New York, NY – New York City Comptroller Brad Lander and New York Taxi Workers Alliance (TWA) held a press conference on October 17, 2025 demanding an end to Uber and Lyft’s practice of “locking out” drivers.
“I was proud to sponsor New York City’s first-in-the-country minimum pay legislation to make sure for-hire vehicle drivers can earn a living wage – and we won’t stand by as Uber and Lyft dodge our regulations with cruel, arbitrary lock-outs that exploit drivers and pad their profits,” said Comptroller Brad Lander.
Uber and Lyft implemented these lock-outs to exploit a loophole in New York City’s driver minimum pay law, which requires the apps to pay drivers for their time in-between trips. An investigation Bloomberg found that Uber and Lyft lockouts significantly reduced income for drivers, leading to longer hours for less. By artificially inflating their “utilization rate” through lock-outs, the rideshare apps could cheat drivers collectively out of over $1 billion dollars annually going forward.
“We need the TLC to step up,” said Bhairavi Desai, Executive Director & Co-Founder of NYTWA. “We’ve submitted a petition for rulemaking under the City Charter that the TLC must answer by November 4th. We’re calling on them to discard the manipulated data from the lockout period so that they can calculate drivers’ actual utilization rate and pay them accordingly. Closing these loopholes moving forward isn’t enough.”
New York City’s minimum pay rates for Uber and Lyft drivers were the first in the country and established in legislation sponsored by then-Council Member Brad Lander in 2018. Prior to passage of the law, drivers were earning as little as $6 per hour, largely as a result of the failure of the app companies to pay them for time spent waiting for rides. The law led to a significant increase in drivers pay.
The arbitrary lock-outs, which have increased over the past year, cheat drivers both individually and collectively. By locking drivers out of their apps after they complete a trip, Uber and Lyft make it impossible for their workers to conduct stable shifts, get paid in full for the hours they are working, and earn a living. The lock-outs are part of a strategy by Uber and Lyft to cheat New York City’s law and reduce driver pay by artificially increasing their official “utilization rate,” the percentage of time Uber and Lyft drivers are busy with passengers.
“As the Council Member representing Brooklyn’s Little Bangladesh in Kensington, a community with hundreds of working-class immigrant taxi workers, I am outraged by Uber and Lyft’s blatant efforts to undermine fair pay through unjust lockouts and deactivations,” said Council Member Shahana Hanif. “These tactics are exploitative, aimed at cheating drivers out of their hard-earned wages. We must hold these companies accountable and ensure that drivers, who are the backbone of these platforms, are protected from such manipulation.“
