 9 points in 15 months means a suspension of up to 30 days, and 10 or more means revocation (rule 80-27). The most common charges on taxi and FHV summonses are traffic rules: see moving violations under 80-13(a)(2) and the cell phone rule.

The yellow cab fleet today

Most authorized yellow taxis today run on a "named driver" medallion. The rest are "owner must drive" medallions, where the owner has to drive the cab:

Yellow taxis averaged about 131,000 trips a day in 2025, down from about 401,000 in 2015, and about 13,300 different drivers made at least one yellow taxi trip in an average month of 2025 (TLC Industry Indicators). Those figures describe the industry, not your chances of getting a summons.

If you lease rather than own, TLC caps what a fleet or owner may charge per shift and per week; see NYC taxi lease caps. New to the yellow cab? How to start driving a yellow taxi walks through the first weeks, and every NYC taxi surcharge lists what goes on the meter.

If you get a summons

1. Read the whole summons. Note the rule code, the hearing date and whether "Appearance REQUIRED" is printed.
2. Check the deadline with our summons deadline calculator.
3. Decide whether to fight or pay. Our should I fight my TLC summons tool walks you through it, and OATH hearings for TLC drivers explains the hearing.
4. Collect your trip records, receipts and any dashcam video early. See evidence for a TLC hearing.

If you also drive a green cab, the rules on where you can take hails are different: see our green cab drivers page.