What It Costs to Drive for Hire in NYC, Per Mile

In short: The study TLC used to set Uber and Lyft minimum pay found that a full-time NYC driver's car costs about $0.75 a mile if you own a gas car and about $1.03 a mile if you rent one. Owned electric cars came out at $0.87 and rented EVs at $1.13 a mile. At the study's 32,500 miles a year, that is roughly $24,500 to $36,800 a year, or $470 to $708 a week, before you earn anything. The figures come from the Center for New York City Affairs (CNYCA) report of December 2024, as revised in April 2025.

These are averages from a driver survey and public price data. Your own cost can be higher or lower. Use them as a benchmark and then plug in your numbers.

The four vehicle situations compared

Source: CNYCA Supplemental Report, Revised Exhibit 13 (April 2025). Weekly figures are our division of the yearly totals.

Line by line: where the money goes

What sits behind each line for an owned gas car:

• Fuel: $4,216 a year ($0.130 a mile), using an average NYC gas price of $3.230 a gallon (six months to November 18, 2024) and a weighted 24.9 mpg.
• Car payment: $5,000 down spread over five years, plus $735 a month in loan payments, minus a residual value (see below): $8,883 a year ($0.273 a mile).
• Insurance: $4,548 a year ($0.140).
• Maintenance: $4,500 a year ($0.138).
• Cleaning: $36 every two weeks, $936 a year ($0.029).
• TLC and DMV licensing and registration: $1,382 a year ($0.043).

For a rented gas car the study used $525 a week rent ($27,300 a year, $0.840 a mile) with insurance included. For a rented EV, $550 a week.

Owned vs rented: why renting costs more

The December 2024 report said renting cost 25–30% more than owning. After the April 2025 revision, a rented gas car costs about 37% more per mile than an owned one ($1.028 vs $0.753), and a rented EV about 30% more. The December report gives three reasons (CNYCA):

1. Sales tax of 20.875% on short-term car rentals — 8.875% NYC sales tax plus a 12% New York State rental tax. "Short-term" means a rental of less than one year, which covers the open-ended weekly agreements most renters sign.
2. Insurance itemized in rentals ran $125–$250 a week in the agreements the researchers saw, 25–50% of the rent.
3. "Registration rent" for the TLC plate. Because TLC limits new FHV licenses, part of the rent pays for the plate, not the car. One large company's agreement listed an "additional rent — For Hire Vehicle Permit Use" fee of $175 a week, about one-third of the rent, sometimes on a car over four years old with more than 100,000 miles.

The report also notes that 30% of surveyed renters said maintenance was not included in their rental. Read your agreement; our guide to renting a TLC car covers what to check.

Gas vs EV

In the study, electricity was cheaper than gas ($0.102 vs $0.130 a mile), but owned EVs still came out $0.116 a mile more than owned gas cars. Two reasons: a bigger monthly payment ($950 vs $735) and a charging-time allowance of $0.096 a mile — the study valued time spent waiting and charging at $18.40 an hour. If you charge at home overnight, that allowance may not apply to you; if you queue at fast chargers, it may be low. Compare models and charging habits in EV or hybrid for Uber and the EV savings calculator.

Here is what the licensed fleet actually drives today:

Residual value and the insurance deductible

The first report assumed a car driven full time for five years in NYC is worth almost nothing at the end. After comments from Uber and Lyft, the April 2025 supplement added a residual value. Using odometer readings from TLC inspections (a weighted average of 196,816 miles for common 2015–19 models), it put the trade-in value at $7,200. It then subtracted a $2,500 insurance deductible a full-time driver would likely pay once in five years, leaving $4,700. For EVs the adjusted residual was $8,800. These cut the owned per-mile costs from $0.782 to $0.753 (gas) and $0.914 to $0.869 (EV).

How TLC turned costs into the pay rate

The study weighted the four situations by an assumed fleet mix (87.5% gas and 12.5% EV; 70% owned and 30% rented, giving weights of 61.3% owned gas, 26.3% rented gas, 8.8% owned EV and 3.8% rented EV) to get a composite $0.850 per mile (TLC rule notice). Rule §59D-22 divides that by the 68.5% distance utilization rate, because only part of a driver's miles carry a passenger. After the 3.36% inflation increase on March 1, 2026, the published minimum is $1.283 per passenger mile plus $0.681 per minute (TLC, as of 2026-10-12). The minute rate covers your time; the mile rate is meant to cover the car. See minimum pay explained.

This is why you cannot compare $1.283 directly with your cost per mile: the pay is per passenger mile, while your costs run on every mile, including empty ones.

A worked example: one full-time week

The study's 32,500 miles a year is about 625 miles a week. At the owned-gas rate of $0.753, those 625 miles cost about $471. At the rented-gas rate of $1.028 they cost about $643 — roughly $170 a week more for the same driving. Over a year the gap is close to $9,000.

Now look at the pay side. Not all 625 miles carry a passenger. If, as TLC's utilization rate assumes, about 68.5% of your miles are trip miles, then about 428 of them earn the per-mile rate. That is why the rate per passenger mile ($1.283) is well above the cost per total mile.

Costs that are not in these per-mile numbers are extra: parking and camera tickets, TLC summons fines, your phone plan, health insurance, and income and self-employment taxes. Keep them in your own budget even though the study leaves them out.

Work out your own numbers

What these costs mean for take-home pay: Uber and Lyft driver earnings in NYC. Per-trip pay data: pay per trip, mile and minute. If you are injured and off the road, see can I drive while on workers' comp?. More: money hub.