By next spring, drivers will start paying a toll to the MTA to enter Manhattan below 60th street, known as congestion pricing.

But cabbies like Kuber Sancho-Persad have been hit with a congestion fee to the MTA for years.

Since 2019, passengers have been paying cabbies a $2.50 surcharge on their fares for trips below 96th Street - on top of a 50-cent fee on all trips. For for-hire app trips, it’s $2.75.

What You Need To Know

  • Since 2019, passengers who take cab trips below 96th Street pay a congestion surcharge as part of their fare that goes to the MTA

  • Drivers protested Gov. Kathy Hochul outside of her event celebrating the federal approval of congestion pricing

  • MTA hopes to have congestion pricing in place by April 2024

All of that money collected from the fare then goes to the MTA.

That $10 Sancho-Persad has to hand over to the MTA comes from four trips below 96th Street he made on a recent shift.

“That’s the most tax I pay through the day, $10 congestion fee for that day,” he said.

This is on top of all the other taxes, gas and fees to lease his cab from a garage.

“It’s draining, it’s discouraging too,” he said.

Now, he’s staring down another congestion fee in Manhattan, anywhere from $9 to $23 during the day.

“If we just drive downtown, we’re gonna lose money,” Sancho-Persad said. “You don’t have to pick up a fare. Just drive below 60th street, lose money.”

Under congestion pricing, taxi and for-hire drivers will be charged once a day.

An MTA panel called the traffic mobility review board will determine exemptions and the toll price, approved by the MTA’s board members.

MTA Chairman Janno Lieber said on Mornings on 1 Wednesday that more exemptions mean higher tolls for everyone.

“When you’re asking for a discount exemption from one group, and we totally understand why folks are asking - but the result is, it drives up the base toll for everybody else,” Lieber said.

Taxi drivers have been organizing against congestion pricing - protesting outside of Gov. Kathy Hochul’s speech about scoring the final federal approval.

An Uber spokeswoman said officials should factor in the existing taxi traffic surcharge, like crediting it against the upcoming toll.

Sancho-Persad, a 28-year-old from the Bronx, says business is coming back but with the additional tax, it’ll be more difficult to earn money to support his mother and save for college to study mechanical engineering.

Sancho-Persad, whose late father also drove a taxi, fears for the industry’s future.

“It’s gonna kill the taxi industry, he said. “A lot of us are barely scraping by,” he said.