How to Complete the TLC Vehicle Inspection: Woodside Appointments and Checks

A TLC vehicle inspection is the periodic safety, emissions, and equipment check that every for-hire vehicle licensed by the New York City Taxi and Limousine Commission must pass at the TLC’s Woodside facility before it can legally carry passengers. To get through it, you submit a Plate Notification Form through the TLC Upload Portal, receive an appointment, bring the vehicle to Woodside with your paperwork, and either pass on the spot or return within the compliance window after repairs.

How Often Your Vehicle Is Inspected

Your inspection cycle depends on what you drive.

Yellow medallion cabs are inspected three times per calendar year, with no more than four months between inspections. The first of the three each year happens at any NYS DMV-registered inspection station during the month the current sticker expires, not at Woodside. The other two take place at the TLC facility.¹

Green Street Hail Livery cabs are inspected every six months. For-hire vehicles — app-dispatched cars, black cars, liveries, and luxury limousines — are inspected every two years, at license renewal.¹

Vehicles seating ten or more passengers (counting the driver) and stretched limousines are on a different track. Those must first be inspected twice a year by the New York State Department of Transportation and carry an MC300 sticker before Woodside will perform a visual inspection.²

You can check your next inspection date any time by logging into the TLC Upload Portal.¹

Getting Your Appointment

You cannot schedule an inspection until a Plate Notification Form is submitted through the TLC Upload Portal (TLC UP). The form is online only, and either the vehicle owner or the affiliated base can file it. Submitting it links your plates to your TLC records so the system recognizes the vehicle when you arrive.³

How the appointment itself reaches you depends on the situation:

Renewing an FHV license: once the TLC Licensing Division processes and approves your documents, it emails you an inspection appointment.
Vehicle license transfer: the Licensing Division assigns an appointment after the transfer is complete.
Base or plate transfer: you get a visual inspection appointment at Woodside after finishing the transfer at the Licensing Division.
New Street Hail Livery hack-up: your base notifies TLC that you have your plates, TLC mails a hack-up letter, and you bring the vehicle plus that letter to Woodside.¹

What Inspectors Check

Woodside is a New York State-licensed inspection station, so the evaluation covers everything a regular state inspection does, plus TLC-specific equipment and cosmetic standards.

Safety and Emissions

Technicians test brakes, seatbelts, lights, suspension, and emission systems.⁴ At least one front wheel is removed so pads, drums, rotors, hoses, and cylinders can be checked for wear or leaks.⁵ Tires need adequate tread with no visible cord or bulges. Headlamps, turn signals, and brake lights all have to work without flickering. Diagnostic equipment measures exhaust output against state environmental standards; a vehicle that runs too dirty fails regardless of its mechanical condition.

Markings, Decals, and Appearance

The exterior must be free of major dents or structural damage. For-hire vehicles need three valid TLC license decals: one on the lower front right of the windshield, and one on each rear quarter window. Cyclist warning decals go on the inside of both rear passenger doors. Except for luxury limousines and black cars, vehicles must display the affiliated base station’s name, license number, and phone number in contrasting lettering on the doors or rear.⁶

Inside, upholstery should be intact and the climate control functional. Paint color is restricted: no shade of taxicab yellow is allowed on any for-hire vehicle, and apple green is reserved for Street Hail Livery cars.⁶

If your vehicle carries a taximeter, note that Woodside does not calibrate it. A licensed taximeter business handles the installation, test run, and certification sticker separately, and must submit the test results to the TLC within seven days.⁷

At the Woodside Facility

The Safety and Emissions Inspection facility is at 24-55 B.Q.E. West, Woodside, NY 11377.¹ Show up at your scheduled time with the vehicle clean enough that inspectors can see the body panels and undercarriage. A technician runs the car through the bays — automated emissions and brake diagnostics first, then a hands-on review of the undercarriage, engine compartment, lights, and interior. You wait in the designated area while this happens. TLC doesn’t publish an official time estimate, but plan on at least an hour including check-in, longer during busy periods.

If You Pass

You get a printed report confirming the result, and the TLC database updates automatically to clear the vehicle for passengers. Yellow and green cabs receive a new inspection sticker for the windshield.

If You Fail

The Vehicle Inspection Report (VIR) lists every defect and gives you a compliance date: the deadline by which the vehicle must return and pass. That date is 60 days from your first scheduled inspection date, even if you missed the original appointment.⁸ The vehicle cannot carry passengers until it passes.¹

You do not need an appointment to come back. The VIR lists the hours when reinspections are accepted at Woodside. For-hire vehicles get up to four attempts to pass before the compliance deadline runs out.¹

The initial inspection fee is built into your vehicle application or renewal fee; there’s no separate charge if you pass the first time. Reinspection fees apply only when you fail and return:

Yellow and green cabs: $35
FHV DMV emissions reinspection: $27
FHV DMV safety reinspection: $10

Reinspection fees can be paid online through the TLC system.¹

Driving Without a Valid Inspection

Operating without a current inspection, or missing a required inspection cycle, carries a $100 fine and suspends the vehicle owner’s license until the defect is corrected and the vehicle passes, including any applicable NYS DOT inspection for larger vehicles. The TLC can also run on-street inspections at any time and order a vehicle that looks out of compliance to report to Woodside.²

1
Taxi & Limousine Commission. Vehicle Inspections – TLC
2
American Legal Publishing. Rules of the City of New York Title 35 – 59A-26 Vehicles – Inspections
3
Taxi & Limousine Commission. Vehicle Plate Notification Form
4
NYC.gov. Safety and Emissions – TLC
5
Legal Information Institute. 15 NYCRR 79.21 – Inspection of Motor Vehicles
6
American Legal Publishing. Rules of the City of New York Title 35 – 59A-29 Vehicles – Markings and Advertising
7
NYC Taxi & Limousine Commission. TLC Rulebook Chapter 64 – 64-25 Technical Requirements – Inspection of Taximeters
8
Taxi & Limousine Commission. Renew a Vehicle License Frequently Asked Questions