Traffic was backed up on the Brooklyn Bridge and FDR Drive on Tuesday when hundreds of Uber and Lyft drivers conducted a "slow vehicle procession" toward Gracie Mansion to protest new changes to the companies' apps. Drivers are arguing that the companies are preventing them from earning a living—and want the Mayor and City Council to step in.

UBER/Lyft drivers protest right now on FDR drive. I wonder if they will meet the same response as Eric Garner protesters did once they hit 23rd street. pic.twitter.com/Vss6U2uYy5 — Liam Quigley (@_elkue) September 17, 2019

Hundreds of @Uber_NYC and @lyft begin caravan protest over Brooklyn Bridge to Gracie Mansion over changes in App access #1010wins pic.twitter.com/yVat0gy6we — glenn schuck (@glennschuck) September 17, 2019

According to the Independent Drivers Guild, "Starting on Tuesday Uber will enact new policies to kick drivers off the apps between trips and in areas of lower demand in order to avoid paying drivers as required by New York City’s pay regulations. Lyft enacted a similar policy earlier this summer to protests from the Drivers Guild. The New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission has failed to take action, so the Drivers Guild is calling for the Mayor and City Council to stop the apps from violating the pay rules in an attempt to scam drivers out of fair pay."

In June, Lyft changed its policy to comply with minimum-wage laws. As Crain's explained it, "The new payment formula looks at how much of the time a driver cruises with an empty car. The more cruising a driver does, the more fare revenue the app-based company needs to share to ensure the driver makes at least $17 an hour after expenses. App-based services with a high 'utilization rate'—meaning their drivers are ferrying passengers nearly 60% of the time—can contribute less to the driver's pay. To reduce congestion in Midtown the Taxi and Limousine Commission wants fewer empty cars."

Now Uber is following suit, not that it nor Lyft want to; Lyft had filed (and then dropped) a lawsuit challenging the minimum wage rule, while Uber said in a statement on Monday, "Time and again we’ve seen Mayor (Bill) de Blasio’s TLC pass arbitrary and politically-driven rules that have unintended consequences for drivers and riders."



The Independent Drivers Guild argued, "By logging drivers off the app and requiring them to travel to an area of higher demand in order to pick up their next trip, Lyft would be shifting the costs of travel and waiting time onto the drivers and in so doing, violate this commission’s rules."

NYC's own yellow cab industry is in crisis, in part because of increased competition from the app-based services. The IDG has asked for a Drivers' Bill of Rights, which would prevent the apps from deactivating drivers without a stated cause, among other guarantees.