Erie County, New York Medicaid Cab Rides: Buffalo Taxi Plates, Town Permits, and Rates

The licenses that decide whether a cab company can carry Medicaid riders in Erie County, New York, come from the City of Buffalo and from the towns that regulate cabs under their own codes. Buffalo limits how many taxi and livery plates exist, so the first question for a new company is whether a plate is available. This page is about Erie County, New York; for the Pennsylvania county, see MATP in Erie County.

Statewide, Medical Answering Services (MAS) arranges New York Medicaid rides, and a taxi company needs a MAS letter of support before New York Medicaid will process its enrollment. The state’s transportation manual, effective August 25, 2023, adds that Medicaid enrollment never replaces local licensing; the New York guide and the MAS page cover the enrollment steps.

Who books Medicaid rides in Erie County

The Erie County Department of Social Services stopped handling Medicaid transportation in September 2014, when MAS took it over. The county’s Medicaid Utilization Review page, changed January 30, 2026, still sends callers to MAS at 1-800-651-7040, with a fax line at 315-299-2786. MAS’s own contact page lists Erie County under its upstate line, 866-932-7740, so give riders that number.

MAS decides who drives each trip. eMedNY’s enrollment page (updated May 2026) says enrollment does not guarantee any trips. MAS assigns each one to the network company the rider names, then to the company the medical practitioner names, and only then by rotation. Once you are in the network, ask your regular riders and the Buffalo clinics you serve to name your company when they book.

Buffalo taxi and livery plates

Buffalo regulates cabs under Chapter 437 of its code, posted with legislation through March 31, 2026. No one may use a vehicle in a taxicab or livery business without a license from the Commissioner of Permit and Inspection Services, and the Office of Licenses in City Hall takes the applications. The chapter’s only exceptions are vehicles used at funerals, christenings, and weddings. Nothing in it exempts medical rides.

The code draws a line between the two kinds of plates:

• Taxicab. A passenger car seating seven or fewer that carries riders for pay from points in Buffalo, whether it cruises for fares, takes calls from a dispatcher, or waits at a taxi stand.
• Livery. A passenger car seating seven or fewer that carries riders for pay but may not cruise or solicit fares in public places. It may show the word livery and the company name, but never a roof light or the word taxi.

The cap on plates

Sections 437-1 and 437-2 fix the maximum at 525 taxicabs and 325 liveries. The code treats an owner of five or more cabs as a fleet operator and anyone with fewer as an individual operator. A plate a fleet gives up goes to another fleet. A plate an individual operator gives up goes to a new applicant or to an individual operator who would still hold no more than four.

If you hold no plate, you register each year to be considered for one. Chapter 175 sets that registration at $5.25 a year. When a plate is surrendered, revoked, or abandoned, the city may issue it to registered applicants in the order they registered, by lot for people who registered the same day. A plate whose renewal is not filed by May 1 counts as abandoned, and every plate expires on May 1.

What the 2026 plate application asks for

The Office of Licenses’ 2026 requirements sheet lists, in order:

1. A Buffalo taxi driver license. Everyone applying for a taxi or livery plate must hold one first.
2. The vehicle’s New York registration.
3. A certificate of auto liability insurance for that vehicle, naming the City of Buffalo, Office of Licenses, 301 City Hall, Buffalo, NY 14202 as certificate holder with a ten-day cancellation clause, and listing the year, make, and VIN.
4. Workers’ compensation proof. File form CE-200, the exemption certificate, if the car is driven only by its owner with no employees. Otherwise send a workers’ compensation certificate naming the city, also with a ten-day cancellation clause.
5. Form MV-289 from the Office of Licenses, which you take to the DMV to get a taxi or livery plate.
6. An inspection, which the Office of Licenses books once your paperwork is complete. The vehicle may be no more than 10 model years old.
7. The fee: $115 for a taxi plate or $75 for a livery plate.

The application itself is sworn before a notary or commissioner of deeds. It asks for your meter number and make, any tablet serial number, and, for a livery, your dispatcher. Chapter 175’s fee table still prints older amounts ($78.75 for a taxicab license, $52.50 for a livery license, and $15.75 for a driver license), so confirm the fee with the office when you file.

The meter and fare rules

Section 437-5 says no taxicab or livery is licensed without a working taximeter of approved design. Since March 5, 2019, a GPS soft meter is allowed, but you must first show the city its certification from the state Department of Agriculture’s Bureau of Weights and Measures. The city tests and seals the meter at inspection.

Section 437-14 caps what a Buffalo cab may charge: $2.30 for the first sixth of a mile, 40 cents for each sixth after that, 40 cents a minute of waiting, or $24 an hour. Extra riders ride free, and seniors with the mayor’s office certification get 10% off. If you also carry private-pay riders, these are your ceilings. Medicaid trips pay from the state schedule below.

The Buffalo driver license

The 2026 driver application costs $50 and asks for:

• A New York Class E license, or any class except D. See the Class E guide.
• A DMV abstract of the driver’s record.
• A Buffalo Police record check at 68 Court Street, plus a City Court disposition for any felony and a record from any other town where the driver has one.

