Comptroller Lander and taxi workers call on TLC to toss lockout data ahead of next pay raise

City Comptroller Brad Lander joined the New York Taxi Workers Alliance Thursday, calling on the Taxi and Limousine Commission to toss out data they say was unfairly manipulated by Uber and Lyft to “cheat” drivers. The data — which tracks how long Uber and Lyft drivers are logged onto their respective apps and how much of that time is spent carrying passengers — is a key element in the TLC’s annual review of the city’s minimum pay requirements for rideshare drivers. But drivers say since June both rideshare giants have been “locking them out” — keeping drivers from signing on to work for hours at a time — in an effort to skew those stats, a figure known as the “utilization rate.”