TLC Releases ‘Taxi of Tomorrow’ Request For Proposals

NEW YORK, Dec. 18 /PRNewswire/ — The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) today announced that the New York City Department of Citywide Administrative Services (DCAS) will be issuing on the TLC’s behalf a Request for Proposals (RFP) for the Taxi of Tomorrow project, an effort to upgrade the existing taxi fleet to better meet the needs of passengers, drivers, owners, and the city as a whole.

The release of this RFP is the culmination of a long series of initiatives that has included Taxi ’07 (a design-oriented celebration of the New York taxicab centennial created by the Design Trust for Public Space in partnership with the TLC, which featured an impressive exhibition of prototypical future taxicabs at the Jacob Javits Center), as well as a Request For Information (RFI) that asked the automotive manufacturing community the critical question, “What is possible?” The Taxi of Tomorrow project brings together a number of Bloomberg Administration goals, such as increasing the number of fuel-efficient taxicabs and wheelchair-accessible taxicabs, as well as the enhancement of passenger amenities.

This RFP represents a new way forward for bringing taxicabs to the market. Today’s taxi fleet is made up of 16 different vehicles, supported by nine manufacturers. None of the vehicles currently approved as taxis was designed by the original manufacturer as a taxi; rather, they have all been outfitted (“hacked up”) by third-party upfitters, garages, and meter shops to conform to TLC’s taxicab specifications. But these current vehicles fall short of meeting the needs of stakeholders: there is no one vehicle that is clean, accessible, and comfortable and that meets all the needs of New York City taxicab drivers and passengers.

The goal of the RFP is to seek a highly qualified manufacturer with the knowledge and practical experience necessary to bring the vision of the TLC and its stakeholders to fruition and create a next-generation taxicab that:

• Meets the highest safety standards
• Provides a superior passenger experience
• Provides for superior driver comfort and amenities
• Appropriate purchase price, and ongoing maintenance and repair costs
• Has a smaller environmental footprint (i.e., lower emissions and improved fuel economy)
• Has a smaller physical footprint (with more usable interior room)
• Offers universal accessibility for all users
• Iconic design that will identify the new taxi with New York City

“This is the phase of the project where the rubber will meet the road,” said TLC Commissioner Matthew W. Daus. “The successful respondent will have the right to exclusively provide the quintessential New York City taxicab for a full ten years, which is an incentive I am confident will spark interest and competition, resulting in a cleaner, more affordable, and better vehicle. Both passengers and drivers will benefit from this program, in terms of superior safety, convenience, access, and amenities. The time to develop the Taxi of Tomorrow is today, and the opportunity is here to build a cleaner, more functional, more comfortable taxicab.”

The RFP also contemplates modifications of, or technologies that could replace, the traditional partition, which is now an important component of driver safety. While the current taxicab partition design has contributed to New York City’s being among the safest taxi cities in the nation, it is several decades old and the TLC wants to see what new ideas a competitive process might generate. The goal here is to explore a range of possible solutions that would have the effect of improving driver safety while maintaining interior space and facilitating more effective driver/passenger communications.

Successful concepts will also maintain that special iconic quality that makes a New York City taxicab the world-famous symbol it is today. While many dozens of vehicle models have served as taxicabs in the industry’s 102-year history, there has always been something almost un-definably special about the New York City taxicab. This RFP seeks not only to define the un-definable, but to successfully build it into the taxicab that will carry us into the future.

Respondents are also encouraged to propose ways in which the city may benefit through a strategic partnership with the Taxi of Tomorrow’s ultimate creator. The TLC is very interested in learning from respondents what they envision. Such opportunities could take the form of unique partnerships on major marketing campaigns, or infrastructure projects to support taxicab services, to offset the costs associated with bringing the Taxi of Tomorrow to the streets of New York City.

Prospective respondents can access the RFP through the TLC’s Web site at www.nyc.gov/taxi. The pre-proposal conference will be held on January 14, 2010, at 10 a.m., EST, at 100 Gold Street, 8th floor, New York City. The due date for proposal submissions is 2 p.m., EST, on March 26, 2010. The TLC anticipates that the conclusion of the selection process will be followed by the signing of a contract in October 2010, with the first vehicles will be available for service no later than October 31, 2014.

The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission (TLC) was created in 1971 and is the agency responsible for the regulation and licensing of almost 200,000 licensees, including 13,237 medallion taxicabs and more than 48,000 medallion taxicab drivers. It is recognized as the largest and most active taxi and limousine regulatory body in the United States.

To find out more about the TLC, or to review its rules, regulations, and procedures, we encourage you to visit our official Web site at www.nyc.gov/taxi, or call 311 from inside New York City or 212-NEW-YORK from outside New York City.

SOURCE The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission