Because the race for Gracie Mansion continues, insurance policies round New York Metropolis’s burgeoning rideshare driver group have emerged as a key concern among the many public and elected officers. With hundreds of drivers navigating the town’s streets, usually working lengthy hours for fluctuating wages, their issues have already gained traction in Metropolis Corridor with the introduction of a driver-protection invoice.
NYC Council Member Shekar Krishnan, who represents elements of Queens together with Jackson Heights and Elmhurst, sponsored Intro. 276, which is a invoice that might prohibit rideshare corporations from deactivating — basically firing — for-hire drivers with out simply trigger.
Krishnan stated in an interview with New York News that his district is dwelling to the biggest taxi-driver inhabitants in NYC. Drivers have reported their issues concerning the trade to him, together with the difficulty of the deactivations.
“So many for-hire vehicle drivers approached my office so concerned about these tactics because they’ve experienced them,” he stated.
The council member defined that the 14-day discover interval in his invoice would stop rideshare platforms from “promptly” eradicating drivers who’ve been reported as partaking in unsafe conduct, which might be something starting from reckless driving to harassment, with out due course of.
“Intro. 276 gives New York City’s largest private sector workforce, app-based drivers, their power back, and we will pass this legislation,” he stated. “We are a council that stands up for workers, not billion-dollar app companies.”
Ridesharing in NYC, led by corporations like Uber and Lyft, has been a supply of transportation for New Yorkers, but in addition financial alternative and debate concerning employee protections. Drivers usually function as unbiased contractors, missing conventional revenue. This has led native politicians who’re already in workplace to name for elevated rules and safeguards, and the mayoral hopefuls are responding with various levels of assist and particular coverage adoptions.
Adams’ administration calls arbitrary deactivations “financially devastating”
Mayor Eric Adams, who on Sunday ended his marketing campaign for a second-term in workplace, has a historical past of supporting NYC taxi drivers. Throughout his time in workplace, he launched the Medallion Reduction Program Plus, geared toward serving to to offer debt reduction for medallion homeowners.
As for Intro. 276, a spokesperson for the town’s Division of Client and Employee Safety, stated the company is “looking forward” to working with the council to make “effective” deactivation protections.
“Arbitrary or unfair deactivations are financially devastating for app-based workers,” the spokesperson stated in a press release to New York News. “We are committed to fostering a culture of fair labor standards for all workers, especially those disproportionately impacted by arbitrary deactivations like for-hire vehicle drivers and app-based food delivery workers. At the hearing, we shared a number of recommendations to strengthen these protections, and we look forward to collaborating with the council and stakeholders to create effective standard deactivation protections for these workers.”
The spokesperson didn’t elaborate on their suggestions for fortifying rideshare protections.
Curtis Sliwa, Republican and Unbiased candidate within the mayoral race, has not put rideshare points on the forefront of his marketing campaign. Nevertheless, he described the exorbitant prices of Uber and Lyft being out of attain for New Yorkers who select automotive journey as a result of they don’t really feel secure taking public transportation.
“Everyone in New York deserves to feel safe no matter the hour or destination,” he stated on Sept. 3. “With Uber/Lyft prices out of control, the subway must be a place people can trust.”
Frontrunner within the marketing campaign, NYS Meeting Member Zohran Mamdani, and candidate and former NYS governor Andrew Cuomo didn’t reply to requests for touch upon this story.
In the meantime, rideshare firm executives and leaders from advocacy teams have been urging the NYC Council to kill Into. 276, at the very least as it’s presently written.
Jerry Golden, chief coverage officer at Lyft, despatched a scathing letter to metropolis lawmakers on Sept. 22, expressing the corporate’s “serious concerns” concerning the invoice. He stated that the payments, as it’s, undermines public security and places New Yorkers in danger, particularly since drivers know private details about passengers, together with pick-up and drop-off factors which might be usually locations of residence or work.
He added that the invoice’s 14-day discover interval would stop rideshare platforms from “promptly” eradicating drivers who’ve been reported as partaking in unsafe conduct, which might be something starting from reckless driving to harassment.
Audrey Fowl, president of the Nationwide Federation of the Blind of New York, echoed Golden’s issues about public security. Her group is against Intro. 276 attributable to what she described because the damaging affect it could have on blind New Yorkers.
“As blind people, we face frequent discriminatory refusals of transportation by high-volume for-hire vehicle drivers because we use guide dogs, or simply because we are blind,” she wrote in an Aug. 8 letter to the council. “The National Federation of the Blind and other organizations promoting the interests of individuals who use guide dogs and other service animals have been advocating for the immediate and permanent deactivation of drivers who unlawfully discriminate against us.”
New York has legal guidelines in place all through the state to make sure service canines and their handlers can entry transportation. Along with the regulation, Fowl defined that greater than a decade of advocacy led to rideshare corporations reminding drivers to accommodate riders with service animals.
Fowl defined that corporations have rolled out options that enable their driver platforms to alert drivers to the attainable presence of a service animal, remind the drivers of their obligation to move riders with service animals, and to detect and doc when drivers refuse to move riders with service animals.
Intro. 276 would “undo that work,” she stated.
“It would also allow drivers who were deactivated for discriminatory denials to petition for reactivation,” she stated. “Allowing drivers to discriminate without immediate sanction is an outrage. The blind, just as all members of the public, have a right to for-hire transportation only by drivers who follow the law.”
Different insurance policies regarding taxi and rideshare drivers
Bhairavi Desai, government director of the New York Taxi Staff Alliance, stated that whichever candidate takes the reins as mayor needs to be one who put drivers earlier than {dollars}.
“For Uber, Lyft, Waymo, and the private equity firms still refusing to restructure medallion debt, the ideal mayor is one they can buy with their billions,” she stated. “The next mayor will need to be ready to stand up to these billionaire corporations and use their regulatory authority along with the bully pulpit to make material gains for drivers, and to champion their safety and work with dignity. Drivers are counting on a mayor who puts the rights of New York’s largest private sector workforce and the one million people who depend on their labor every day before corporate greed.”
She additionally singled out Lyft executives, whom she stated are “spamming New Yorkers with lies” about Intro. 276, whereas calling out different rideshare corporations for testing of driverless automobiles and opposition to minimal wage pay.
“Uber and Lyft want to keep lining their pockets while their drivers go to work each day with zero economic security, not knowing whether they’ll still have a job tomorrow, or whether they’ll be drowning in debt and left with no income overnight,” Desai stated. “Meanwhile, Waymo is speeding through testing driverless cars when neither the technology nor the city’s social and economic network are ready for potential job loss for 200,000 workers.”
Ridesharing has grown to change into a key concern in a metropolis the place transportation is important and the gig-worker economic system continues to extend. Because the election attracts nearer, rideshare drivers and passengers will seemingly be watching intently to see which candidate aligns with their issues essentially the most.
