NYC Taxi Medallion
A taxi medallion, also known as a CPNC (Certificate of Public Necessity and Convenience), is a transferable permit in the United States allowing a taxi driver to operate. A number of major cities in the US use these in their taxi licensing systems, including New York, Boston, Chicago, Philadelphia, and San Francisco. Medallions may be worth hundreds of thousands of dollars. The New York medallions are the most valuable, once peaking at over one million dollars. With the introduction of peer-to-peer ridesharing services, the taxi industry has faced competition, and the price of medallions has dropped substantially (~$120,000).
Medallion owners faced an average debt in January of about $700,000 — a figure that began to balloon in 2014 when the app-based companies Uber and Lyft began to siphon rides away from cabs.