How to Choose a TLC Base in NYC in 2026
A plain-English guide to picking a TLC base in New York City. What a base actually is, the 4 kinds you can choose from, how pay really works, and what to ask before you sign anything.
New here? Start with our guide to getting your TLC license and our guide to renting a TLC car first. This article assumes you already have (or are getting) both.
A "base" is the company that gives you trips.
Every TLC for-hire vehicle in NYC has to be tied to a TLC-licensed base. The base is the company that legally dispatches your trips. If you drive for Uber, Uber is your base. If you drive for Lyft, Lyft is your base. If you drive a town car or black car for a local company, that company is your base.
You cannot legally drive an FHV in NYC without one. Picking the right base is one of the biggest decisions in your TLC career — it shapes how much you earn, how flexible your schedule is, and how much paperwork you do.
What a TLC base actually is.
In NYC, every for-hire car — that means every car that is not a yellow medallion taxi — has to be on the books of a TLC-licensed base. The base is the company that legally sends you trips, takes the customer's money, and pays you.
Think of it like this:
- The TLC is the city agency that gives you your driver license and your car plates.
- The base is the business that gives you customers and pays you.
- You are the driver who shows up, picks up the rider, and drops them off safely.
Without a base, your TLC plates are not legal on the road. So when you license your car with the TLC, you must give them a paper called a base letter (also called a "base affirmation"). That paper says: "Yes, this driver and this car are working with us." More on that paper in Section 6.
One important thing to know: a TLC vehicle is on file with one base at a time. You can change bases later (your old base files a removal, your new base files a fresh affirmation), but you cannot be active on two bases for the same vehicle at the same time. If a base tells you "just drive for us on the side too" without going through the affirmation process, that is a problem — running off-the-books trips can put your TLC plates and license at risk.
The 4 kinds of TLC bases.
The TLC sorts bases into four official groups. Each one feels like a different job. Pick the one that fits how you want to work.
High-Volume For-Hire Services (HVFHS)
Examples: Uber, Lyft.
The biggest category. These are the app-based bases that do more than 10,000 trips a day. You drive when you want, the app sends you trips, and the company pays you weekly. You use your own car or a rented TLC car.
Best for: drivers who want flexible hours, no boss, and to start earning quickly.
Watch out for: your earnings depend on rider demand. Slow days happen. The app can also pause your account if your acceptance rate or rating drops.
Community Cars / Livery
Examples: neighborhood car services in Queens, Brooklyn, the Bronx, and Upper Manhattan.
The old-school NYC car service. A dispatcher (sometimes a person on a radio, sometimes an app) takes phone calls and street pickups and sends them to drivers on the base. Many of these bases serve neighborhoods that the apps under-cover.
Best for: drivers who want steady work in one neighborhood, like to build regular customers, and prefer phone dispatch over an app.
Watch out for: base fees and rules vary a lot from one livery to another. Some take a flat weekly fee; some take a cut of each trip. Always ask for the full fee list in writing.
Black Car
Examples: Carmel, Dial 7, Legends, plus many corporate-account bases.
A step up from livery. Black-car bases work mostly on prepaid accounts — companies that pay for their employees' rides, airport transfers, hotel pickups. You usually need a clean dark sedan (no flashy colors), a suit or business clothes, and an E-ZPass. Trips pay more per ride, but you may spend long stretches waiting between them.
Best for: experienced drivers who like longer trips, JFK/LGA/EWR runs, and don't mind dressing the part.
Watch out for: competition for the good corporate jobs is real. New drivers usually start with the slower shifts.
Luxury Limousine
Examples: stretch limos, party buses, wedding and event services.
The smallest category. These bases run stretch limos and larger vehicles for weddings, proms, nights out, and corporate events. Trips are booked days or weeks in advance, often by the hour.
Best for: drivers who want booked-ahead, multi-hour jobs and don't want to chase trips on an app.
Watch out for: you usually need a special vehicle. Most drivers don't start here — this is a niche.
Not sure where to start? Most new TLC drivers in NYC start on Uber or Lyft (Category 1) because the sign-up is the simplest and you can start driving within days of getting your TLC plates. You can always switch later.
Yellow cab is different (a quick aside).
Everything in this article is about FHV (for-hire vehicle) drivers. That is Uber, Lyft, livery, black car, and limo. If you want to drive a yellow medallion taxi, the system is different and this article does not cover it.
The short version of the yellow-cab difference:
- Yellow cabs are tied to a medallion, not a base. A medallion is a small numbered plate that lives on the car. Only medallion taxis can pick up street hails in Manhattan.
- To drive a yellow cab, you usually lease the medallion from an owner or from a TLC-licensed medallion agent. You pay a daily or weekly lease, and keep what you earn above that.
- Yellow cabs do not need a "base letter." They have their own paperwork.
Yellow cab is its own world — we'll cover it in a future article. For now, if you are reading this guide, you are almost certainly an FHV driver, and the rest of this guide applies to you.
How the money actually works.
Different base types pay you in different ways. Here is the plain truth.
Uber and Lyft (HVFHS)
The rider pays the app. The app takes a percentage. You get the rest. The NYC TLC sets a minimum pay rate per mile and per minute for HVFHS drivers — the app cannot pay you less than this floor. For 2026 the standard minimum is roughly $1.28 per mile + $0.68 per minute (slightly higher for WAV and out-of-town trips). See our earnings guide for the full math.
Pay lands in your bank account every week. The TLC also limits per-shift fees the base can take from you to $7 per shift, $49 per week. If you see anything bigger than that, ask questions.
Livery and Black Car
The customer pays the base (by app, account, or sometimes cash to the driver). The base pays you, usually one of two ways:
- Percentage of the fare. You keep 60–80% of each ride, the base keeps the rest. Common at black-car bases.
