TLC Summonses by Year: 1992 to 2025 Trends

In short: Taxi and for-hire vehicle summonses at OATH ran at about 87,000–105,000 a year from 2014 to 2019. They halved in 2020 and have held at roughly 61,000–64,000 a year since 2021. The 2025 total was 61,927. Older years go back to 1992, but some of them are distorted by a records migration. And the rule codes changed in 2016–2017, when TLC moved its driver rules into chapter 80.

All numbers on this page come from the OATH Hearings Division Case Status dataset, counted by the violation date printed on each summons. For this year's snapshot, start with our TLC summons statistics overview.

The long view, 1992–2025

The busiest years in the record are 1997–2003, with counts above 120,000 in several of them. There is a dip in 2013, which matches the move of older cases from the former TLC tribunal's system into OATH's. OATH took over TLC hearings, which is why TLC cases are now heard by the OATH Hearings Division.

Because of that migration, we don't recommend comparing any single year before 2014 with recent years. The general level, roughly 65,000 to 135,000 a year, is the safe takeaway.

Recent years, by issuing agency

The 2020 fall is the pandemic. Trips collapsed that year: TLC's industry indicators show average daily yellow-taxi trips fell from 230,691 in 2019 to 67,747 in 2020, and app-based trips from 700,916 to 392,303 (TLC Industry Indicators). What is more interesting is that summonses did not come back with the trips. App-based trips were back to 667,537 a day by 2025, about 95% of 2019, while summonses stayed about 41% below 2019. Something in how often or where summonses are written changed. The data does not say what. See taxi and app trip statistics for the trip side.

The switch to chapter 80 codes

This chart sorts each summons by the part of the rules its first charge comes from:

• Chapter 80 holds today's driver rules. It covered about 55% of first charges in 2019 and 53% in 2025.
• Chapters 54 and 55 were the older driver chapters. They were nearly half (47.5%) of 2014 first charges and almost vanish after 2016.
• Chapter 59A (for-hire vehicles and owners) has stayed large, about a quarter of 2025 first charges.
• Chapter 58 covers medallion taxis and owners, 59B for-hire bases and 82 street hail liveries.
• NYC Admin. Code §19-5xx is city law on licensing and unlicensed activity, about 9% of first charges in 2025.

Why it matters to you: if you are counting earlier findings (for example, for the 15-month window in the Persistent Violator Program, or the 24- and 36-month windows for repeat refusal findings), an older finding may sit under a different code. A lawyer or registered representative can check your record.

Month by month since 2019

The monthly line shows the 2020 collapse clearly. Summonses fell from about 10,800 in February 2020 to between about 2,100 and 4,700 a month from April to December. Since 2022 every month has fallen between roughly 3,600 and 6,300.

Be careful with the right-hand end of the chart. The 2026 months look low, but summonses keep being added for weeks after the violation date. Don't read the last few months as a confirmed decline. For seasonal and weekday patterns, see when TLC summonses are written.

What this data can and cannot tell you

It can tell you how the number of taxi/FHV summonses filed at OATH has moved over time, and how rule numbering has changed.

It cannot tell you:

• Whether enforcement got tougher or softer for any one driver. Totals depend on how many inspectors and officers were working, where they worked, and how many vehicles were on the road.
• Outcomes or fines. Those fields are blank for taxi rows, so no trend in dismissals or penalties can be drawn.
• Reliable pre-2014 year-to-year changes, because of the migration.
• Final numbers for recent months. The dataset updates daily, and late entries fill in.

We left out about 42,800 rows with impossible dates (years like 1900 or 3017).