§ 78-21 — Technical Requirements – E-Hail Application

§ 78-21 Technical Requirements – E-Hail Application.

No E-Hail Application will be approved by the Commission pursuant to this Chapter unless it complies with the all of the requirements set forth in this section or as such requirements may be waived or modified by the Commission pursuant to 35 RCNY § 78-05(f). (a) Dispatching. The E-Hail Application must allow passengers to request transportation in a Taxicab or Street Hail Livery and have the ability to dispatch a Taxicab or Street Hail Livery to the requested location. (1) The E-Hail Application must not transmit E-Hails to any Driver who is not validly licensed to drive a Taxicab or Street Hail Livery or who is operating a Vehicle that does not have a Valid Taxicab License or Street Hail Livery Permit, per the TLC's Current Licensees list published by the TLC. 35 RCNY § 78-21(a)(1) Penalty: $400 fine and/or suspension up to 30 days Appearance REQUIRED (2) The E-Hail Application must be available to a Driver ONLY when the Vehicle is standing or stopped, except that an E-Hail Application can permit a Driver to accept an E-Hail request, cancel an E-Hail request, or indicate arrival at the pickup location with a single touch using pre-programmed buttons or using voice activation while the vehicle is in motion. All other use of the E-Hail Application must be velocity gated by the E-Hail Application Provider to prevent its use while the vehicle is in motion. (3) The E-Hail Application may only disclose to a Driver a potential Passenger's pickup location, drop-off location, and fare estimate, or binding upfront fare quote if it is a Flex Fare Trip, except that a Passenger's trip identification number or E-Hail Application user name may be transmitted to the Driver after the Driver has accepted the Passenger's E-Hail request. (4) The E-Hail Application must require a Driver to affirmatively opt in to use the E-Hail Application and must allow the Driver to opt out of receiving E-Hail requests from Passengers while on duty. (5) The E-Hail Application must make a wheelchair accessible option available to allow Passengers to indicate that they would like a wheelchair accessible vehicle. The E-Hail Application must not dispatch a non-accessible vehicle to a Passenger that requested an accessible vehicle. (6) The E-Hail Application must require the customer to affirmatively acknowledge and accept that the customer is being charged a non-metered fare when accepting a Flex Fare Trip. (7) The E-Hail Application must (i) Automatically send Accessible E-Hail Requests to Drivers any time the E-Hail Application is on or engaged (except where the Driver opts out of the E-Hail function). (ii) Display the Passenger’s request for service to the Driver in a way that does not indicate to the Driver that the Passenger will require additional assistance to enter or exit the Vehicle. 35 RCNY § 78-21(a)(1) - (7) Fine: $500 Appearance REQUIRED (b) Dispatch and Pay (Optional). E-Hail Applications that allow Passengers to pay for an E-Hailed trip using their credit/debit card on file with the E-Hail Application are subject to the following: (1) The E-Hail Application must not require a Passenger to pay a tip to the Driver. (2) The E-Hail Application must transmit an accurate receipt in electronic form, including by being viewable in the Application, to the Passenger and to the Driver. The receipt must contain all the following information: (i) All items required by 35 RCNY § 66-24(c)(9); and (ii) Any fee paid by the Passenger to the E-Hail Application Provider if paid directly to such Provider, clearly identified. NOTE: 35 RCNY § 78-15(a) governs the payment of tips or gratuities. (3) The E-Hail Application must receive the fare and Trip Data automatically from the Technology System or Taximeter, unless it is a Flex Fare Trip, and must not permit a Driver or any other person to enter any fare information manually. The E-Hail Application also must provide the Technology System Provider with the following: (i) The credit card information necessary to process the transaction through the Technology System Provider's payment gateway and the amount to be charged for the transaction, including any tip and E-Hail service fee, if included in the amount to be charged; (ii) Credit, debit, or prepaid card and payment information necessary to allow Technology System Providers to display total charges, including time-and-distance fares, tips, extras, surcharges, taxes, and any fees charged by the E-Hail Application Provider for use of the E-Hail Application on printed receipts, and allow submission to the Chairperson of a complete electronic trip record for the fare as further described in subdivision (e) of this section; and (iii) The request identification number necessary to allow Technology System Providers to submit to the Chairperson the same unique identification submitted by the E-Hail Application Provider as further described in subdivision (d) of this section. (4) The E-Hail Application must comply with all applicable PCI Standards. Credit, debit, and prepaid card information for electronic payments made through an E-Hail Application must not be stored locally on the electronic device on which the E-Hail Application being used resides, or locally on the Technology System (if applicable) after the credit, debit, or pre-paid card has been authorized or declined. (5) The E-Hail Application must be capable of generating the following data: (i) reasonably detailed data of individual and cumulative payment transactions (including sufficient detail to support daily and monthly reconciliations and to perform problem resolution); (ii) if the payment is by credit, debit, or prepaid card, in addition to the information in subparagraph (i) above, the name of the credit, debit, or prepaid card, and the name of the credit card merchant engaged by the E-Hail Application Provider; and (iii) data summarizing the number of fares, the total fare amount, and as applicable, the number of credit, debit, and prepaid card transactions and the total fares of such transactions; (6) The data described in paragraph (5) of this subdivision and its component elements must be stored, maintained and accessible to the Commission and any designee as follows: (i) In a standardized format and layout prescribed by the Commission that is open and non-proprietary; and (ii) By secure file transfer protocol, transfer according to a format, layout, procedure, and frequency prescribed by the Commission. (c) Hail and Pay (Optional). E-Hail Applications