Livery (TLC): Car Service Definition & Rules

A livery is a for-hire vehicle (FHV) "that is affiliated with a Livery Base Station" (TLC Chapter 51). New Yorkers know it as the car service: you call or book the local base, and a car comes to you. Like every FHV, a livery may only carry passengers who booked in advance.

What makes a base a livery base

Chapter 51 says a livery base station works like this:

1. All livery vehicles are dispatched from the base on a pre-arranged basis;
2. All livery vehicles are designed to carry fewer than six passengers; and
3. Passengers are charged by flat rate, time, mileage, or zones.

Compare that with a black car base, where more than 90% of business is paid other than by cash from the passenger, and vehicles belong to franchisees or cooperative members.

Livery, black car, green cab

Sources: Chapter 51, Chapter 80. For the green cab side, see our green cab driver hub.

The livery sector in numbers

TLC's trip data (Industry Indicators) shows active livery vehicles falling from 2016 to 2022 and rising again from 2023. The data counts vehicles with trips, not licenses, and can't tell us why the numbers moved.

Rules livery drivers should know

• No street pickups. §80-19(c)(1) bars FHV drivers from picking up passengers except by prearrangement through a licensed base of the class that can dispatch the vehicle — $200–$350 for a first violation, more in the Manhattan hail zone and at airports.
• Talk to the base safely. A short dispatch call with the base on a mounted device by voice or one touch is not a phone violation (§80-03). See dispatch.
• The Livery Fund. Chapter 51 defines the Livery Fund as the independent livery driver benefit fund under Article 6-G of the NYS Executive Law. A livery base that has joined it is an Independent Base Station, and its drivers are Independent Livery Drivers. Ask your base whether it is a member.

Our livery driver hub lists the summonses livery drivers see most. To understand where your base fits, read base.