Despite murders increasing by double digits from last year, the New York City government thought it was necessary to spend city resources to crack down on Uber drivers doing illegal pickups.
The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission seized 496 cars that work for Uber. The operation, conducted between April 29 and June 15, was for cars that illegally picked up passengers hailing the cars on the street, the New York Post reported.
Many of the illegal pickups were done for passengers traveling to and from JFK airport.
“Street hails are not permitted on the Uber platform, period. This is a small group of bad actors, and the violations add up to less than one-hundredth of 1 percent of our rides over the same time period,” Uber spokesman Matt Wing told the NY Post.
The New York Taxi Workers Alliance said business is on the decline and blames it on the fact that there is no cap on the number of Uber drivers, not on the lack on innovation in their own industry.
TLC recently changed its policy from giving drivers a summons to impounding cars. As a result, a total of 938 black, livery and luxury cars, including the Uber drivers’ cars, were seized.
