Car Service NYC
Reserve ahead at a price agreed up front. The New York default for airport runs.
pre-booked car service in NYCTaxi and cab service in New York City
Yellow cabs, green boro taxis and pre-booked licensed cars — and a straight answer about which one is right for the trip you are actually making.
- TLC licensed & insured
- Fixed price, no surge
- Available 24/7
- Card or cash
Most trips in New York start the same way: you need a cab, and you need it now. In Midtown that is easy. Two blocks into Sunset Park at 11pm it is not, and the gap between those two experiences is what this page is about.
We run a licensed taxi and cab service in New York City covering all five boroughs, 24 hours a day. Street-hail cabs where they work, pre-booked licensed vehicles where they do not.
Yellow, green, and booked — which applies to you
Three things get called "a cab" in New York and they are not interchangeable.
Yellow medallion taxis can pick up a street hail anywhere in the five boroughs. There are roughly 13,500 of them and they concentrate heavily below 96th Street in Manhattan and around the airports and major transport hubs.
Green boro taxis run the same TLC meter but are restricted on pickup: northern Manhattan above West 110th and East 96th Street, plus the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens (outside the airport terminals) and Staten Island. They exist precisely because yellow cabs never served those areas well. There are fewer of them and they get sparse at night.
Pre-booked for-hire vehicles — what you get when you call us — cannot legally accept a street hail. They have to be arranged in advance. That constraint is also the feature: the car is assigned to your booking, so it arrives where and when you said.
| Charge | Amount | Applies |
|---|---|---|
| Initial charge | $3.00 | On entry, every trip |
| Distance / waiting unit | $0.70 | Per ⅕ mile, or per 60 seconds stopped |
| MTA state surcharge | $1.00 | Trips in NYC, Nassau and Westchester |
| Improvement surcharge | $0.50 | All trips |
| Congestion surcharge | $2.50 | Most trips touching Manhattan below 96th St |
| Weekday peak | $2.50 | Monday–Friday, 4pm–8pm |
| Overnight | $1.00 | Every night, 8pm–6am |
| JFK ↔ Manhattan flat fare | $70.00 | Plus tolls, surcharges and tip |
| Newark surcharge | $20.00 | Added to the metered fare |
Work a specific trip out with the work out what the trip should cost before you travel.
Where the meter costs you money
The $0.70 unit is charged per fifth of a mile or per minute stationary, whichever is happening. Above roughly 12 mph you are paying for distance; below it you are paying for time. In stop-start traffic you are mostly paying for time.
That is why the same physical journey can vary by twenty dollars depending on when you make it. A Midtown-to-Downtown run at 2pm and the same run at 5:45pm are different prices, and the second one also carries the $2.50 peak surcharge.
If the trip is long, or at peak, or crosses a river, get a fixed quote and compare. Short hops in light traffic, the meter usually wins.
Luggage, groups and things a hail cannot solve
There is no luggage charge in a New York taxi — bags travel free, including in the boot. What there is instead is a capacity limit. A standard sedan seats four and takes about two large cases. Five people, or four people with four cases, needs a minivan or SUV, and no amount of waving gets one to stop.
Same for a child seat: taxis are exempt from the restraint requirement, so no cab carries one as standard. If you want one, it has to be arranged in advance.
Accessibility
Roughly a quarter of the yellow fleet is wheelchair accessible, but you cannot tell which quarter is passing you. If you need a ramp-equipped vehicle, book it — see step-free accessible transport for how that works and what to expect.
Outer-borough reality
This is the honest part. Yellow cab supply follows demand, and demand is densest in Manhattan below 96th Street. Everywhere else, availability drops — sharply after 10pm, and sharply again in bad weather, which is exactly when you want one most.
Green boro taxis fill some of that gap during the day. At 4am in Tottenville or Throgs Neck they do not. That is the entire reason our outer-borough business exists, and it is why the borough pages below go into real detail rather than repeating the same paragraph six times.
Booking
Call (888) 652-7136 any hour of any day, or use the form on this page — it opens WhatsApp with your trip details filled in, and nothing is stored on this website.
Give us the pickup address, where you are going, the time, how many passengers and how many bags. If it is an airport trip, add the flight number.
Get a price for this trip
Send the details and we come back with one number — no meter, no surge.
Where we pick up
Street hails thin out fast outside Midtown. These are the boroughs where booking makes the difference.
Other ways to travel with us
A metered cab is not always the right answer. Here is what else we run.
Limo Service NYC
Stretch limousines for weddings, proms and events, charged by the hour.
stretch limousines and party vehiclesChauffeur Service NYC
A professional driver assigned to you for the hour or the day.
NYC chauffeur service for corporate travelLuxury & Black Car NYC
Executive sedans and premium SUVs for business travel and airport pickups.
our luxury vehicle fleetWheelchair Accessible Taxi
Ramp-equipped vehicles where the passenger stays in their own wheelchair.
wheelchair accessible taxi serviceFlying out? Start at NYC airport transfers.
Questions about this service
How much is a taxi in New York City?
The meter starts at $3.00 and adds $0.70 for each fifth of a mile, or each 60 seconds spent stationary. On top of that: $1.00 MTA state surcharge, $0.50 improvement surcharge, and $2.50 congestion surcharge on most trips touching Manhattan below 96th Street. Weekday afternoons from 4pm to 8pm add $2.50, and overnight from 8pm to 6am adds $1.00. Tolls are charged at cost. These rates are set by the Taxi & Limousine Commission and are identical in every yellow cab.
What is the difference between a yellow cab and a green boro taxi?
Yellow medallion cabs can pick up street hails anywhere in the five boroughs. Green boro taxis (officially Street Hail Liveries) can only pick up in northern Manhattan above West 110th and East 96th Street, and in the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens outside the airports, and Staten Island. Both run on the same TLC meter at the same rates. Neither can be relied on late at night in the outer boroughs, which is where a booked car earns its keep.
Can I book a yellow taxi in advance?
Not a street-hail yellow cab — by design those are hailed, not reserved. What you can pre-book is a licensed for-hire vehicle, which is what we dispatch when you book with us. Same licensing regime, same insurance requirements, but it turns up at a set time and a set place.
Do NYC taxis take credit cards?
Yes, all of them. Every licensed vehicle in New York City must accept credit and debit cards, and it is illegal for a driver to refuse a card or claim the reader is broken. If it genuinely is broken the driver should tell you before the trip starts, not at the end.
Can a taxi refuse to take me to another borough?
No. A yellow cab driver who has stopped for you must take you anywhere in the five boroughs, plus Nassau, Westchester and the three airports. Refusing an outer-borough trip is a violation you can report to 311. In practice the refusal usually happens by not stopping at all, which is exactly the problem booking solves.
How much should I tip a taxi driver in NYC?
Fifteen to twenty per cent is the New York norm, and the card terminal will offer buttons at roughly those amounts. It is customary rather than compulsory, and the driver keeps the whole tip.