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It is important for the Livery Round Table to be able to effectively represent the interests of not only its members, but the interest of the entire for-hire vehicle industry. In order to do so, we seek to keep all the stakeholders in the industry informed and educated regarding all up to date issues that effect the industry. We provide the content in our blog solely for informational purposes. We hope you find it to be of service and value to you and the industry.

Port Authority of NY and NY- Privilege Permit and Access Fee Required- as of April 5, 2021

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (PANYNJ) recently enacted a requirement for all For-Hire Vehicle (“FHV”) bases to obtain a Privilege Permit and to charge an access fee for pick-ups and drop offs at all three PANYNJ airports: John F. Kennedy, Newark, and LaGuardia. The PANYNJ is a bi-state agency created in 1921 by an interstate compact between New York and New Jersey for the purpose of – among other things – operating public transportation terminal facilities on a self-sustaining basis. This means the PANYNJ is self-funded and does not rely on taxes or funding from New York or New Jersey. To obtain funding for its operations, the PANYNJ generates revenue from businesses that use the airport facilities.

As far back as 2015, the PANYNJ started having discussions about implementing access fees for FHVs. Some of the provisions initially proposed included an initial fee based on the average number of monthly pickups for the first six months. The initial fee ranges from $200,000 for FHV companies averaging 100,000 or more monthly pickups during the first six months, to $5,000 for companies averaging less than 1,000 monthly pickups per month. Another provision initially proposed was a $4.00 pick-up and $4.00 drop-off access individual trip fee

At the time, the Livery Round Table (“LRT”) opposed the proposals of the PANYNJ because the costs would place a significant burden on smaller bases, potentially shutting new entrants out of the marketplace, discouraging growth, and putting unsustainable pressure on an industry that was already reeling from marketplace changes and a byzantine regulatory structure. Smaller companies were already struggling to make ends meet and simply would not be able to come up with the ready capital to pay for an initial fee

We all know that not only did COVID-19 hit us in early 2020, but that the FHV industry was hit hard with some businesses losing up to 90% of their revenue due to the substantial decrease in travel from the pandemic. To date, most if not all of the FHV bases and drivers have still not fully recovered from the effects of COVID-19 – and in all reality, there is still no end in sight.

In late October 2020, the LRT became aware that the PANYNJ had been meeting with select FHV companies and trade industry organizations to discuss a new proposed privilege permit. As a result, Avik Kabessa, a founding member of the LRT, and myself, as its counsel and executive director of the LRT, reached out to the PANYNJ to determine the status of the pending discussions and to inform the PANYNJ that it is only fair for the livery industry to be part of the discussions, as we are in the same boat as the black cars and TNCs.

Despite the decline of business in the FHV industry, the PANYNJ was intent on moving forward with the Privilege Permit and Access Fee due to their own decline in revenue, as a result of the ill effects of COVID-19.

In conjunction with the Black Car Assistance Corp and the Livery Base Owners, The Livery Round Table was successfully able to convince the PANYNJ to exempt livery bases from certain onerous provisions of their original proposal. We were successful in convincing the PANYNJ to do the following relative to the Privilege Permit:

-       Eliminate the requirement for bases to pay an initial fee;

-       Eliminate the requirement that bases who use a mobile application have geofencing technology so that FHVs can only receive requests for pre-arranged trips originating at the airport while physically located in the designated waiting areas;

-       Eliminate the Digital Driver Profile which would have required bases that use an FHV mobile application to have a Digital Driver Profile for each FHV Driver that could be viewed at all times on the FHV Driver’s mobile device;

-       Eliminate the requirement that bases that use an FHV mobile application also have a technology feature for real-time monitoring of FHVs;

-       Enable bases who rely upon mostly cash payments from passengers (including, but not limited to corporate accounts) to be eligible to submit quarterly payments, with the written approval of the Port Authority, as opposed to monthly payments; and

-       Eliminate the requirement that bases have a policy of commercial automobile liability insurance for coverage of each vehicle it dispatches in the minimum limit of $5 million for each occurrence;

Bases will still have to collect and remit to the PANYNJ an Access Fee of $2.50 for each drop-off and $2.50 for each pick-up. Also, each base will have to submit monthly reports to the PANYNJ along with their monthly payments, unless the base relies upon mostly cash payment from passengers and obtains the written approval of the Port Authority to submit quarterly reports of each trip with its quarterly payments. Fortunately, the required reports will be in a similar format to those that the NYC TLC already requires each base to submit.

In sum, livery industry stakeholders should be thankful that the LRT, in conjunction with the Black Car Assistance Corp and the Livery Base Owners stepped in to ensure parity in the FHV industry and in securing an exemption from the most burdensome and onerous requirements originally proposed by the PANYNJ.

 

 

Steven Shanker