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Short answer: On an average day in 2025, about 58,800 Uber and Lyft cars and about 8,700 yellow taxis made at least one trip in New York City. Add roughly 5,700 livery cars, 5,300 black cars, 600 limousines and 350 green cabs. These are TLC's own counts of vehicles with a recorded trip that day, from its monthly industry indicators.
That is far fewer than the number of licenses. Below is why, and how many days a month drivers actually work.
Cars with at least one trip per day
The app line is steady with small seasonal dips. The yellow taxi line rose from about 6,700–7,600 in late 2023 to over 9,000 in parts of 2025, then eased to 8,494 in July 2026.
Days per month a driver records trips
TLC also counts, for each driver, how many days in the month they recorded at least one trip. That is the closest public number to "how many days do drivers work."
Yellow taxi and app drivers both work most days of the month, about five or more days a week on average. Black car and limousine drivers record trips on fewer days. The same TLC file shows hours, too: in 2025 the average yellow driver recorded trips in 7.5 hours of a working day and the average app driver in 6.4 hours. These hours come from trip records. TLC's data dictionary defines the matching vehicle figure as "the average number of hours in which a vehicle recorded a trip." So read it as hours with a trip, not time logged in to an app or waiting at a stand.
Licensed vs working: why the numbers differ
Three reasons the counts differ:
- Not every car works every day. A car that drives 22 days a month shows up on about 22 of 30 days. That alone explains much of the gap between the third and fourth columns.
- Some licensed cars don't work at all in a month. About 9,900 yellow taxis recorded a trip in an average 2025 month, out of 13,589 licensed. Cars can be in the shop, in storage or between drivers.
- One car, one count. "Vehicles per day" counts a car once, even if two drivers share it in two shifts. Drivers are counted separately: in 2025 about 13,300 different yellow drivers and 83,300 app drivers recorded a trip each month.
For licenses and active drivers, see TLC active driver statistics and how many Uber drivers are in NYC?.
Data source and lag
All numbers here come from TLC's industry indicators, which TLC tabulates from trip records and posts as a CSV and on NYC Open Data (v6kb-cqej). On October 12, 2026 the latest month was July 2026, because trip records arrive about two months late. Yearly 2025 values are the average of the 12 monthly figures. TLC also has a live Factbook dashboard on its Data and Research page.
What to do next
- Taxi details: how many yellow taxis are in NYC? and how many trips a yellow taxi does per day
- Taxis getting app work: Uber trips sent to yellow taxis and e-hail apps for NYC taxis
- Rules side by side: taxi vs FHV rules compared
Frequently asked questions
How many Uber and Lyft cars are working on a typical day in NYC?
In 2025, an average of 58,812 app (high-volume FHV) vehicles recorded at least one trip each day, according to TLC's industry indicators. In July 2026 the figure was 61,044.
How many yellow taxis are on the road each day?
In 2025, an average of 8,723 yellow taxis recorded at least one trip per day, out of 13,589 licensed taxis at year-end. In July 2026 it was 8,494.
How many days a month do drivers work?
TLC counts the days a driver records at least one trip. In 2025 the average was 23.1 days a month for yellow taxi drivers, 21.8 for app drivers, 18.4 for livery, 13.7 for black car and 11.3 for luxury limousine drivers.
Can I add the app and taxi numbers together?
Only roughly. One TLC license covers taxis and FHVs, and one car can work in more than one sector in a month, so TLC warns that counts overlap and should not be added.
How current is this data?
TLC's monthly indicators ran through July 2026 when we checked on October 12, 2026. TLC tabulates them from trip records, which arrive with a delay of about two months.
Sources
Last reviewed against the official sources on .
- TLC Monthly Data Reports (industry indicators CSV, through July 2026) nyc.gov
- NYC Open Data: TLC Industry Indicators (v6kb-cqej) data.cityofnewyork.us
- TLC: Data dictionary, monthly indicators nyc.gov
- TLC 2025 Annual Report (licenses as of Dec 31, 2025) nyc.gov
- TLC: Data and Research nyc.gov
Spotted something out of date? Tell us and we'll check it against the official source.
TLC Help is not a law firm and is not affiliated with the NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission or OATH. Explanations on this site are general information, not legal advice. Legal representation is provided by independent attorneys and OATH-registered representatives in our network.