- Flat weekly base fee. You pay the base a set amount each week (often a few hundred dollars) and keep 100% of fares above that. Common at smaller liveries.
There is no city-set minimum pay rate for livery and black-car drivers like there is for Uber and Lyft. What the base pays is what the base pays. So you need to get the full fee list in writing before you sign on.
Luxury Limousine
Trips are usually priced by the hour, with a minimum (often 3 to 5 hours). Bases take a cut similar to black-car bases. Tips are a much bigger share of total pay here than in other categories.
Some smaller liveries charge "extras" on top of the base fee: radio fees, dispatch fees, insurance fees, app fees. Each one is small, but together they can be a big chunk of your pay. Ask: "What is the total you take from me each week, all fees added up?"
Flexibility, schedule, and who owns your time.
Different bases give you very different levels of freedom over your own schedule. Be honest with yourself about what you actually want.
| Base type | Who picks your hours? | Can you take a week off? | Start-up effort |
|---|---|---|---|
| Uber / Lyft (HVFHS) | You do. | Yes, any time. | Low (app sign-up) |
| Livery | Mix — the base offers shifts, you pick. | Usually yes, with notice. | Medium (in-person sign-up) |
| Black Car | Base assigns most jobs; you accept or pass. | Yes, but corporate accounts expect you back. | Medium (often a paid orientation) |
| Luxury Limo | Base books the job; you show up. | Yes, with plenty of notice. | High (specialty vehicle) |
A useful gut-check: do you want to be your own boss, or do you want someone to tell you where to be? Drivers who like flexibility usually pick HVFHS. Drivers who want a steady, predictable rhythm usually do better at a livery or black-car base.
A protection worth knowing about: a TLC rule that took effect August 1, 2025 requires Uber and Lyft to give a driver at least 72 hours notice before pausing their account for things like a low acceptance rate. The notice does not apply if the lockout is for a real safety issue or a TLC rule violation. If your account gets paused without notice, you can complain to the TLC's Driver Protection Unit.
The base letter: how you sign up.
Once you pick a base, here is what happens. The exact steps are a little different at every base, but the core is the same.
- 1 You apply. You give the base your TLC license number, your DMV chauffeur's license, ID, proof of address, and (if you have one) your vehicle info. Uber and Lyft do this online; livery and black-car bases often want you in person.
- 2 The base submits a "Base Affirmation" to the TLC. This is a short online form the base sends saying: "We are taking on this driver and this car." Some people still call it a "base letter" — it is the same thing.
- 3 You get a confirmation email from the TLC. Save it. You may need to show it later when you license your vehicle.
- 4 Wait 7 days. The TLC requires a 7-day window after the Base Affirmation before you can submit a new vehicle license application tied to that base. Plan around it.
- 5 You're on. Start driving. For Uber and Lyft, the app turns on once their background check clears. For livery and black-car bases, you usually get a short in-person orientation, then your first shift.
Changing bases later? You can. Your old base files a "removal" form with the TLC, and your new base files a fresh Base Affirmation. The 7-day wait usually applies again. Plan a few quiet days into your switch.
For the official TLC steps, see the TLC's Get a For-Hire Vehicle License page.
Red flags before you sign with a base.
Most NYC bases are honest, hardworking businesses. A few are not. These are the warning signs that have cost drivers real money. If you see any of them, slow down and ask questions.
- "You can drive for us under the table." Walk away. Driving FHV in NYC without a real base affirmation on file with the TLC is illegal and can get your plates pulled, your license suspended, or worse.
- "Just sign here, I'll explain later." Never. Read every line. Ask for a copy in your home language if you need one. If they refuse to give you the contract before you sign, that is your answer.
- "Total fees are about $X" (no written breakdown). "About" is not a number. Ask for every fee, in writing: weekly base fee, percentage of fares, radio/dispatch fee, insurance share, ticket admin fee, app fee. Add them up yourself.
- The base asks you to lend your TLC plates to "a cousin" or "a friend." This is the most common scam. Your plates are tied to you. If the other driver gets in an accident or a ticket, it falls on your license. Never lend plates.
- "Drive on our base on the side, you can keep your other base too." A TLC vehicle is on file with one base at a time — going around that means running trips off the books. If they're willing to skip the paperwork, they may take other shortcuts with your money too.
- The base will not give you a copy of the Base Affirmation confirmation. You should get it. If they won't share it, you can also confirm directly with the TLC.
- "We hold your first 2 weeks of pay as a deposit." A small deposit can be normal. Holding your full pay for weeks is not. Ask exactly when the money comes back to you, and get that date in writing.
If something feels off, call the TLC's Driver Protection Unit at 718-391-5539 or file a complaint at the Driver Protection Unit page. They exist to help you.
Your next move.
Picking the right base is one of the few decisions a TLC driver makes that compounds. The wrong base costs you money every single week. The right base pays you fairly, sends you steady trips, and treats you like a partner.
Most drivers do this the old way: a friend gives a phone number, you call, you hope they answer. You find out the fees only after you sign. JobCabby is the new way — a free marketplace where NYC bases tell you up front what they pay, what shifts are open, and where they need drivers.
Pick the right base. Skip the guesswork.
Sign up free on JobCabby. Tell us your TLC license, the boroughs you cover, and the shifts you want. NYC bases reach out to you — with the fees on the table. No phone tag. No hidden deals. No fees from us.
Got a question we did not answer? Email company@ariglabs.io — we read every message and update this guide as rules and bases change.
We last checked all TLC base rules in this article on May 15, 2026. Rules and fee structures can change at any time. The figures above are typical ranges, not quotes — always confirm the latest fees with the base before you sign.
For the official TLC rules on FHV bases, see nyc.gov/tlc. This guide is general information, not legal or financial advice.