Staten Island TLC Drivers: OATH, Tolls & New Jersey Trips

In short: Staten Island is the most app-driven corner of the TLC world. In 2025, 99.9% of recorded pickups here were app-based trips, and yellow taxis made fewer than 5,000. For TLC rules, two things set the island apart: bridges and distance. Passengers pay the Verrazzano toll on taxi trips, New Jersey trips have their own fare rules, and any hearing is a long trip from home. Handle your hearing by phone or online where you can. If you need to be there in person, OATH has an office at 350 St. Marks Place.

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

Staten Island in numbers

For the busiest zones on the island, see Staten Island taxi zones ranked. The trip counts come from 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 local car service work is missing from them.

Picking up on Staten Island

FHV and app drivers. All pickups must be pre-arranged through your base (80-19(c)(1)). On Staten Island the base penalty applies: $200–$350 for a first violation, $350–$500 plus up to 30 days' suspension for a second within 24 months, and revocation for a third within 36 months. The higher $500 tier covers only Manhattan below East 96th/West 110th and the city airports. If someone asks you for a ride directly, say no and tell them to book through the app. See Uber and Lyft drivers and street-hail and unlicensed activity summonses.

Green cabs. All of Staten Island is in the Hail Zone (Chapter 51), so green cabs may take hails and base trips anywhere on the island.

Bridges and New Jersey trips

For taxi and green cab trips:

• Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge: TLC's fare page lists it among the trips where the passenger pays the toll. The bridge is tolled in both directions; a car pays $7.46 per crossing with a New York E-ZPass or $12.03 by mail (MTA, effective January 4, 2026). The MTA's Staten Island resident discount needs a vehicle registered to a Staten Island address and is not open to commercial vehicles; we have not found an official answer on whether a TLC-plated car qualifies, so ask the MTA before counting on it. How the return toll works on trips that end across the bridge is in the Verrazzano and Rockaway return toll rule.
• New Jersey, other than Newark Airport: you must agree a flat dollar amount with the passenger before the trip. The meter must keep recording, and "double the meter" is not a flat rate (80-17(f)(1), $100).
• Newark Airport: the meter runs the whole way, plus a $20 Newark surcharge. The passenger pays the tolls, including your return tolls back to the city. Explain this before you start (80-17(f)(3)). More on the Newark Airport page.

A taxi or green cab driver must take a passenger to Newark Airport like any city destination. The one exception is if you've been operating for more than eight hours in a continuous 24-hour period (80-20(b)(8)). An unlawful refusal carries mandatory penalties (80-20(a)(1)).

Your hearing: the deadlines that matter more than the distance

Missing a deadline costs more than any ferry ride or bridge toll. Here's the order of things for a TLC summons. Your own dates are on the summons, and the deadline calculator below works them out.

Sources: TLC: Receive a Summons, OATH: Hearing in Person, OATH: Hearings and Defaults.

Phone or in person? Questions to ask yourself

• Is your defense on paper? If it's trip records, receipts or photos, a phone hearing or online written defense usually works. Send copies the way OATH tells you to, in time.
• Do you have a witness who would come? Witnesses can also testify by phone, but some drivers prefer to have them in the room. If you want that, you need the five-business-day email.
• What does a lost day cost? Count the travel, the wait and the fares you won't drive. OATH says the TLC side usually appears by phone even at in-person hearings.
• Is your English strong enough for this? Interpretation is free at OATH hearings, by phone or in person. Ask for it when you request the hearing.

The St. Marks Place office. OATH's Staten Island Hearings Division office is at 350 St. Marks Place, main floor, Staten Island, NY 10301. It's open Monday–Friday, 8 a.m.–5 p.m., and OATH answers the phone there on hearing days. OATH says payments at this location go through the Department of Finance windows (OATH). TLC penalties, though, are paid to TLC: online through LARS where your summons allows it, or at TLC's Long Island City cashier (TLC). Don't assume a DOF window can take a TLC fine. See paying TLC fines.

At a phone hearing you still testify, can be questioned and can present documents. Read OATH phone hearings to prepare. If the date doesn't work, use your one reschedule before it passes. Don't just let it go by.