Brooklyn TLC Drivers: Hail Rules, Tolls & OATH Bond Street

In short: Brooklyn is an app-driven borough. In 2025, almost 98% of recorded pickups here were app-based (high-volume FHV) trips. The whole borough is open to green cab street hails. The rules to watch here are about how a pickup starts, along with ordinary traffic rules. If you need an in-person hearing, OATH's Brooklyn office is at 9 Bond Street in Downtown Brooklyn. For most drivers, a phone hearing or written defense saves a lost shift.

This is general information, not legal advice. Rule text comes from TLC's Chapter 80 and Chapter 51.

Brooklyn by the numbers

These counts come from trip records filed by app companies and taxi technology providers. They leave out black car, livery and limo trips that aren't app-based (NYC Open Data). So neighborhood car service trips that aren't dispatched through a high-volume app are missing from these figures. For a zone-by-zone view built from TLC trip records, see Brooklyn taxi zones ranked. The numbers show where trips happen. They don't show where summonses are written. OATH's public data has no usable location field for TLC summonses, so nobody can honestly chart "summonses in Brooklyn."

Pickup rules in Brooklyn, by license type

Green cabs (Street Hail Liveries). Brooklyn is entirely in the Hail Zone. TLC defines it as all of NYC except Manhattan south of East 96th/West 110th Streets and the city airports (Chapter 51). You can take a hail or a pre-arranged trip through your base anywhere in Brooklyn. Watch three rules:

• No soliciting or cruising within 100 feet of an authorized taxi stand. That's 80-19(b)(2)(ii): $100 if you plead guilty before a hearing, $150 if found guilty.
• If you've marked yourself off duty, you can only take a passenger whose destination is directly on your route home or back to base. You must also record it (80-19(b)(6)).
• Don't use a "steerer" to find passengers. Only a terminal dispatcher, a licensed e-hail app, an accessible-vehicle dispatcher or your SHL base may do that (80-19(b)(2)(iii)).

The danger comes when a Brooklyn trip ends in Lower or Midtown Manhattan. Dropping off there is fine. Picking up the next passenger there is not. See the Manhattan page.

App, black car and livery drivers (FHVs). Every pickup must be pre-arranged through a licensed base of the class that can dispatch your vehicle (80-19(c)(1)). In Brooklyn, a street pickup falls under the base rule: $200–$350 for a first violation. A second within 24 months is $350–$500 and up to 30 days' suspension. A third within 36 months means revocation. The higher $500 tier only applies in the Manhattan exclusionary zone and at the airports (80-19(c)(2)). Also, FHV drivers may not pick up at any taxi stand (80-19(d)(2), $350 first). Read unlicensed activity and street-hail summonses too, because some street pickups are charged under the Administrative Code instead.

Yellow taxis. You can take hails anywhere in Brooklyn. Most of the borough's demand runs through apps, though. If you're logged off, rule 80-19(a)(5) only lets you take a passenger on your direct route home or to the garage. If you take a passenger on the way home, record the trip properly.

Tolls and fares on Brooklyn trips

TLC's fare page says passengers pay the tolls on taxi trips over the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge (Brooklyn–Staten Island) and the Marine Parkway–Gil Hodges Memorial Bridge (Brooklyn–Rockaway). The same goes for the Cross Bay Veterans Memorial Bridge in Queens. With a New York E-ZPass, a car pays $7.46 per crossing at the Verrazzano-Narrows (tolled in both directions since December 2020) and $2.80 at Marine Parkway or Cross Bay; Tolls by Mail costs $12.03 and $6.02 (MTA, rates effective January 4, 2026). The passenger pays the E-ZPass amount, not the mail rate. See the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge page for details. A taxi trip from Brooklyn to JFK or LaGuardia runs on the meter. The $70 JFK flat fare only covers JFK–Manhattan trips, and LaGuardia trips carry a $5 surcharge (Chapter 58, §58-26). Charging a flat fare on a Brooklyn–JFK trip can lead to an overcharge summons (80-17(a)(1)), which carries mandatory penalties.

Your hearing: Bond Street or your phone?

All TLC summonses are heard by OATH. You choose how to appear. The Brooklyn office is one option, and only if you ask for it.

Sources: TLC: Receive a Summons, OATH: Hearing in Person. For the details of each option, see OATH phone hearings, written defenses online and in-person hearing locations.

The Bond Street office: 9 Bond Street, 6th and 7th floors, Brooklyn, NY 11201. It's open Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m., and OATH's phone line is 844-628-4692. OATH's location page does not list payments at Brooklyn. Payment would make no difference anyway, because TLC penalties are paid to TLC, not to OATH. Pay online through TLC's LARS system where your summons allows it. Otherwise use TLC's cashier in Long Island City (TLC Locations). See paying TLC fines.

Settlements are TLC's offers, not OATH's. Ask in person at TLC's Long Island City office (8 a.m.–1 p.m.) or by email to Settlements@tlc.nyc.gov. TLC says it won't give settlement offers by phone (TLC). See TLC settlement offers.

If you can't make your hearing date, use your one reschedule before the date passes (rescheduling guide). Doing nothing leads to a default.