How Do I Find Which Base a TLC Car Is With?

Short answer: Search the car's plate or TLC vehicle license number in NYC Open Data's free For Hire Vehicles (FHV) - Active list. The row shows the base number, base name, base type and base phone. TLC updates it every day; its October 11, 2026 update listed 104,845 active FHVs.

For yellow and green cabs, use the Lost Property Contact Information list instead.

Why two lists? Every for-hire vehicle (FHV) must be affiliated with a licensed base, so the FHV list carries the base on each row. Yellow cabs are not on the FHV list at all, and green cabs carry a street hail permit on top of an FHV license. As its name says, TLC's lost-property list gives a contact for each yellow medallion taxi and green cab: the base or agent that works with it, with a phone number. That makes it the quickest way to reach the office behind a given cab. Both lists are free, need no account, and can be filtered in your phone's browser.

The lookup, step by step

The numbers and where they come from

What the result does and doesn't mean

• Affiliated base, not always the dispatcher. The vehicle list shows the base the car is affiliated with. Other bases can send it trips. TLC rule §59B-17(d) says a base that dispatches a car from another base must give the customer "the name and license number of both the affiliated Base and the dispatching Base." So for one specific ride, the receipt or the app is the better source.
• App cars mostly show one base. Most app cars list UBER USA, LLC as their base. That does not mean they only drive for Uber: in May 2026 Lyft dispatched trips to 54,380 different cars, more than the 24,228 FHVs affiliated with any other base. Lyft and Uber show up as company rows, not B-numbers, in TLC's base trip report.
• Missing car ≠ illegal car. The list only holds vehicles in good standing at the last update. A typo, a fresh renewal or a plate change can also hide a car. Don't confront a driver over a lookup.
• Not a full history. The list is a daily snapshot. It does not show which base a car was with last month.

What to do next

• Lost something in a car? Call the base from the lookup, or report it to TLC through its lost property page or 311.
• Checking your own car? Make sure your base and expiration date are right. If you want to move, read FHV base affiliation; if a base won't pay you on time, see how fast must my base pay me?.
• Base trying to make you pay its summons? Read can my base make me pay a summons? and, for base paperwork problems, rule 59B-29(c): a base dispatching a car with an old sticker.
• More lookups: drivers, medallions and bases in TLC open data lookups; license types in every TLC license type explained; starting your own base in how to open an FHV base.