NYC Taxi Lease Caps and the Driver Bill of Rights

In short: TLC sets the most a taxi owner or fleet may charge you to lease a yellow cab. For a 12-hour shift with the car, the cap is $105 for a day shift and $115 to $129 for a night shift, depending on the day. A weekly lease is capped at $630 (day) or $737 (night). A medallion-only lease is capped at $952 a week, and a DOV lease (medallion plus a car you are buying) at $952 plus $275 for the car. Qualifying hybrid or clean diesel taxis can cost $3 more per shift ($21 more per week); a hybrid medallion-only lease is $994.

The lease must include maintenance (on car leases), insurance and other items, and only a short list of extras can be added. Charging above the cap is an overcharge: the owner faces fines and must repay you the excess. The rule is TLC Rule 58-21, summarized on TLC's Driver Bill of Rights poster. Checked October 12, 2026. These are legal maximums, not prices; an owner may charge less. This is not legal advice.

Shift and weekly caps by day

A shift is 12 consecutive hours and a weekly lease is seven consecutive calendar days (Rule 58-21(i)(1)). The lease must state the start and end date and time.

The hybrid adjustment

The higher caps apply to hybrid electric and diesel-fueled taxis that were hacked up under TLC Rules 67-05 or 67-05.1C and meet Section 19-533 of the NYC Administrative Code (Rule 58-21(c)(2)). Not every car with "hybrid" on the badge automatically qualifies; if your owner charges the hybrid rate, you can ask which rule the vehicle meets. In TLC's current vehicle list, most authorized medallion taxis are hybrids:

The "six shifts" weekly protection for daily drivers

Daily drivers can end up paying more than a weekly driver for the same week. Rule 58-21(c)(1)(ii) stops that. If all three of these are true:

1. you pay per day or per shift, and are not required to pay for more than one shift in advance;
2. you must return the car to the garage (or another agreed place) at the end of each shift; and
3. you are not charged for a shift you cancelled with timely notice,

then in any seven days in a row you cannot be charged more than $630 for six or more day shifts, or $737 for six or more night shifts or a mix of day and night shifts ($648 / $755 for a qualifying hybrid). If you lease all seven shifts, the owner may charge for seven. For shorter shifts, see can I lease a taxi for less than 12 hours?

Daily or weekly: the arithmetic

At the caps, seven standard day shifts bought one at a time would be 7 × $105 = $735, while a weekly day lease is capped at $630. Seven night shifts from Sunday to Saturday would be $115 + $115 + $115 + $120 + $129 + $129 + $129 = $852, against a weekly night cap of $737. The six-shift rule narrows this gap for daily drivers who meet its conditions, but only up to six shifts: a seventh shift can be charged. Remember that these are maximums. Your real cost is the lease you signed plus any allowed extras, and fuel if the owner does not supply it.

What the lease price must include

DOV leases: the $42,900 limit

A DOV ("driver-owned vehicle") lease combines a medallion lease with a conditional purchase of the car. Rule 58-21(c)(4) says the $275 weekly vehicle part stops once title passes, or could have passed, and that total vehicle payments cannot exceed $42,900. When all vehicle costs are paid, title must pass to you if you ask. The lease must state the car's sales price and an itemized total of all other costs before title passes (Rule 58-21(i)(2)(iv)). A refundable deposit of up to $5,000 is allowed and must be credited back to you over the lease. Each receipt must show the cumulative amount you have paid toward the car, what is left, and how many weekly payments remain (Rule 58-21(g)(3)(vi)).

Pro-rated leases

• If a weekly-lease car is unavailable for a reason that is not your fault, the lease must be pro-rated (Rule 58-21(c)(1)(v)).
• For daily leases, the owner may offer shifts shorter than 12 hours at a pro-rated price, and must pro-rate if the car is unavailable for part of your shift, including when the previous driver brings it back late (Rule 58-21(c)(1)(vii)). TLC's Driver Pay FAQ highlights this as a protection from the 2018 rules.
• For DOV leases, a car in required maintenance, in repair because it was not maintained, or at TLC inspection does not count as unavailable (Rule 58-21(c)(4)(vii)).

What can be added on top

Only the extras in Rule 58-21(c)(5): the $7 per shift or $49 per week card surcharge, a gas surcharge if the owner supplies all fuel, a security deposit, discounted E-ZPass tolls, late fees ($25 per hour, or $50 per late weekly payment), a cancellation charge, parking and red-light tickets you can challenge, the MTA tax, TSP amounts allowed by rule, taxes on vehicle rentals, lease damages, and the improvement surcharge. Owners must not charge for service and maintenance, and must not request or accept tips. The full list with conditions is in extra charges a fleet can and can't add. Deposits are in taxi security deposit rules.

Penalties and restitution

How to check your lease and report an overcharge

Who drives under these caps

TLC's list shows 6,232 authorized taxis on "named driver" medallions and 4,003 on "owner must drive" medallions. The data does not say how many drivers lease, so we can't say how many people these caps cover. For an overview of the job, see yellow taxi drivers. Owners have other money duties too, such as paying the improvement surcharge into the Taxicab Improvement Fund (Rule 58-16(f)(3)).

Limits of this page

The figures are the caps in the TLC rule book dated February 27, 2026. TLC can change them by rule; check the rule book before relying on a number in a dispute. Definitions are in the glossary: lease cap and medallion-only lease. More money topics are on the money hub.