Each driver wears a city badge on duty and posts a photo ID card and the rate card in the back seat. Drivers record every trip on city-approved forms and file them with the owner, and the records must be kept at least 60 days. Breaking the chapter can bring a fine of up to $1,500, up to 15 days in jail, or both, for each offense.

Towns that license cabs on their own

A Buffalo plate stops at the city line. Three nearby codes reach Medicaid trips:

• Cheektowaga. Chapter 223, adopted as Local Law 2 of 2014, makes it unlawful to carry anyone in a taxicab or livery from, to, or within the town without an owner permit. That covers a Buffalo cab dropping a rider at a Cheektowaga clinic. The permit costs $25 a vehicle a year, or $200 for a fleet of up to 10, and runs July 1 to June 30 with no proration. Each driver files a town application, passes a Cheektowaga Police background check, and pays $25 a year for a driver permit card, waived for an owner who drives. The town’s livery definition reaches any vehicle other than a taxicab or bus that carries riders for pay without a meter, and the only exclusion is for vehicles registered outside New York, so ask the Town Clerk about a wheelchair van before it runs trips there. The chapter does not reach the Buffalo Niagara International Airport, the Village of Sloan, or the part of the Village of Depew inside the town.
• Amherst. Chapter 177 requires an owner license for every taxicab run on town highways, and it defines a taxicab as any vehicle carrying passengers for hire off a fixed route. The license costs $15 a vehicle a year, or $110 a year for 10 cabs, and runs on the calendar year. Each cab needs a certificate from the Amherst Police Department that it is in proper working condition. Each driver shows a New York chauffeur’s license, is fingerprinted by Amherst Police, gives references from two Erie County residents, and pays $5 a year. These fees date from the 1966 chapter, so confirm them with the Town Clerk. The Village of Williamsville is outside the town’s rules.
• City of Tonawanda. Chapter 74 says no taxicab driver may pick up passengers in the city without a permit from the city clerk, with fingerprints sent to the FBI. The permit costs $5 a year under section 30-541 and runs January 1 to December 31. Ambulances are exempt.

Other cities, towns, and villages in the county may have rules of their own, so call the clerk wherever you plan regular pickups.

How Medicaid enrollment fits a Buffalo plate

eMedNY’s enrollment sheet for category 0603, upstate taxi, says to keep records showing each driver holds a Class E license and each vehicle carries livery plates. Buffalo’s application sends you to the DMV for either a taxi or a livery plate, so if your cars carry taxi plates, ask the eMedNY Call Center, 1-800-343-9000, how to document them.

The policy manual adds that a 0603 company must own or lease every vehicle, register it in the company’s name, and insure and maintain it. A cab registered to an independent owner-driver cannot run trips under your enrollment for that reason, and Buffalo’s code says a cab marked “owner driver” may be driven only by its licensed owner.

Wheelchair and stretcher companies enroll as ambulettes under NYSDOT authority instead; see the ambulette business guide. The manual lets an ambulette company run curb-to-curb trips at taxi rates without a separate taxi license, but still requires proof of local taxi and limousine licensing where that applies. Chapter 437 says nothing about ambulettes, so get the Office of Licenses’ answer in writing before an ambulette company takes taxi-level trips in Buffalo.

What Erie County Medicaid trips pay

On the eMedNY fee schedule file dated April 5, 2026, an Erie County taxi trip pays $7.36 plus $2.66 a loaded mile, and a wheelchair van trip pays $41.00 plus $3.00 a mile.

Code	Service	Erie County rate	Effective
A0100	Taxi trip	$7.36	Dec. 31, 2022
S0215	Taxi mileage	$2.66 a mile	Dec. 31, 2022
A0130	Wheelchair van trip	$41.00	Aug. 1, 2024
S0209	Wheelchair van mileage	$3.00 a mile	Aug. 1, 2024
T2005	Stretcher van trip	$101.00	Apr. 1, 2023
T2049	Stretcher van mileage	$3.00 a mile	Aug. 1, 2024

At those rates, an 8-mile taxi trip pays $28.64 and an 8-mile wheelchair trip pays $65.00. Bill loaded miles to the tenth of a mile, since the manual bars rounding up. MAS negotiates rates with each company, and a negotiated rate replaces the schedule. The New York fee schedule guide compares Erie County with the rest of the state.

How to start Medicaid cab trips in Erie County

1. Map your riders’ trips. If pickups or drop-offs land in Cheektowaga, your cabs run in Amherst, or your drivers pick up in the City of Tonawanda, budget for those permits along with Buffalo’s.
2. License your drivers in Buffalo first. Each needs a Class E license, a DMV abstract, a police record check, and the $50 fee.
3. Ask the Office of Licenses about open plates. If every plate is taken, register for the list and renew that registration each year.
4. Register and insure each car in your company’s name, whether you own or lease it. The insurance and workers’ compensation certificates name the city as holder.
5. Get the MV-289, the DMV plates, and the city inspection, then pay $115 or $75 per plate.
6. Apply to MAS for a letter of support, then enroll in category 0603 through eMedNY. MAS says the state’s decision can take 90 days or longer.
7. Set your renewal dates. Buffalo plates renew by May 1, Cheektowaga permits by June 30, and Amherst licenses by December 31.