Some New York City taxi drivers could get hit by the full congestion pricing charge if one of the city’s two taxi technology companies doesn’t play ball with the MTA.
Curb, one of the taxi-tech firms that runs credit card readers for taximeters in the city, is attempting to charge the MTA a service fee in order to add a per-trip congestion toll on top of any taxi trips within the congestion pricing zone, the Daily News has learned.
The MTA’s congestion pricing plan, which will charge a base toll of $15 per day to cars entering Manhattan at 60th St. or below, includes a carve-out for taxis and other for-hire vehicles.
Rather than charge taxi drivers the $15 toll, the congestion pricing plan will assess a per-trip surcharge for trips through the congestion zone, passing the toll on to passengers.
The surcharge will be $1.25 for taxis and $2.50 for Uber and Lyft trips.
But that scheme requires the app and meter companies to sign an agreement with the MTA to render that surcharge to the transit agency, according to a letter sent by the Taxi and Limousine Commission Tuesday to medallion owners, livery base operators, and others in the industry.
“[Ubers and Lyfts] dispatched by a base that has not entered into the agreement, as well as taxis and [green cabs] utilizing a [meter company] that has not entered into the agreement, may be charged a $15 toll up to once per day paid by the vehicle owner, instead of the per-trip charge paid by the passenger, for entering the Congestion Relief Zone,” the TLC letter reads.
Meter companies “must agree to collect and remit the per-trip charge in order for the per-trip charge to apply to trips completed in vehicles that are equipped with that [company]’s technology system.”
Taxi and transit sources told The News Wednesday that Curb has been haggling with the MTA, trying to assess a service fee for sending the congestion toll to the transit agency.
A spokesperson for Curb did not immediately respond to a request for comment, and it was not immediately clear how much the company was seeking to charge.
MTA chairman Janno Lieber characterized pending agreements with meter companies and livery bases to be a “paperwork” issue.
“We need folks who are going to be responsible for the interactions with the MTA and the collection of the money to have agreed with the process,” Lieber said.
Lieber did not name Curb or any other firm by name when asked about the situation Wednesday.
“The drivers themselves are the ones we’re trying to help,” he said. “We just don’t want them to get stuck if the company that is responsible for processing this — for their own reasons — does not execute an agreement.”
“Maybe some [drivers] will choose to move to another meter company,” he added.
Asked if the MTA would be open to a nominal fee, Lieber said no.
“I don’t think that’s called for,” he said. “There are a lot of taxes and fees that are already collected through these meters.”
Curb is one of two major players in the city’s taxi-meter industry. It’s preferred by owner-operator drivers over rival system Arro, owned by CMT Group, which is predominantly used by larger taxi fleets.
Sources said roughly 75% of taxis in the city have meters run by Curb.
A TLC spokesman Wednesday said that the city agency was not part of any arrangement between livery bases or meter companies and the MTA, but reiterated the TLC commissioners support of a per-trip charge.
“Hopefully MTA and these providers can come to an agreement that serves everyone,” TLC spokesman Jason Kersten said in a statement.
B’hairavi Desai, head of the New York Taxi Workers Alliance, said that while she doubted cabbies would be hit with the full $15, she worried that Curb or other providers might try to pass any fee the MTA rejected onto drivers instead.
Desai told The News that cabbies should be able to pay the MTA themselves.
“If Curb or Arro are going to present a problem, let the medallion owners pay directly,” she said.
Congestion pricing, which is currently facing legal challenges in New York and New Jersey, is expected to begin on June 30.