What first comes into your mind when you hear the name of the city that never sleeps? Yellow cabs, of course.
Yellow taxi cabs have been somewhat of an NYC’s trademark, but now with the appearance of Lyft and Uber, they are cast away. New York pays great attention to their riders and being an Uber, or a Lyft driver has a lot of perks. However, in order to become one, you must own a TLC license, which is an abbreviation for the Taxi and Limousine Commission. As we said before, New York City is taking care of their passengers, and the drivers must have all the right documents to ensure the citizens and tourist safe travels.
We will present to you all the steps required for you to get a TLC license, and you should know that you have 90 days to obtain it, after you first apply for it, and you must be 19 years old, or more. If you are less than 19, you will get automatically declined.
Step 1
You must own a regular driver’s license and then upgrade that one to a Class E. Class E is required for taxi drivers or if you have the car that you are using for taxi purposes. That will cost you somewhere between $21 and $28, and the price depends on your age and the driver’s license’s age. License renewal is required if your driver’s license is soon to expire.
Step 2
You need to complete the Defense Driving Course within the last 18 months, and the Defensive Driving Course in New York is 6 hours long. It holds details about safe driving and traffic laws, and you will learn everything in a classroom, or you can take in online. Improv Traffic School offers an online course. The price is somewhere between $30-$40, and once you complete it, the school will inform DMV, and you will get your official certificate within seven days. You need that certificate to submit it alongside your TLC application.
Step 3
Afterward, you will need to do a medical exam. All TLC drivers need one as TLC needs everybody “fit to operate a vehicle safely.” The physical exam is also needed, and once you get that, you can later download and print from the TLC website, where you previously filled out and stamped it.
Step 4
Now that you have all the documents needed, the next thing that you will do is to go to submit the initial TLC application, located on nyc.gov/taxi. Go to their website and scroll down to find “LARS” and you click on “Apply for a license.” Afterward, you click on a category for which you want to apply, in this case, TLC Driver’s License. As a part of your application, you will need to watch a sex trafficking video, and everything will cost you $252. You won’t be getting your money back, so pay that in mind.
Step 5
You will need to complete a 24-Hour Taxi School course. You can do that at Master Cabbie, LaGuardia taxi Institute, Hanac NYC Taxi Academy, Abba Training School, and Knowledge Seekers, and the price is $175 plus the exam which is $75. Next, you will need to do a Wheelchair Class and pass a Wheelchair Accessible Vehicle Training class, in agreement with the Americans with Disabilities Act, most commonly known as ADA. It is $75, and it takes 3 hours to complete.
Step 6
Well, at this point you are halfway through. Get all your documents and certificates and present to TLC, and you need to send everything by email to [email protected].
Step 7
The drug test is also important. Dial 1-800-923-2624 and make an appointment. You can take it at any LabCorp establishment, but it is suggested that you should perform it in the same building where the TLC is located. It will cost you $26, and if the TLC doesn’t contact you, it means that everything is fine. However, if you get a letter from TLC, that means that you failed the test as there were some drugs found in your organism. You need to pass in order to get the TLC license.
Step 8
TLC also requires your fingerprints. Make an appointment online on https://uenroll.identogo.com/. That will cost you $75.
Step 9
If everything went in the perfect order, and you passed all the exams and tests, you will get your licenses via mail. You can always check your status at nyc.gov/newdriverapplookup.
Step 10
Congratulations on your TLC license! You are all set and ready to go!
