Getting paid
How NYC TLC fleets collect weekly rent without chasing anyone
6 min read
The FleetAi blog
Notes for people who run TLC cars in New York.
Rent, tolls, tickets, summonses, the TLC calendar, and the fleet itself. Built and used every day by a working NYC TLC fleet, written down. Sources at the bottom of every piece.
Getting paid · Guide
How NYC TLC fleets collect weekly rent without chasing anyone
Weekly rent from a rotating group of drivers is many small collections, not one bill. The lease, the payments, and the balance rule that make it run itself.
FleetAi · September 10, 2026 · 6 min read
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Start here
One long guide per subject. Everything else on the blog hangs off these.
Tolls
E-ZPass tolls for TLC fleets: who pays, and how to bill them to the driver
7 min read
Tickets and summonses
Parking tickets on fleet plates: moving them to the driver who was parked
6 min read
Compliance
The TLC vehicle calendar: inspections, registration, insurance, and the license itself
6 min read
Running the fleet
GPS tracking for TLC fleets: what a tracker actually tells you
6 min read
Latest
Tolls
E-ZPass tolls for TLC fleets: who pays, and how to bill them to the driver
Every crossing posts to the fleet's E-ZPass statement under your name. How NYC fleets get it back from the driver who crossed, without a weekly argument.
September 10, 2026 · 7 min
Running the fleet
GPS tracking for TLC fleets: what a tracker actually tells you
A plug-in tracker reports a car's position, trips, speed, harsh events, and idle time on its own SIM. What that record is actually good for.
September 10, 2026 · 6 min
Getting paid
How NYC TLC fleets collect weekly rent without chasing anyone
Weekly rent from a rotating group of drivers is many small collections, not one bill. The lease, the payments, and the balance rule that make it run itself.
September 10, 2026 · 6 min
Tickets and summonses
Parking tickets on fleet plates: moving them to the driver who was parked
A parking or camera ticket bills the plate's registered owner, not the driver. Here is how NYC fleets move it to whoever was actually parked.
September 10, 2026 · 6 min
Compliance
The TLC vehicle calendar: inspections, registration, insurance, and the license itself
A for-hire vehicle answers to four separate clocks: the TLC license, the inspection behind it, the state registration, and the insurance policy.
September 10, 2026 · 6 min
Tolls
"That wasn't me": settling toll disputes with the car's own GPS trail
When a driver says a toll was not theirs, the car's own GPS trail settles it, whichever way the answer comes out.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Tickets and summonses
Camera tickets: bus lane, speed camera, red light, and who ends up paying
Bus lane, speed, and red light cameras all bill the registered owner, not the driver. Here is how each program actually works, and what it costs.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Tolls
Congestion pricing for TLC vehicles: what the fleet pays and what the rider pays
A regular car pays a daily toll into the Congestion Relief Zone. A taxi or for-hire vehicle pays a smaller per-trip charge instead, billed to the rider.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Compliance
Driver license expiry: what a fleet has to check, and how often
A TLC Driver License runs three years, but the drug test resets every year and the defensive driving certificate has its own three-year clock.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Tickets and summonses
How to see every open ticket on your fleet's plates in one place
Parking, camera, and TLC tickets each live in a different city system. Here is what it actually takes to see every open one across a fleet's plates.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Running the fleet
Kill switches and payment enforcement: doing it safely and keeping the record
Disabling a car for unpaid rent only works safely with a parked-only rule, a grace period, and a record of every command. How to do it honestly.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Getting paid
Late rent: a grace period, a threshold, and what happens on day three
A grace period and a dollar threshold decide what happens when rent is late. Both are terms your lease sets, not numbers the TLC hands you.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Compliance
Minimum pay rules and what they mean for how much rent a driver can carry
TLC sets a per-mile, per-minute pay floor for trips dispatched by Uber and Lyft. Here is what it covers, and how to reason about rent against it.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Getting paid
Reading a driver's balance: charges, payments, and oldest-first
A driver's balance is a running total, not one number. What belongs on it, why order matters, and what TLC's receipt rule requires behind every line.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Running the fleet
Screening a new driver: the five checks before the keys
Before handing over the keys: what the TLC license already checked, current DMV status, insurance eligibility, the agreement, and the deposit.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Getting paid
Security deposits for TLC rentals: how much, what they cover, when they go back
How much a TLC lease can hold as a deposit, what it can be used for, and how long you have to return it depend on which TLC rule covers your plates.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Tolls
Setting up an E-ZPass Business account for a fleet: tags, plates, statements
What an E-ZPass Business account requires to open, what a tag costs every month, and how to keep a fleet's plates current on it.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Data
Spreadsheet or software: what a 20-car fleet spends on admin each week
A worksheet for a 20-car fleet's weekly admin: invoices, payments, tolls, tickets, renewals, and driver messages, built from assumptions you can change.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Running the fleet
Teslas in a TLC fleet: charging, trip data, and the connectivity you pay for
What Tesla's own pages say Premium Connectivity includes, how outside software reaches a Tesla's data through Tesla's Fleet API, and charging.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Running the fleet
Texting drivers from one fleet number instead of your cell
A personal cell mixes up numbers fast once a fleet grows. One line for every driver, under the same opt-in and stop rules as any other business text.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Tickets and summonses
The 30-day clock: ticket deadlines, penalties, and the order to pay them in
Parking, camera, and TLC tickets each run on their own deadline. Here is what each clock does, and which one to act on first.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Compliance
The FHV license pause and the EV exemption, explained for fleet owners
TLC has capped new for-hire vehicle licenses since 2018. Here is what the pause allows today and what happened to the electric vehicle exception.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Data
The NYC TLC fleet report, Q3 2026: plates, fleets, tickets, and tolls from open data
What New York City's own open data says about active for-hire vehicles, fleet size, and OATH cases so far in 2026, with every query shown.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Compliance
TLC insurance for fleets after the ATIC collapse: what changed, what to ask a broker
American Transit Insurance has covered most of the city's taxis and for-hire vehicles for decades. Here is what regulators and reporting say now.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Tickets and summonses
TLC summonses explained: OATH, hearing dates, and the codes that cost the most
A TLC summons is heard at OATH, not the Department of Finance. Here is how service, hearings, and the highest-penalty rules actually work.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
Tolls
Tolls by Mail post weeks late. Here is how to bill them anyway.
A plate read can take six weeks to arrive, often after the driver who caused it has moved on. Here is how a fleet still bills the right person.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Getting paid
When a driver stops paying: the sequence that gets the car back without a fight
A driver who stops paying rent is not a legal mystery if the lease already answers it. The sequence that avoids a confrontation, and the limits on it.
September 10, 2026 · 3 min
Getting paid
Zelle for fleet rent: matching payments when the sender name never matches
Zelle moved fleet rent off cash and onto a bank app. The tradeoff is a sender name that rarely matches the driver, and no reversal once it lands.
September 10, 2026 · 4 min
See it running on your own fleet.
Tell us about yours: how many cars, how you collect rent, which E-ZPass and ticket accounts you hold. We reply by email and set up a walkthrough.