that allow Passengers to pay for a Street-Hailed trip using their credit/debit card on file with the E-Hail Application are subject to the following: (1) The E-Hail Application must comply with requirements as set forth in subdivision (b)(1) through (6) of this section. (2) The E-Hail Application must integrate with all licensed Technology Systems to allow Passengers to Pair to any and all Taxicabs and Street Hail Liveries. (i) Within 5 days of licensure the E-Hail Application Provider must notify all licensed Technology System Providers that it intends to provide Hail and Pay. (ii) Pursuant to 35 RCNY § 66-24(e)(1), the Technology System Provider will respond within 5 days and either direct the E-Hail Application Provider to begin necessary development work, or request the documentation listed below to do the work itself. (A) Integration by the Technology System Provider. • If requested by the Technology System Provider, the E-Hail Application Provider must submit, within 5 days, all information on the design and inner operation of the E-Hail Application that is necessary for the Technology System Provider to establish an interface and communication of data between the Technology System and the E-Hail Application. The submitted information must include, but is not limited to a live application programming interface (API) providing all functions described in 35 RCNY § 66-24(d)(2), a test environment for said API, and a simulator. (B) Integration by E-Hail Application Provider. • When supplied by the Technology System Provider with all information stated in item (A) of this subparagraph on the design and inner operation of the Technology System that is necessary for the E-hail Application Provider to establish an interface and communication of data between the TSP and the E-hail Application, then the E-Hail Application Provider must complete integration within 90 days. (3) Separate Violations. Each failure on the part of an E-Hail Application Provider to cooperate with a licensed Technology System Provider for the purpose of maintaining an API as provided in paragraph (1) of this subdivision will constitute a separate violation of this rule. (d) Public API. The E-Hail Application Provider must maintain an application programming interface (API) that includes but is not limited to the following functionalities: (1) Dispatching. (i) For any Driver that has accepted an E-Hail or dispatch from an E-Hail Application Provider or the Accessible Taxi Dispatcher, provide: (A) a cancel event if the Passenger cancels or retracts his or her E-Hail or dispatch; and (B) a unique E-Hail request identification number; (2) E-Payment. (i) Receive from the E-Hail Application Provider or Accessible Taxi Dispatcher access to itemized fare data including time-and-distance fare, tolls, surcharges, extras, and taxes from the Technology System and Taximeter, in real time, when the trip has been completed and the Driver has disengaged the Taximeter, or access to itemized fare data for Flex Fare Trips; (ii) Provide to the E-Hail Application Provider or Accessible Taxi Dispatcher a confirmation that electronic credit card payment for the total fare amount has been successfully processed; and (iii) Provide relevant payment information to the E-Hail Application Provider or Accessible Taxi Dispatcher to the extent necessary to display the total charges, including E-Hail service fee and tip (if applicable) on the receipt and collect and transmit Trip Data. (e) Trip Data Collection and Transmission. An E-Hail Application and its third party designee, if any, must be capable of automatically collecting and transmitting E-Hail request data and Trip Data as described below. (1) The E-Hail Application and its third part designee, if any, must be capable of automatically collecting and transmitting to the Commission data on all E-Hail requests and the outcome of those requests (including pickup and drop-off locations specified by latitude and longitude), in a format, schedule and layout prescribed by the Commission, including (if the trip was fulfilled): (i) the date and time the Passenger requested the trip, and (ii) the date and time the vehicle arrived at the pickup location, and (iii) An E-Hail Provider must submit accurate and complete trip data for a month’s trips no later than the last day of the following month. For example, all September trip records will be due on October 31st. The following penalties accrue with respect to each untimely, inaccurate or incomplete submission of trip records. (2) The E-Hail Application must be able to provide reporting to the TLC as to whether a passenger request was for a wheelchair accessible vehicle. (3) The E-Hail Application and its third party designee, if any, must be capable of automatically collecting and transmitting to the Technology System the Trip Data required below for all trips using E-Payment, except for Flex Fare Trips. (i) E-Hail Application License number; (ii) Credit, debit, or pre-paid card type; (iii) first two and last four digits of the credit, debit, or prepaid card used for paying fares; (iv) E-Hail service fee collected by the E-Hail Application Provider, if applicable; (v) itemized fare; (vi) tip amount; (vii) E-Hail account holder identifier (uniquely identifying the Driver in the E-Hail Application's system); (viii) the number of Passengers that payment of the fare was split among if the E-Hail Application permits the fare to be split; and (ix) a unique identification number assigned to each E-Hail request made by a Passenger in the E-Hail Application. 35 RCNY § 78-21(e) Fine: $100 for each day past the date the complete, accurate records are due if plead guilty before a hearing and suspension until compliance; $150 for each day past the records are due if found guilty following a hearing and suspension until compliance. Fine amount not to exceed $10,000. Appearance NOT REQUIRED (f) Security. (1) If the E-Hail Application provides for E-Payment, all features of the E-Hail Application related to E-Payment required by this section, including the collection, transmission and maintenance of data by the E-Hail Application Provider, must conform to applicable PCI Standards. (g) Data Retention. All data required to be collected, transmitted and maintained pursuant to this section must be maintained for at least three (3) years. (Amended City Record 5/17/2018, eff. 6/16/2018; amended City Record 12/11/2018, eff. 1/10/2019; amended City Record 8/19/2019, eff. 9/18/2019; amended City Record 8/22/2024, eff. 9/21/2024; amended City Record 4/2/2025, eff. 5/2/2025)