Nobody wants to hail a ride from a driver who’s been on the road for 20 hours. So it makes perfect sense for the Taxi and Limousine Commission to come up with rules to ensure that no one’s behind the wheel of a yellow cab or black car that long.
And, yes, that includes Uber cars.
A few Uber drivers claim they’ve felt they had to take to the road for as many as 19 hours a day — particularly since the car service cut fares by 15 percent last month.
Such a workload could be a recipe for danger — and it’s the TLC’s job to keep these industries safe.
Commissioner Meera Joshi says the TLC is looking at “a uniform requirement” limiting hours on the road “based on best practices and analysis of driver trip data.”
That sounds about right.
Using its (comprehensive) data, Uber says the average road-time for its drivers is just 30 hours a week — a figure that hasn’t changed much under its latest fare cut.
Fine: That means reasonable driving-time limits should be no problem.
Of course, Uber will have to watch out for poison pills in any new TLC rules — its enemies still hope to strangle it.
But a narrow rule subjecting all these drivers — whether for yellow cab or “ride-share” services — to, say, 12-hour maximum shifts would be no outrage.